Animoca Brands

Blockchain Game Developer Animoca Brands Raises $65 Million – Ubisoft, Sequoia China Participate in Funding

October 21, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Nifty News: Playboy unveils 11,953 bunny avatars, Martha Stewart cooks up NFTs…

October 21, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Martha Stewart has entered the NFT sector by cooking up some Halloween-themed collectibles, Coinbase announced its first four partnered NFT creators, and Playboy is dropping 11,953 unique bunny NFTs.

Playboy to release tokenized bunnies into the wild

PLBY Group, Inc, the owners of the raunchy lifestyle magazine Playboy unveiled a new NFT project consisting of 11,953 unique 3D animated bunny avatars.

According to an Oct. 20 announcement, the number of NFTs pays homage to Playboy’s founding year of 1953 and the tokens will serve as “keys to a reimagined Playboy Club,” which gives the owners access to exclusive events, content and merchandise.

*Playboy Rabbitar NFT: PLBY Group, Inc,*

The launch of the Ethereum-based NFTs begins on Oct. 24, with a pre-sale for whitelisted investors until Oct. 26. Two public sales launch the following day, one for USD customers, and the other for those paying with ETH.

The sales are being hosted on an official “Playboy Rabbitar” website, and the NFTs will be priced at 0.1953 ETH each or the fiat equivalent (currently $814). Jamal Dauda the Vice-president of Blockchain Innovation at PLBY Group said:

“The Rabbitars mark the beginning of true blockchain-based membership for Playboy. Just as Playboy Club keys gave millions of members a chance to step into the sophisticated lifestyle that the Playboy brand represents, NFTs today can do the same and so much more."

One CryptoPunk is not for sale

The owner of CryptoPunk #6046 recently turned down a bid of 2500 Ether (ETH) for their tokenized punk avatar.

That’s about $10.5 million which would have represented the largest CryptoPunk sale to date if accepted. According to Larva Labs, CryptoPunk 3100 holds the record, after it sold for $7.58 million in March.

The CryptoPunk #6046 NFT depicts a person wearing 3D shades and smoking a cigarette and was initially purchased for $83,209 by current owner, Twitter user “Richerd.”

Richerd recounted the bid came about after they’d publicly claimed that they would not sell their CryptoPunk, no matter what anyone offered. A startup dubbed “Poap” decided to test that theory, with Etherscan showing a bid of 2500 ETH.

“Come on Richerd. Don't you want to go down in history as the top CryptoPunk sale to date?” Poap teased.

While admitting that their “mid-tier punk” is most likely not worth 2500 ETH, Richerd promptly declined the bid and went on to claim that they wouldn’t even accept a bid of $1 billion as the NFT holds sentimental value.

“My identity along with the identity of other iconic Punks and apes have value beyond the NFT itself. We have our own brands similar to any other brand and that has value. Because I value my personal brand and identity, this was an easy rejection for me.”

Over past 6 months I have used 6046 as my identity and have built up a significant brand around it.

Most of you know, for:
- co-founder of @manifoldxyz
- smART contract artist
- Crypto security
- NFT insights
- 3D glasses connoisseur
- Namesake of @richerd3DAO
- NFT Degen
— richerd (@richerd) October 16, 2021

If Martha Stewart launched NFTs and no one bid ...

Martha Stewart, the famous TV personality and lifestyle entrepreneur, has taken the plunge into NFTs by launching her own platform/collection dubbed “Fresh Mint.”

While Fresh Mint hosts a collection of NFTs that were minted on Ethereum, it appears the platform is essentially a gallery, as the auctions and sales are hosted on the OpenSea marketplace.

Stewart’s first NFT drop consists of two Halloween-themed collections depicting “high resolution” JPEG files such as a set of pre-carved and custom carved pumpkins, and Stewart wearing a bunch of spooky Halloween costumes.

The starting price for the tokenized pumpkins is a hefty 2 ETH ($8400) for the pre-carved ones, and 3 ETH ($12,600) for custom carved pumpkins. The highest bidder of the custom pumpkin NFTs can send in a photo and have it carved into a pumpkin and then tokenized into an additional NFT, along with having the physical pumpkin shipped to their door.

At the time of writing, not a single NFT has had a bid placed on them.

Coinbase’s first NFT collections

Coinbase has announced the first round of NFT creators it’s partnered with ahead of the launch of its upcoming NFT marketplace later this year.

BIG NEWS

Starting today, we'll begin introducing NFT creators we’ve teamed up with for drops on @Coinbase_NFT. We’re excited to highlight the first four creators below. And stay tuned. We’re just getting started!

An appreciation thread …
— Coinbase NFT (@Coinbase_NFT) October 19, 2021

The first four are Ponderware, creators of the popular MoonCats NFT project, Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult, the developers of Forgotten Runes, popular crypto-friendly DJ 3Lau and digital artist “GxngYxng.”

Coinbase also posted an update on Oct. 21 to address rumors of other partnered creators that are “floating around,” noting that if you don’t hear it directly from them, it's “probably not true.”

Yesterday we announced our first creator partners for Coinbase NFT. We'll be announcing many more soon, but we want to flag that we’re already seeing some rumors floating around. This is just a quick note to let you know that if you don't read it here, it's probably not true.
— Coinbase NFT (@Coinbase_NFT) October 21, 2021

The launch of Coinbase’s NFT marketplace appears to be a highly anticipated one, with Cointelegraph reporting on Oct. 14 nearly 1.1 million people signed up for the waitlist within 48 hours of it going live. It's difficult to determine what the waitlist is now up to, as Coinbase no longer shows the number to new sign ups.

Roundup

On Oct. 20 NFT-game and virtual property developer Animoca Brands announced that it had doubled its valuation to $2.2 billion, after closing a new $65 million funding round that included participation from Ubisoft Entertainment.

Cointelegraph also reported on Oct. 21 that Chinese online retail giant JD.com is diving into the NFT sector by introducing a special NFT series for its annual JD Discovery conference. Using its proprietary blockchain platform, JD.com will be distributing commemorative NFT certificates to attendees of the JDD 2021 event in Beijing.

Animoca Brands doubles valuation to $2.2B with new $65M funding round

October 21, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands doubles valuation to .2B with new M funding round

$65 million funding round

Animoca has raised $65 million in its latest funding round, with more than 43.8 million of newly issued shares to be distributed to investors at a price of $1.51 per share.

NFT-game and virtual property developer Animoca Brands has doubled its valuation to $2.2 billion after closing a new funding round that fetched $65 million.

The latest funding round was conducted at a pre-money valuation of $2.2 billion, and included backing from gaming giants Ubisoft Entertainment along with Liberty City Ventures, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital to name a few.

It’s more vindication for a company that was kicked off the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in March 2020, in part for its involvement in cryptocurrencies.

According to the Oct. 20 announcement from the firm, more than 43.8 million newly issued shares will be distributed to investors at a price of AUD $2 per share, or USD $1.51.

We have closed a capital raise for US$65 million conducted at a pre-money valuation of US$2.2 billion! Investors in the round included Ubisoft, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, and more.https://t.co/Au7ioVycGy #fundraising #unicorn #OpenMetaverse #DigitalPropertyRights
— Animoca Brands (@animocabrands) October 20, 2021

Animoca has now raised a total of $203.88 million in 2021, with the firm becoming a crypto unicorn in June when it raised $138.88 million as part of two tranches of a capital raise at a valuation of $1 billion.

The brand-focused metaverse and interactive content company said the latest funding will go towards funding “strategic investments and acquisitions, product development, and licenses for popular intellectual properties.”

Animoca co-founder Yat Siu outlined the company’s vision around digital ownership and NFTs moving forward:

“In 2018 we laid out a strategy based on our assessment that in the future digital property rights would revolutionize industries by expanding financial inclusion, and that this significant change would start with NFT adoption in games. That future is already here.”

“With the backing of our new strategic investors, Animoca Brands will continue to advance blockchain in gaming — and beyond — to introduce billions of gamers and Internet users to true digital ownership,” he added.

This is another sign of big money pouring into NFT gaming and virtual property-focused firms.

Oct. 19, Galaxy Interactive, a venture capital firm focused on next-generation interactive technology, announced that it had raised $325 million from 70 different investors for its second fund focused on virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and NFT gaming.

NFTs offer a new way for society to ‘store culture’ says Animoca Brands CEO

October 8, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu has urged new NFT users to look past profiteering and examine how nonfungible tokens can redefine culture.

Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of NFT game developer Animoca Brands, believes nonfungible tokens offer a new way for culture to be stored in the virtual sphere.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Siu argued that while the technology underpinning NFTs may be new, the desire to “store culture” has long been with us throughout human history.

“We describe NFTs as stores of culture, because they embody a moment in history,” he said, adding: “What is art? Art stores culture.”

Siu is a Hong Kong-based tech entrepreneur who previously worked at Atari and also founded the Outblaze gaming company. Animoca Brands was founded in 2014 and has released notable NFT projects including The Sandbox, F1 Delta Time and MotoGP Ignition, and it invested in Dapper Labs, OpenSea and Axie Infinity.

The Animoca chairman said that culture is about more than just the monetary value of an artwork, and pointed to the example of his daughter and her favorite band BTS, stating that she doesn’t aim to get an autograph from the popular K-Pop group in a bid to flip it for a quick profit:

“Most paintings in the world aren't worth a ton, but like owning culture, the vast majority of people who buy art today or photography don't intend to sell it right away. That's not how we engage with culture.”

When asked what advice he would give to NFT newcomers, Siu urged newbies not to seek opportunities for fast profiteering, instead recommending they immerse themselves in the revolutionary utilities enabled by the technology.

“Start with buying your first NFT not with the intention to make money for you, but simply with a desire to [...] learn from it,” he said.

Siu also argued that NFTs represent a dialectic shift in data ownership and data rights, asserting: “What's interesting about this ownership that we're able to create, is that it doesn't come from a sort of scarcity that you can dig up from the ground.”

Siu described data as among the world’s “most valuable resources,” pointing to the tireless efforts of big tech companies like Amazon or Facebook to mine every skerrick of data from their users in a bid to personalize the advertising they see on social platforms.

“Data has become the source of absolute power,” he added.

Animoca Brands completed an $88.88 million capital raise in May based on a valuation of $1 billion.

Polygon Users Overtake Ethereum Amid Crypto Gaming Mania

October 4, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Amasa Raises $1.5M Led by Animoca Brands to Build Micro Investment Streaming App

September 21, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

NFT gaming company Animoca Brands acquires majority stake in Bondly

September 17, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

The blockchain game developer is looking to improve cross-chain utilization of nonfungible token assets via its investment in Bondly.

Animoca Brands, an NFT game developer has announced a substantial investment in the NFT platform Bondly.

According to a release issued on Friday, Animoca will own a majority stake in Bondly following the investment.

Commenting on the rationale behind its investment in Bondly, Animoca chairman and co-founder Yat Siu told Cointelegraph:

“We acquired a majority stake in Bondly because it will significantly assist us to drive true digital ownership via NFTs, and we see this as crucial to the future of gaming and the emergence of the open metaverse.”

As part of the investment, Bondly’s NFT technology, including launchpad and cross-chain bridges, will be incorporated into Animoca’s gaming products.

Per the announcement, Animoca is looking to utilize Bondly’s suite of NFT tech solutions to enable gamers to move in-game nonfungible token assets across different blockchain networks.

The Animoca chief also told Cointelegraph that the company considers Bondly’s products to be highly relevant to the blockchain game developer and its subsidiaries.

“We see excellent potential applications of Bondly’s NFT swap protocol, marketplace, and cross-chain NFT minting and bridges,” Siu told Cointelegraph.

The Bondly investment is the latest in Animoca’s spending spree following a successful capital raise back in May that pushed the company to a $1 billion valuation.

According to Siu, Animoca is on the lookout for even more NFT tech companies as it seeks to expand its footprint in the sector.

Animoca currently holds investments in over 100 companies including prominent names in the NFT space such as OpenSea and Dapper Labs.

The Animoca acquisition comes after Bondly suffered a security issue back in July. At the time, the project’s native token slumped 60% amid reports of a suspected exploit.

Commenting on the improvements made to the protocol since the hack, Bondly CEO Harry Liu told Cointelegraph that the project has upscaled its security infrastructure.

Addition reporting by Brian Quarmby.

101 Bored Apes NFT auction at Sotheby’s closes at more than $24M

September 10, 2021 Coin Telegraph

<div>101 Bored Apes NFT auction at Sotheby's closes at more than M</div>

Animoca Brands

Yuga Labs auctioned off collections of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT that generated $24 million and $1.83 million respectively.

The auction of Yuga Labs’ 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection has smashed through expectations with a winning bid of $24.39 million.

The auction closed on Sept.10 and was hosted by the prestigious auction house Sotheby’s which had earlier estimated the collection would fetch between $12 million and $18 million.

The bundle of non-fungibles consists of 101 Bored Apes and three M1 and three M2 “Mutant serum” NFTs. When a Bored Ape token is combined with an M1 or M2 serum, it enables the holder to mint a new Mutant Ape NFT that keeps the same traits of the original Bored Ape but depicts it in a mutant format.

Taking the serum NFTs out of the equation as they are usually airdropped for free to holders, each Bored Ape in the collection was valued at an average price of roughly $241,000 or 69.4 Ether (ETH) at the time of publication.

The figure tallies in well above the floor price for Bored Ape NFTs on the secondary market, with data from OpenSea showing a minimum price of 38.99 ETH, worth around $135,000.

What an historic moment for the club: the @Sothebys auction of 101 Bored Apes has closed at over $24m. Congratulations and THANK YOU to the whole ape community. To the buyer, I think we speak for everybody when we say: WELCOME TO THE CLUB. ☠️⛵️ pic.twitter.com/NKxHekC0ny
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) September 9, 2021

Yuga Labs also auctioned off a 101 NFT collection of its side project Bored Ape Kennel Club that closed on the same day with a winning bid of $1.83 million, at a price of $18,150 per NFT. The figure fell within Sotheby’s estimate of $1.5 million to $2 million, and beat the floor price on OpenSea of 3.09 ETH or $10.700.

Delaware-based Yuga Labs launched the BAYC on April 30, and it has since become a highly popular and sought-after project. Figures such as NBA star Steph Curry aped in by paying 55 ETH ($191,000) for a Bored Ape NFT late last month. M etaverse gaming firm The Sandbox also snapped up a Bored Ape for a record price of 740 ETH ($2.57 million) on Sept. 6.

Sandbox’s NFT depicts a golden ape with laser eyes wearing a sea captain’s hat. In a Sept. 8 blog post the firm revealed plans to port BAYC NFTs into its metaverse as playable avatars.

“The Avatar collections find additional utility for their NFT holders within our gaming virtual world. Through the interoperability of NFTs, they will be able to turn 2D collectible image NFTs into 3D playable avatars that are animated, can run, jump, socialize, play games, and interact with their other peer Avatars in The Sandbox,” the blog post read.

*Bored Ape NFT 3749 Avatar: (Source: The Sandbox)*

According to data from OpenSea, NFT sales volume on the secondary market cooled down in September, with top projects such as CryptoPunks, Art Blocks and BAYC all seeing declines in seven-day volume of 85%, 82% and 69% respectively.

Only one NFT project out of the top 20 has seen an increase in seven-day volume, with Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann’s Loot (for Adventures) NFTs seeing an increase of 8.42%.

Data from Dune Analytics also shows that NFT floor prices are on a downward trend of late, dropping from 1.02 ETH on Aug. 30 to sit at around 0.40 ETH on Sept. 9. However, this doesn’t necessarily indicate a bearish trend for the NFT sector, as the price can be impacted by new projects emerging on the market that sell for lower prices.

Nifty News: Vogue tokenizes magazine covers, autographed Tesla and more…

August 26, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Animoca Brands

Vogue Singapore has tokenized its front covers, Animoca Brands expanded its investment portfolio, and acclaimed producer Rob Weiss has signed up to direct a crypto series.

NFTs are in Vogue

Readers of high-end fashion magazine Vogue Singapore will be able to fight for a chance to purchase two tokenized front cover images.

The front cover of Vogue’s September issue will feature QR codes allowing readers to sign up for an auction of two one-of-a-kind “virtual-only covers.” While Vogue has revealed that the auction will take place in September, the publication is yet to reveal the exact date of the auction.

Triumphant Awakening, the first of the animated covers up for auction, depicts a gold statuette in front of a blue planet encircled by a rising and setting sun. Vogue said the cover was inspired by its global theme of “New Beginnings” — which links all 27 global editions in September, according to a company statement.

The second cover, The RenaiXance Rising, features an avatar wearing a gown inspired by Singaporean and Malay culture. The token comprises a programmable NFT, with its background changing throughout the day based on what time it is in Singapore.

Alongside the two digital covers, Vogue Singapore is also dropping an additional 15 fashioned-focused one-of-one NFTs. A feature of the collection is the “Flame Dress” NFT, as it can be ported and used in the Altava fashion gaming app. The winning bidder will also receive a digital certificate of authenticity, along with sketches of the NFT dress designed by creative director Olivier Rousteing.

Tokenized Tesla autographed by Elon Musk

Autographia, a marketplace for signed memorabilia, will auction off a tokenized photo of a diminutive Tesla Model X replica. The toy car depicted was physically signed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, featuring his signature scrawled across its hood.

*Signed Telsa X replica NFT: Autographia*

The auction will last for 10 days from Aug. 29 on the HODL Diamond Marketplace. Opening bids will start at 7.5 Ethereum (ETH) — worth roughly $23,700 at the time of writing.

The sale is Autographia’s first move to expand its offerings into NFTs. The image of the toy Tesla will be the first tokenized memorabilia sold by the firm.

Another Animoca investment

Global NFT licensing agency Epik Prime announced on Aug. 25 that Animoca Brands co-led investment into the firm’s $EPIK membership token, which will launch on the Huobi Prime crypto exchange on Aug. 27.

Epik provides licensed cross-chain compatible NFTs that players can use in games and virtual metaverses. The token will be utilized to drive growth in further brand licensing and cross-chain gaming projects centered on NFTs.

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman, Yat Siu, stated, “We look forward to expanding our presence in brand licensing, gaming, and metaverse ecosystems.”

Epik claims to be “the first and only NFT company” to secure deals with AAA gaming firms. Epik’s clients include ViacomCBS, Warner Music, Garena, Tencent and Universal.

Animoca Brands is a leading NFT game developer, having launched several successful titles including F1 Delta Time and The Sandbox. The firm was valued at $1 billion in May, with the firm making significant investments in Axie Infinity, Dapper Labs, OpenSea and MLB Champions.

Weiss takes his entourage to NFTs

Rob Weiss, the American producer best known for his work on the popular TV shows Entourage and Ballers, will executive produce and direct multiple episodes of the upcoming crypto-themed series “Hold On for Dear Life” (HODL) series.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph in March, HODL is a scripted TV comedy centered on the lives of crypto entrepreneurs, developed by Beacon Pictures. The producers are minting NFTs celebrating the show, and plan to tokenize a full episode.

While details were sparse at the time of the initial announcement, an Aug. 25 article from Variety has revealed that Weiss is set to take the reins for a portion of the 10-episode series.

“When I read the ‘Hold On for Dear Life’ pilot, I felt as if I had been transported into a fresh and unique universe where characters spoke about money in a whole new language,” Weiss told Variety, adding:

“The world of currency is rapidly changing, and ‘Hold On for Dear Life’ will both illuminate and entertain at the same time.”

HODL will also be one of the first shows to feature on blockchain-based streaming service Sator. Earlier this month, Sator announced that it had minted the first series of official HODL NFTs on Binance Smart Chain.

The NFTs offer owners the opportunity to provide input on the direction of the show’s story, such as selecting when a charter goes bankrupt or suffers heartbreak.

The NFTs were dropped in partnership with NFT marketplace, Refinable. The tokens have seen little trading since launch, with the “Heartbreak a Character” token receiving a single bid of 0.37 Binance Coin (BNB) worth $182, while “Bankrupt a Character” has had zero bids.

Roundup

Cointelegraph reported earlier today that popular beer company Budweiser appeared to unofficially sanction a piece of NFT art after purchasing it for use on its Twitter profile.

According to OpenSea records, the beer producer purchased a Budweiser-branded rocketship NFT on Aug. 24 for 8 ETH worth roughly $25,704, which is now its official Twitter profile picture.

The head of Facebook Financial and co-creator of Facebook-initiated cryptocurrency Diem, David Marcus, said on Wednesday that the firm is “definitely looking” at possible ways to get involved in the NFT industry, such as providing NFT support in Diem wallets.

Animoca Brands Acquires Indie Game Developer Blowfish Studios

July 30, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Playboy to release tokenized bunnies into the wild

One CryptoPunk is not for sale

If Martha Stewart launched NFTs and no one bid ...

Coinbase’s first NFT collections

Roundup

NFTs are in Vogue

Tokenized Tesla autographed by Elon Musk

Another Animoca investment

Weiss takes his entourage to NFTs

Roundup

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