Twitch co-founder raises $24M for Web3 gaming firm Metatheory

May 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Twitch co-founder raises M for Web3 gaming firm Metatheory

The funding round led by Web3-focused venture capital firms will be used for upcoming nonfungible tokens, comics and a play-to-earn game slated for late 2022.

Web3 gaming and entertainment company Metatheory founded by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round on Monday.

The round was led by crypto capital venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Pantera Capital, the venture arm of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, FTX Ventures, and other venture firms, according to the announcement.

Metatheory was launched in November 2021 around one year after Lin left Twitch, where he wrote in a Medium article at the time that he was creating the gaming company and also a blockchain game called DuskBreakers. Lin was quoted in this week’s announcement as saying:

“Building immersive digital experiences has always been a passion of mine, and after stepping away from Twitch to explore what’s next in the industry, I truly believe blockchain will open the door to even more possibilities and have a major impact in the gaming, storytelling and community building space.”

ICYMI: Today we're excited to announce a $24M Series A Round in Metatheory, our parent company.

A big TY to: @a16z @PanteraCapital @FTX_Official
Breyer Capital @jimihendrixlive @MeritCircle_IO @Globalcoinrsrch @Sfermion_@daedalus_angels @dragonfly_cap @rechargecapital
— DuskBreakers (@DuskBreakers) May 16, 2022

DuskBreakers was released in December 2021 with the art designed by the former lead illustrator at Twitch. The Ethereum-based game implemented a “play-to-mint” model for its first 10,000 nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Those looking to grab an NFT have to play an arcade-type game to validate their entry onto a whitelist.

The DuskBreakers team plans to release comics and animations to continue its storyline, andditional NFTs and content are in the works at Metatheory with a play-to-earn game set for launch in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Lin is not the only Twitch co-founder with an interest in gaming NFTs. In December 2021 Justin Kan, another co-founder of Twitch, launched the Fractal NFT marketplace which focuses on blockchain gaming tokens saying that “NFTs are the future of gaming.”

Blockchain gaming is gaining interest from titans of the traditional gaming industry. Most recently, Square Enix revealed in its earnings report that it will expand NFTs into more of its games in 2022.

Microsoft’s CEO said the development of metaverse platforms was a key reason for the $69 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard and Sega is looking to integrate cloud technology NFTs as part of its new Super Game project, which connects its different games to each other.

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Nifty news: Polyient marketplace, Ronaldinho drop, and a ‘staggering’ $4800 NFT sale …

July 30, 2021 Coin Telegraph

<div>Nifty news: Polyient marketplace, Ronaldinho drop, and a 'staggering' 00 NFT sale ...</div>

Animoca Brands

Polyient is launching an NFT marketplace with DeFi features, Ronaldinho has entered the NFT market and Vitalik Buterin has digitally signed an NFT for very little money.

Investment firm and development studio Polyient has unveiled an NFT marketplace with decentralized finance (DeFi) functionality.

The marketplace dubbed “PolyientX” is set for a beta release in August on Ethereum, with an official launch targeted for sometime in the Fall. The initial launch will feature NFTs from Ape In, a DeFi-enabled NFT collectibles game, and Rate Network, a decentralized NFT pricing, and rating protocol.

According to Polyient, users can stake their NFTs in a vault to earn rewards, describing it as “a unique fee share mechanism where users, not corporate stakeholders, are the beneficiaries of transaction activity on the platform.”

There’s also a new token launch method dubbed the “Initial Vault Sale” (IVS), which enables projects to leverage their supporters’ NFT assets “to mint and distribute utility and governance tokens, reward marketplace participation and build sustainable economies.”

Interested in migrating your NFT project to PolyientX? Apply for early accesshttps://t.co/OLE1nTmTDg
— PolyientX (@PolyientX) July 28, 2021

Blockchain-based Ronaldinho

Global soccer icon Ronaldinho is launching a new NFT collection in collaboration with creative studio INFLUXO.

The former Paris Saint-Germain, F.C Barcelona and AC Milan star joins a long list of star athletes to enter the NFT sector such as boxer Tyson Fury, NFL players Rob Gronkowski and Patrick Mahomes, and skateboarding icon Tony Hawk.

Are you ready for @influxo_NFT ? A pioneer of future digital collectibles https://t.co/9EYB3cCbG1 pic.twitter.com/onUDeqbxEn
— Ronaldinho Gaúcho (@10Ronaldinho) July 29, 2021

The NFTs are being sold in two different drops, the first drop features seven unique “masterpiece” NFTs that depict vivid paintings of key moments in Ronaldinho’s career.

The auctions will take minimum increment bids of $10,000, and the NFTs come with a private meetup and dinner with Ronaldinho in Dubai, a roundtrip ticket to get you there and a two-day stay at a five-star hotel. It is unclear if Ronaldinho will be cooking up a storm, or if the dinner will be at a restaurant.

The second drop of “sports legend card NFTs” includes a set of six collector cards which users can purchase for an unspecified price. They will be airdropped an additional card NFT that accompanies the series, and if they collect all six NFTs plus the airdropped token, they will be entered into a sweepstake for a chance to win the “Dubai experience” from the masterpiece NFTs.

The sale is being hosted on INFLUXO and the NFT drop date reads “coming soon.”

Animoca Brands acquires blowfish

Top NFT game and property developer Animoca Brands (F1 Delta Time, The Sandbox) has acquired Blowfish Studios, an indie game developer for around $6.6 million. The acquisition also includes payments of around $19.2 million on conditional employment and performance targets.

Animoca made the announcement on July 29, and noted that it will be working closely with Blowfish to “align efforts relating to blockchain integration, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), play-to-earn capabilities, synergy opportunities, and product launches.”

Blowfish is a Sydney-based firm founded in 2010 by Benjamin Lee, a veteran of the computer software and 3D graphics industry, and Aaron Grove, an award-winning visual effects supervisor.

The firm has published several multi-platform games such as “Qbism, Siegecraft, Morphite, Projection: First Light, and Storm Boy.”

“Animoca Brands is incredibly thrilled to welcome Blowfish, a team that significantly expands our capacity in the cross-platform games space and that has a strong interest in and understanding of blockchain,” said Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands.

Vitalik signs up for Mark Cuban-backed NFT platform

NFT platform “AlchemyNFT” announced a $6 million funding round on July 29. It was backed by Crypto.com Capital, Framework Ventures, Mechanism and billionaire entrepreneur (and DeFi rug-pull victim) Mark Cuban.

The funds will go towards a new project dubbed “AutographNFT” that enables the signing of unique digital assets such as NFTs with social network IDs. According to the firm Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin was one of the first to digitally sign his autograph at the project's beta launch.

The AutographNFT platform enables NFT creators to seek out popular “Twitter-verified” figures and offer them money to autograph an NFT. The platform gives the signer the option to donate all or some of their “signing” proceeds to a charity such as “Save the Kids.”

According to the listing of “The Alchemist” NFT, Buterin was paid 0.1 ETH, worth around $243, to sign the NFT.

Publicist claims NFT sale of $4800 is a 'staggering' sum

Public relations media releases are often full of hyperbolic jargon and puffery that paints an all too pretty picture.

But we had to laugh at a July 28 PR announcement from Kinahan’s Whiskey Co. in which the sale of an NFT for $4800 was described as a “staggering” amount of money.

“The Kinahan’s branded 3D Formula Racing Car sold to an NFT collector for a staggering $4800 following Lewis Hamilton’s thrilling win at the British Grand Prix,” the announcement breathlessly said.

While this may be exciting news for the Irish Whiskey firm, they may not realize that NFTs of questionable value have sold for much higher prices. Cointelegraph reported in February that Lindsay Lohan sold an NFT for an even more earth-shattering $15,000 on Rarible. And there were rumors some guy called Beeple or Bongo or something flogged an NFT for $69 million.

“This NFT is the first of its kind in the whiskey industry. Notice that precious word, ‘first’. There are many models of a McLaren, but if you own the first one, you own a piece of history,” the announcement read.

Roundup

Cointelegraph reported on July 28 that multinational beverage giant Coca-Cola is entering the NFT market.

The firm will hold a three-day auction on OpenSea for NFTs depicting the famous beverage, and the proceeds will be used to raise money for Special Olympics International.

Earlier this week, tokenized cats once again caused chaos on the Ethereum network after a nonfungible token (NFT) project dubbed “Stoner Cats” created by actress Mila Kunis sold out in 35 minutes.

The project’s first drop had a total of 10,420 NFTs, and activity on Ethereum sent gas prices as high as 709 Gwei ($33.67) for a rapid transaction.

Axie Infinity player buys two houses in the Philippines from in-game profits

May 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Axie Infinity

An Axie Infinity player from the Philippines claims to have purchased two houses with profits earned through playing the crypto-powered play-to-earn game.

An Axie Infinity player from the Philippines bought two houses with his earnings from the popular crypto-powered play-to-earn game.

Earlier this month, 22-year-old John Aaron Ramos, who plays under the pseudonym “Magnus TV,” took to social media to announce that he had purchased two houses in the Philippines from profits earned playing Axie Infinity.

In the post, Ramos attributes the purchases to the surging price of Axie’s in-game token Smooth Love Potion (SLP), which rallied 940% from $0.035 on April 24 to more than $0.364 on May 2. SLP has since retraced 45% and last changed hands for roughly $0.20.

“I believed in AXIE’s ability to lift us up, I held an SLP, paid attention to the trend of AXIE Community and did some research [...] then I played with the price of SLP to have enough funds to buy two houses and one team.”

Players of Axie Infinity can earn SLP through the games’ PVP battle area, where players battle their Axies — Pokemon-inspired creatures that are bred in the game and represented as nonfungible tokens.

SLP currently ranks as the 428th-largest crypto asset by capitalization with $81 million, driving more than $45 million worth of trade in the past 24 hours.

In addition to SLP, Axie players also have opportunities to earn the game's governance token, AXS. The AXS token has also seen meteoric gains recently, gaining 5,114% from $0.14 to $7.30 in the six months since the token began trading.

Ramos participated in Yield Guild Games’ “Sponsor-A-Scholar” program, which encourages sponsors to donate SLP to Axie players based in countries where the set up-costs associated with playing Axie infinity may prove too prohibitive to many prospective users.

Axie Infinity reportedly became popular in the Philippines towards the end of 2020, as people sought alternative ways to make money after losing their jobs due to the pandemic.

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