The Round Up: October 11th
Institutional Inflow into Crypto Gaming, Star Atlas Hype and Crypto Culture
This is a newsletter about crypto markets, highlighting interesting developments across the ecosystem. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here:
Pick #1: BITKRAFT raise $75mm for gaming investment fund
BITKRAFT and Delphi Digital are launching a $75mm crypto gaming fund, led by Pier Kicks, to invest in next generation virtual experiences.
Their current portfolio includes Yield Guild Games, Horizon Games and Australian company, Immutable Games.
My Take: BITKRAFT and Delphi Digital have played a pivotal role for the development of Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games, spear-heading the gaming renaissance that we have been experiencing in the last 12 to 18 months.
Over the past decade, if you weren’t part of a big studio like Blizzard, it was really difficult to get (i) funding to sustain the high game-related CAPEX and (ii) distribution via the major publishers/consoles.
When you look at Sky Mavis, the studio behind Axie Infinity, there is a completely different story — Sky Mavis were just a dev shop out of Vietnam with a team of <10 when Axie first went live. Today, Axie is generating ~$2bn a year from their virtual economy.
With more institutional money coming into the market, there has not been a better time to produce a crypto-enabled game. Axie, and the opportunity that they have shown the world, will have definitely emboldened creators to build and launch their games D2C
Hopefully, this is the start of an indie gaming renaissance.
Pick #2: Star Atlas drops their official trailer
Last week, Star Atlas, a hotly anticipated space exploration game, dropped their full cinematic trailer and it is BONKERS. They also dropped more in-game assets as part of their Galactic Asset Offerings (“GAOs”), which are essentially auctions of in-game assets (some of them are going for >$40k USD!!).
The ship drops have been part of a larger in-game fundraising campaig , which has helped raise over US$20mm+ for the company, completely circumventing the need for future cap raises.
My Take: Star Atlas holds a contradictory position in my mind:
Star Atlas is the most hotly anticipated crypto game since Axie Infinity —their governance token, $POLIS, is valued at US$3bn… this is before any game-play has even been released by the company.
For the games out there, many will remember the issues with Cyberpunk 2077 and their failure to meet up to the astronomical hype they had created via similar marketing strategies.
It’s a tough balancing act.
Pick #3: NFTs Continue Cultural Convergence
Dapper Labs, the NBA Top Shots Creator that catalyzed mainstream interest in NFTs earlier this year, announced a deal with the NFL to launch NFL x Dapper Labs. Check out the hype reel below.
Another big one with Immutable x Tik Tok shipping an exclusive NFT collection for their creators, running live auctions on individual Tik Tok “Top Moments”.
My Take: It is incredible how quickly brands have been adopting blockchain applications—as retail continues to be excited by crypto, expect more brand to jump in to capture that attention.
I do wonder how much the Tik Tok Moment above is going to go for 🧐
Thanks for following 💕
I hope you enjoyed this round-up, feel free to connect with me by replying directly to this thread, follow me on twitter @infinityhai.
Disclaimer: Don’t take this newsletter as investment advice, all of this content reflects my opinions and ideas on where the world is going. As always, DYOR and stay safe - it’s the wild west out here.