Investors Continue to Pour Funds into Blockchain Gaming
The Punters Pick #20 — Established cryptocurrency platforms seek opportunities in Play-to-Earn ecosystems.
Blockchain gaming continues to attract significant investment. We previously highlighted venture capital inflows into this space, and now, Binance, Huobi, and Solana have joined the long list of investors looking to capitalize on the immense potential of “Play-to-Earn”.
In the latest version of The Punters Pick, we highlight the moves these firms have made. We also look at some of the reasons behind the sudden surge in interest and analyze the long-term benefits that are attracting investors to this industry. However, we’ll first highlight the development progress we’ve recently made.
CryptoPunt software development update
Our goal is to provide gamers with a next-generation experience that is both engaging and highly rewarding. Over this past week, we made tremendous progress towards our eventual Alpha release. Following last week’s mainnet deployment, we continue to test our front end for bugs and make improvements to gameplay.
📱Mobile Development:
- We completed mobile responsiveness testing for our Jackpot game. We encountered a few minor issues and are working hard to resolve them
- Over the next week, we will prioritize testing the game for mobile responsiveness and fix backend errors as they emerge.
🖥️ Other Updates:
- We integrated Jackpot into our platform successfully and tested a raft of new features.
- We’re gearing up for unit testing and are working on preparing environments to host IST, UAT, and production versions of our platform.
- Over the next week, we’ll continue working on setting up our smart contact monitoring service with Tenderly or Defender.
We have lined up a Jackpot test on Friday among our internal team to test some of the key functionalities of the game. We are committed to consistently testing our coding updates to ensure that each game offers a secure and cutting-edge gaming experience.
Blockchain gaming attracts big investors
Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, is investing in the development of a blockchain gaming platform, Decentral Games (DG), via its $100 million accelerator fund. The “play-to-earn” platform plans to use the funds to introduce innovations and expand the blockchain metaverse, GameFi vertical, and NFT markets on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). “GameFi” is a term used to describe games that bridge the DeFi and gaming worlds. These games allow users to trade decentralized assets with one another as a part of the in-game experience.
Samy Karim, BSC Ecosystem Coordinator said “With Decentral Games paving the way for GameFi projects to connect crypto with entertainment, play-to-earn incentives models have a higher scope for better mass adoption.” This partnership will also give DG access to millions of users on the BSC, along with 800 dApps that populate the chain. Add to this the scalability advantage that BSC gives DG, and GameFi’s popularity is bound to increase.
Binance isn’t the only firm making waves thanks to its investments. Huobi Ventures, the investment arm of Huobi exchange, is setting aside $10 million to invest in promising GameFi projects. Huobi is promising not just money, but full support to early stage ventures. Startups can expect backing via development, legal, technical, and PR assistance.
Huobi Ventures director Unica Yin sees this as an opportunity to dive into an industry that is set for astronomical growth. According to her, “blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize gaming business models and will play a core role in the next generation of games”.
Other recent developments include the $4.1 million secured by DeFi Land to launch a new game on Solana. 40 investors took part in the investment round to raise this money, including some well-known venture capitalists in the blockchain industry. Animoca Brands, Alameda Research, Jump Capital, NGC Ventures, Solana Foundation, and Gate.io all participated in this fundraising exercise.
DeFi land is an agriculture simulation game that gamifies DeFi functions. The game functions as an educational solution for users looking to understand how DeFi works and can earn tokens by completing tasks and reaching milestones.
Exponential user growth attracts blockchain investors
The number of users in the blockchain gaming industry has grown from less than 57,000 in Q1, 2021, to over 926,000 at the time of writing. Similarly, the volume of funds traded during this same period grew from less than $263K to almost $19M. This is after reaching an all-time high (ATH) of over $93M.
(Source: DappRadar.com)
This growth coincides with the explosion of the NFT markets, and investors are hopping on board. Earlier this month, Crypto Gaming United raised $5 million from investors in an oversubscribed seed round. The platform aims to build a global community of NFT-focused Play-to-Earn gamers. The game has a waiting list of 40,000, with 15,000 gamers already active on the platform.
Chrono.tech CEO and Co-Founder of MHC Digital Finance Sergei Sergienko stated: “The opportunity for wealth creation in the NFT space is no longer limited to those with the means, such as sports celebrities. At Crypto Gaming United, we are overcoming the cost barrier required for admission to play, thereby allowing players to generate income through their gaming exploits.”
Innovative platforms like Crypto Gaming United and CryptoPunt allow gamers to access highly engaging blockchain games on a single platform. Best of all, user onboarding is seamless. For instance, all a CryptoPunt user needs is an Ethereum wallet to instantly connect and start playing. Best of all, they can earn money while engaging in their favorite activity.
About CryptoPunt
CryptoPunt is a next-generation gaming and gambling Dapp. Underpinned by the Ethereum blockchain, CryptoPunt is positioning itself to be the leading blockchain-based gaming application. Users can start gaming in less than one minute with no KYC or registration process. CryptoPunt will offer a broad suite of games, including an option that has a virtual world and an in-game economy.
Stay tuned, and learn more!
