Crypto recovers as blockchain gaming sees huge investment

GB Market Commentary 08/07/2022

by Marcus Sotiriou

Bitcoin finally saw some relief yesterday, topping out at around $22,500, as the S&P 500 climbed 1.5%. There is some renewed optimism that the worst of the liquidity crisis may be behind us after SBF’s re-assurance on Wednesday. The only Bitcoin bottom signal for me is persistent data showing us that inflation is convincingly inflecting down. This should result in the Federal Reserve becoming less aggressive with their monetary policy, and therefore provide confidence that the liquidity crisis in the crypto market is over.

The gaming industry is not phased by the market downturn as Animoca Brands have continued to provide support for blockchain gaming projects in this bear market as they are leading $32M Funding Round for Planetarium Labs. Other investors included Samsung Next and Planetarium partners Krust Universe, the investment arm of South Korean tech giant Kakao, and WeMade, the publisher of play-to-earn game Mir4.

The Planetarium Labs gaming system is based on Libplanet, a software development kit that lets developers create blockchain applications entirely on the Unity game development platform. Their CEO said, “Instead of multiple games sharing a single network, each game runs its application-specific blockchain network and has the freedom to design its governance and customize tokenomics, such as enabling free-to-play.” They are therefore attempting to build a community-driven Web3 game network which is decentralised in nature.

In addition, Konvoy Ventures, a traditional gaming VC, has entered the blockchain gaming space. They have raised $150 million for a new fund, and 20% to 30% will be allocated to blockchain and crypto-related games.

Gaming giants like Ubisoft and Square Enix have also talked about the importance of blockchains and NFTs for the future of the gaming industry, and plan to integrate blockchains in the future. In my opinion this shows how early we are in the blockchain gaming space, as there is clear recognition of its potential to revolutionise despite the infrastructure not being ready in most cases.