Esports, gaming and interactive media investment platform Bitkraft VC has established a $75-million token fund for investing in blockchain gaming and digital entertainment. The fund uses a “stage-agnostic” strategy, meaning that it will put money in companies and startups at any business development stage. Apart from equity investment, the token fund will also invest in cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFT). In order to provide regulated investment opportunities, Bitkraft received an investment advisor registration from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2021. The new token fund is led by Piers Kicks, a founding partner in the investment arm …

Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of nonfungible token (NFT) game developer Animoca Brands, believes NFTs 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 …

Sky Mavis, the studio behind the popular Axie Infinity nonfungible token (NFT) game, has announced a fresh round of funding for the company. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Sky Mavis announced that it had closed a $152-million Series B funding round. According to the announcement, notable crypto and blockchain investors such as global exchange giant FTX, venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz participated in the investment round. Other investors in the $152-million funding round included Accel, Paradigm, Standard Crypto, as well as Fabric Ventures and Samsung Next among other notable backers. The Axie Infinity maker said it was going to …

AXS, the native token of Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn nonfungible token (NFT) game built atop the Ethereum blockchain, rallied more than 100% on a quarter-to-date (QTD) timeframe to refresh a new record high above $155. Nonetheless, the cryptocurrency now risks paring a portion of its recent gains as a key technical indicator, dubbed the relative strength index (RSI), flashes its overbought conditions. In doing so, it might correct below $90 — almost a 40% drop. The bearish outlook surfaces after studying the relationship between AXS’s price and its RSI readings. In detail, when the RSI rallies above 70, it mostly …

Airdrops have become the cryptocurrency ecosystem’s equivalent of stimulus checks over the past couple of years and further proof of this can be evidenced from popular protocols, like Uniswap and dYdX, that rewarded their early adopters with token drops that are now worth $30,000 to $2 million. The latest protocol to surprise its userbase with a wallet fattening airdrop was Axie Infinity (AXS), a blockchain-based battle game that has risen in prominence over the course of 2021 as users embrace its play-to-earn (P2E) gaming model. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since bounding off a low of …

Bullish sentiment returned to the cryptocurrency ecosystem on Oct. 1 after a 10% spike in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) lifted it above the $47,500 level and resulted in the liquidation of more than $270 million in short positions. The altcoin market quickly followed suit with a majority of the tokens in the top 200 registering double-digit gains for the day. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were Oasis Network’s ROSE token, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Icon’s ICX token. The allure of privacy draws traders to Oasis Network …

Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn nonfungible token (NFT) game based on the Ethereum blockchain, announced the launch of a staking program for its native token, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS). AXS holders can start staking their tokens, while the rewards will be activated in 24 hours to ensure all time zones could stake beforehand, according to a Thursday announcement. “Staking is a way for us to reward our community members for having a long-term mindset and locking up their AXS tokens,” the Axie Infinity team said as part of the announcement, adding that by staking, players can earn AXS rewards. The team …

Fresh off the launch of its $25 million venture fund, OP Crypto Capital Management Ltd. seeks to play a more active role in the lifecycle of blockchain startups ranging from gaming to Web 3.0. Former Huobi executive turned founder David Gan spoke with Cointelegraph about the transition from his former company, the growth potential of crypto niches and the role his fund will play in bootstrapping the next generation of crypto startups. Seamless transition After more than three years at Huobi Ventures and Huobi Labs, Gan transitioned to his new role seamlessly, he said. One of the primary motivations for …

Immutable X, the scaling solution for layer-2 NFT protocol Immutable, has penned an agreement with Together Labs to integrate into the platform's native social metaverse IMVU. The partnership will foster the creation and distribution of NFTs within the game's virtual ecosystem. IMVU, pronounced "imm-view," is a blockchain simulation game akin to The Sims or Second Life in which players can design, inhabit and interact with virtual worlds. Parented by Silicon valley-based firm Together Labs — a technological architecture working on the social media experience with the implementation of the crypto and all its ecosystem facets — IMVU has 200,000 active …

Facebook has announced it will allocate $50 million to a two-year fund tasked with beginning work on realizing the firm’s vision for a virtual metaverse. A Monday announcement articulates Facebook’s roadmap for building its metaverse, with the funding slated to back “global research and program partners” looking to build out the platform in addition to internal research. “The metaverse won’t be built overnight by a single company. We’ll collaborate with policymakers, experts and industry partners to bring this to life,” emphasized the announcement. The metaverse will allow people to interact with one another, digital objects and the physical world through …

A new intersection of passion and blockchain -- gaming and crypto – is getting momentum in traditional worlds where gamers played, bought skins, lost them to the game and spent hours online with nothing to show at the end of the day. Evolution of gaming Early blockchain adopters such as the OPSkins platform recognized the need to provide true ownership of digital items, which later morphed in the WAX platform and a full-on service for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of collectibles, graphic art and increasingly items to be used within games and across platforms. Splinterlands was one of …

The past few months have seen decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms gain a cult-like following on the backdrop of a bullish cryptocurrency market. That revolution of digital money is now moving into the gaming industry, creating an intersection between DeFi and the gaming experience that experts now predict will play a huge role in the next generation of games. DeFi-focused tokens such as Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and Chainlink (INK), to mention a few, have had euphoric moments in the markets, gaining major traction as major developments continue. Investors and speculators should expect even more going forward, given the bold move …