Crypto gaming investment grows as Metaverse NFT fades

Cryptocurrency gaming industry, which includes video games that use blockchain-based tokens or NFTslast month collectively received a significant investment of $297 million, according to a joint report by DappRadar and the Blockchain Game Alliance.

63% of this July funding went to infrastructure development, which suggests that the industry is still in its very early stages. Investors are betting on tools and platforms that will facilitate future NFT-based cryptocurrency gaming.

Compared to June, which saw a relatively modest $68 million investment in crypto gaming, July has been an explosive month for the industry.

The report suggests that the low numbers in June could be partly due to the fact that the broader cryptocurrency industry has been hit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) targeting both Binance like coin base in June, seeding industry uncertainty.

However, Carlos Pereira, partner in Bitcraft Ventureshe does not think it is possible to draw conclusions from the supposed stagnation in June and growth in July.

“I don’t think there is any particular reason why one month is so different from another,” Pereira said. decipher in the message.

“It’s a concentrated data set that behaves with more variability given the sample. Think of any of those trades that generated checks over $30 million that took weeks to complete and could have been completed within one or the next month.” added Pereira. “From our side, we certainly didn’t feel that anything had changed.”

Investment in crypto gaming declined in June but rose again in July. Image: DappRadar/Blockchain Game Alliance

Also, fueling the idea that the decline in investment in June may have been an anomaly, the sector received more than $400 million in investment in each of the previous three months, from March to May 2023.

“It can be very difficult to get a feel for the monthly analysis, especially as many funds are not announced or may be announced with a delay,” Alok Vasudev, co-founder of venture capital firm Standard Crypto, said in an email. To decipher.

“Video games are especially difficult because they take a long time to develop, and anything that hits the market was probably funded a long time ago,” Vasudev continued. “But in our opinion, we believe that gaming is just a great use of cryptocurrency, and we expect more investment in this area in the future.”

A number of notable investments were made in July from game publishers Animoca Brands. $30 million in cryptocurrency “super app” Hello artificial intelligence startup Inworld AI, which has raised more than $50 million to empower more intelligent and dynamic video game characters.

Valhalla Ventures also created Venture fund for $66 million for games and technology, while the Futureverse has raised $54 million for your crypto-metaverse plans.

While some Metaverse-focused companies may still be able to raise funds, current NFT prices and total trading volume for existing Metaverse games have continued to decline over the past month.

According to a report from DappRadar, VR gaming recorded its lowest annual transaction volume of just $5.6 million in July with 10,796 sales at an average sale price of $523 per NFT. This is far from the height of the metaverse fever in 2021, when a virtual piece of land along with Snoop Dogg in the Sandbox was sold for $450,000.

Yuga Labs July again dominated the metaverse NFT economy, with sales of Otherdeed and Otherdeed Expanded NFTs accounting for 72.5% of trade volume in the virtual world category. Creator Bored Ape Yacht Clubmetaverse game Other sidewhich will use these land plots NFT is still under development.