In brief
Axie Infinity has quickly become the largest musician in the burgeoning crypto gaming quad, not to mention the largest NFT project to date by total trade volume—and developer Sky Mavis continues to ramp things up .
today, the studio apartment announced that it has raised $ 152 million in a series B round led by guess das kapital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with engagement from Accel and Paradigm. Arianna Simpson, general partner at Andreessen, will join Sky Mavis ’ board as share of the orotund .
The Information reported on Monday that Sky Mavis raised the funds at a valuation of $ 3 billion, a number that Sky Mavis confirmed to Decrypt on Tuesday .
Sky Mavis will use the funds to expand its team and scale its blockchain bet on infrastructure, arsenic well as build a distribution platform for other blockchain-driven games .
The Ethereum -based Axie Infinity is built around NFTs, requiring players to acquire three NFT monsters that they can struggle against each other. An NFT is basically a deed of ownership to a demonstrably barely digital item—in this case, cartoonish combatants with varying attributes. At a buy-in price near $ 150-200 deserving of ETH for each NFT monster, it ’ s not cheap to start playing the computer and mobile game .
That hasn ’ metric ton stopped players from flooding in over the past few months, however. Axie Infinity has seen a billow in popularity since former May, after launching a Ronin sidechain for Ethereum to minimize transaction fees and network congestion. The game presently counts 2 million active casual users, according to Sky Mavis .
All the while, Axie Infinity has yielded more than $ 2.2 billion worth of NFT transaction volume, per data from CryptoSlam, with the huge majority of that count coming in the last four months .
furthermore, the respect of Axie Infinity ’ s native AXS token has surged this class, rising from a price of $ 0.59 on January 1 to an all-time high near $ 156 set yesterday, according to CoinGecko. Sky Mavis launched AXS staking functionality last week, offer rewards for users who lock up their AXS within the network, and besides airdropped $ 60 million worth of AXS to early Axie Infinity players .
just ahead Axie Infinity ’ s summer surge, Sky Mavis announced a $ 7.5 million Series A round in early May. While a relatively modest lift compared to early crypto firms in holocene months, even in the crypto gaming space, it featured well-known investors such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Seven Seven Six founder/Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
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In a recent consultation, Sky Mavis Growth Lead Jeff Zirlin told Decrypt that while that Series A was a “ small round, ” bringing on outstanding investors like Cuban and Ohanian—a peculiarly vocal supporter of Axie and its “ play-to-earn ” rewards model—were “ indicators of sociable proof. ”
Zirlin said that it helps drive awareness of the game and draw new talent to the team. Along with the aforesaid plans, Sky Mavis is besides expanding and enhancing Axie Infinity —including launching a fresh struggle system, land-based gameplay, and release appetizer monsters—as well as building a decentralized exchange for Ronin .
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Tuesday at 5:556pm EST to add confirmation by Sky Mavis of its valuation.
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