Weekly Summary: Focus on Web3 Gaming, as Immutable Launches $50M Rewards Program
This week’s edition focuses on Web3 gaming as Immutable launches “The Main Quest” Program, Carv Raises $10M Series A to build a data layer for Web3 gaming & AI and Laser Digital invest in Tevaera.
It is nearly a week after the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving event finally arrived. However, the much-awaited bull run appears to be running late.
A course for concern? Not necessarily, because multiple facets of the crypto industry look exciting with Web3 gaming headlining the events this past week.
Web3 Gaming in Focus
The Web3 gaming industry experienced rapid growth before significantly slowing down over the past 22 months. This could be described as the shakeout stage in the different cycles of a new industry.
What we have witnessed in the past several months, exhibits similar characteristics to what goes on during a shakeout period as regulation begins to catch up.
Some blockchain gaming companies also seem to be now focused on differentiating themselves rather than launching products driven by the FOMO (fear of missing out), while those that were in it for the FOMO have fallen out.
Despite the shakeout, blockchain gaming continues to account for a significant level of Web3 activity with 30% according to a DappRadar report analysing the crypto market in Q1.
The blockchain gaming industry attracted 2.1 million active wallets every day, according to the report, with Polygon drawing in over 1.1 million new wallets.
The industry also continues to experience significant investment with $288 million received during the quarter.
Market research firm iMarc Group expects the blockchain gaming market to be worth more than $850 million by 2032, up from $8.9 billion in 2023.
The second quarter appears set to continue on a bullish trajectory at least based on this week’s deals.
Immutable Secures $50 Million for Web3 Gaming Rewards Program
The Main Quest program incentives for exploring games in the expansive Immutable ecosystem, which currently boasts more than 270 gaming titles.
Pixelmon, Illuvium, Guild of Guardians, Space Nation and MetalCore have signed on to become among the first 10 projects to be featured in the program.
Immutable President and Co-founder, Robbie Ferguson said in a statement: “This is single-handedly the largest rewards program in web3 gaming. With The Main Quest, we are showing players what they can expect when we talk about the real benefits of digital ownership. As more of our 300+ signed games go to market, the opportunities for players to be rewarded by the Immutable ecosystem will grow exponentially.”
Carv Secures $10M Series A to Built Its Modular Data Layer for Gaming and AI
Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures led the round with participation from Arweave, Consensys, Draper Dragon, Fenbushi Capital, LiquidX, MARBLEX, No Limit Holdings, and OKX Ventures.
Carv will use the funds to accelerate the development of its platform CARV Protocol, a modular layer that connects web2 identities with tokens on-chain.
“Carv differentiates itself by putting data ownership and monetization rights in the hands of users. Any revenue generated from leveraging users’ data gets shared back with the data creators and themselves,” Victor Yu, co-founder and COO of Carv.
Web3 Gaming Startup Tevaera Raises $5M in a Round Led by Laser Digital
Hashkey Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Matter Labs, Draper Dragon, Faculty Group, Crypto.com Capital, Cogitent Ventures, DWF Labs and Morningstar Ventures also joined the round.
The company will use the funds to accelerate the development of its ecosystem with new games and a decentralised L3 gaming chain on zkSync.
Jez Mohideen, CEO of Laser Digital, Nomura Group said in a statement: “Supporting Tevaera in its journey to unlock the next era of web3 games through a comprehensive, one-stop platform is an exciting opportunity. We are confident that this strategic investment will create new opportunities for ZK and on-chain powered gaming.”
Robin Babu and Gav Negi, co-founders of Tevaera: “This funding not only validates our vision but also empowers us to set a new industry standard for building, launching, and playing multi-genre web3 games.”
Deals of The Week
As the crypto space matures, venture firms are growing more confident with startups closing major deals daily.
From Quidd’s multi-year partnership with one of the world’s biggest brands in football (soccer) to Solana DEX platform Jupiter’s acquisition of Ultimate Wallet, plus multiple fundraisings, it has been a busy week on our deal desk.
The recent fundraisings, in particular, continue to build on what has been an amazing quarter for Web3 startups this year.
If the 58% quarter-over-quarter increase in crypto funding reported in Q1, wasn’t assuring enough about the return of the bull market, then a consecutive quarter funding growth could strengthen that argument.
Movement Labs Closes $38M Series A Round Led by Polychain Capital
Hack VC, Placeholder, Archetype, Maven 11, Robot Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, OKX Ventures, dao5, and Aptos Labs also joined the round.
Movement Labs is introducing a novel execution environment capable of handling more than 30,000 transactions per second.
The company is using an “integrated approach”, as it aims to leverage a fully EVM-compatible bytecode interpreter and Ethereum for settlement to build the Movement Zero-Knowledge Layer 2 blockchain.
Co-founder Rushi Manche said he and fellow co-founder Cooper Scanlon “started building Movement to increase the velocity of innovation in crypto where the next Facebook can be built on-chain by developers who do not have the resources for large development teams and expensive auditors.”
Polychain Capital’s Bobby Beniers said in a statement: “While the core focus of most other rollup teams is scalability, Movement’s key insight is that scalability alone is not why we are yet to see mass adoption. The MoveVM offers a developer experience that is intuitive and bug-resistant as well as highly scalable.”
Aligned Layer Closes $20M Series A to Build a Universal Verification Layer on Ethereum
Hack VC led the round with participation from DAO5, L2 Iterative, Nomad Capital, Finality, Symbolic VC, Theta Capital, J17, EVG Ventures, Decima Fund and Protagonist.
Aligned Layer’s Universal Verification Layer (UVL) platform verifies proofs cheaply and quickly and then posts the results in Ethereum and any data availability layer that the developer wants.
The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the development of its platform ahead of a mainnet launch.
“We verify proofs cheaply and quickly and post their results in Ethereum and any DA (data availability) layer that the developer wants. We provide developers with new options to focus on building the best products possible for the users,” the company wrote in a post on X.
Shiba Inu Secures $12M Pre-Seed and Seed Rounds in TREAT Token Sale
Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Shima Capital, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures and Comma 3 participated in the round.
Shiba Inu plans to use the funds to accelerate the development of its privacy-focused layer-3 blockchain on Shibarium.
The new chain will use TREAT as the utility and governance token, becoming the fourth and final token in the Shib ecosystem after SHIB, Leash and Bone.
Shytoshi Kusama said in a statement: “We are excited to gain the support of such powerful VCs, angel investors, and brands as we plough towards the completion of this grand decentralized experiment.”
Man City Announces Partnership with Quidd to Unlock Real-World Rewards for Fans
The multi-year partnership will begin with Quidd releasing a range of Man City-themed special edition digital collectibles for the fans.
The first series includes 200 bespoke player cards available on the Quidd Marketplace at 2:00 pm on Thursday 2nd May.
Fans can use their collectibles to unlock different rewards including official Man City merch, hospitality tickets and an exclusive opportunity to watch a first-team training session at the City Football Academy.
Tom Boyle, Vice-President of global Partnerships Marketing and Operations at City Football Group, said in a statement: “We’re excited to help transform the traditional football pastime of cards and collectibles in a new digital age alongside Quidd, enabling us to further connect with our fans across the globe.”
Michael Bramlage, Chief Executive Officer at Quidd commented: “This partnership signals our intent to revolutionise the world of sports collectibles, so it makes sense for Quidd to align with Manchester City.”
Solana DEX Platform Jupiter Ramps Up Mobile Push with Ultimate Wallet Acquisition
The mobile expansion is part of the decentralised exchange platform’s initiative to onboard “tens of millions of users.”
Jupiter Mobile is slated for a beta release in May.
Jupiter is already, the biggest DEX platform on Solana, clearing over $10 billion in transaction volume per week.
Jupiter wrote on X, “Our main focus is a simplified user experience, similar to an automatic car. With Auto-Config, we reduce complexity, such as gas, slippage, or re-trying your transactions.”
On-Chain Analysis
There is no better way to demonstrate that the crypto industry has returned to a bull market than using on-chain data.
This week, we have some interesting stats which suggest that despite Bitcoin and crypto prices, in general, taking time to respond to the Bitcoin halving event, the bull market is live and promising.
Solv Protocol’s TVL Soars 490% in April to $670M
The decentralized finance (DeFi) project that aims to bring native yield to Bitcoin and other assets has seen its TVL surge from $114 million at the beginning of the month to $672 million.
Solv supports other tokens, but Bitcoin accounts for 80% of all deposits with over $535 million.
Ethereum Stablecoin Volume Hits Record $1T in April
As of April 26, trading volume was at over $1.03 trillion, which is already a record four days prior to the end of the month.
Ethereum-based stablecoins account for 55% of the total stablecoin market, with Tron and other chains winning significant market share.
Bitcoin L2 Merlin Sees DeFi TVL Surging to Almost $1B
DefiLlama data shows that Merlin’s TVL has surged to a record $980 million on April 23, up from only $15 million at the end of March.
Merlin is a recently launched Bitcoin layer 2 supporting Bitcoin tokens that leverage the Ordinals protocol and the new Runes protocol.
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