Metatheory, a Web3 entertainment company founded by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, has raised $24 million.
Metatheory, which launched in Q3 last year, is focused on building Web3 games and virtual worlds imagined across innovative new story franchise IPs.
The Series A round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with cryptocurrency firms Pantera Capital and FTX Ventures participating in the round, in addition to Breyer Capital, Merit Circle, Recharge Thematic Ventures, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Daedalus, Sfermion and Global Coin Research.
“Building immersive digital experiences has always been a passion of mine, and after stepping away from Twitch to explore what’s next in the industry, I truly believe blockchain will open the door to even more possibilities and have a major impact in the gaming, storytelling and community building space,” said Lin.
“At Metatheory, we’ve built a team of industry vets who are focused on embracing blockchain across multiple media categories with a focus on elevating standards of customer experience and shared ownership.”
Metatheory is leveraging the gaming space as its first creative canvas into the Web3 world, with a heavy focus on building franchises with strong IP that live beyond the games themselves.
“Metatheory is redefining how games and stories are told from the bottom up using Web3 primitives, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with CEO Kevin Lin, a proven leader and company builder,” said Jonathan Lai, Andreessen Horowitz.
Metatheory’s first game franchise DuskBreakers, which was released in December 2021 with world art designed by Geersart, former lead illustrator at Twitch, is a sci-fi inspired metaverse and gaming experience powered by blockchain.
DuskBreakers launched with an innovative free-to-play ‘Play-to-Mint’ game that led to a sellout of 10,000 NFTS (the Genesis DuskBreakers) in just six days.
The genesis NFTs each represent one of the first 10,000 recruited ‘Breakers’ who spend their days exploring a massive, dormant alien spaceship – ‘The Dusk’ – hovering above the earth.
On the Dusk, Breakers seek valuable ‘Duskite’ materials while fending off the extraterrestrial creatures roaming the ship. The choices the Breakers make as a community will irrevocably change the course of history across an exciting new alternate universe, unfolding across NFTs, comics, animations and video games.
Candy Crush expertise at Web3 mobile games studio
A new studio building mobile free-to-play games for casual players on the Bitcoin Lightning Network has raised $3m.
Pnkfrg, based in Berlin and Helsinki, includes team leaders from Candy Crush Saga.
“We founded pnkfrg studios because we believe in a paradigm shift in casual mobile gaming as well as in a new way of digital financial transactions. Players and creators seek to be rewarded for their time, want to own and trade digital assets, and expect to gain value for their skills and contribution while having a fun time,” said Philipp Lanik, CEO and co-founder.
The seed funding round was led by LVP and Initial Capital, with Stillmark, Velo Partners and Fulgur Ventures joining.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon has released a proposal entitled ‘Terra Ecosystem Revival Plan 2’ – his plan to rescue the vanquished LUNA cryptocurrency and sister UST stablecoin. The updated version of his original plan suggests forking the current Terra blockchain from a snapshot taken before the collapse – using the LUNA ticker – but with the original blockchain retained and renamed Luna Classic (LUNC).
The FT reports that Japan’s largest investment bank, Nomura, is set to establish a subsidiary company of 100 staff to help institutional clients invest in cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens.
boohoo has partnered with four female artists from the NFT community – Amy Kilner, Reem El, Aoife O’Dwyer and Shar.eth – to create an ‘affordable and inclusive’ avatar collection. The 30,000 pieces, based on 230 ‘traits and features’, include fashion pieces from boohoo’s product range and cost $30.
Coinbase has rolled out Web3 app functionality for some mobile users, allowing them to access decentralised apps on the Ethereum network such as Uniswap and OpenSea. This will therefore allow them to begin trading on NFT marketplaces, make swaps on decentralised exchanges and interact with decentralised finance protocols to borrow and lend funds.
Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Medina says his country will reverse a law established in 2016 and begin taxing cryptocurrency profits.
Oasis Pro has raised $27m to launch a digital securities alternative trading system that decentralised finance platforms can plug into. CEO Pat LaVecchia told CoinDesk that LedgerPrime, Redwood Trust, John Wu’s Avalanche-focused Blizzard fund and other venture backers has joined the Series A.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 19,400 coins is at $1.30 trillion at the time of writing (7.30am UK), a 2.4% increase in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – added 3% to $30,385. BTC is down 6% in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – gained 3% to around $2,075. ETH is 14% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token grew 4% to $306, leaving it 7% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP gained 4% to more than 43 cents, which leaves it 18% down over seven days.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, rose 3% to almost 58c. It is 14% down over the course of a week.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token gained 5% to $56.71 yet is down 21% compared with a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE grew 2% to top 9c, leaving it 22% down in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, added 3% to $11.16 but is 7% lower than its price a week ago.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token grew 4% to $34.31 and is 29% down in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.