Play-to-earn startups such as Crypto Gaming United and Zebedee have earned millions from their recent seed funding round to the tune of $5 million and $11.5 million respectively.
Crypto Gaming United, a firm intending to create a global community of nonfungible token (NFT)-focused play-to-earn gamers, acquired $5 million in a seed fundraising round that was oversubscribed.
The financing was led by renowned Australian venture financiers Mark Carnegie and Chrono.tech CEO Sergei Sergienko, who co-founded the crypto-focused asset manager MHC Digital Finance, according to a Sept. 8 release.
Shaw & Partners and Blockchain Assets, both based in Australia, were also involved in the round. Since its inception in August of this year, Crypto Gaming United has garnered over 1,500 members and has a waiting list of around 40,000 people.
The guild assists members in playing Axie Infinity, a popular NFT-based game, by providing scholarships in which sponsors supply pricey in-game items to players who may monetize them.
Despite the fact that the guild’s seed round was led by Australian investors, the guild is primarily made up of Filipino members, with users from Indonesia, South Africa, and India also contributing.
Because the majority of guild members are from low-income countries, many players may not be able to afford the high-cost digital assets required to play Axie Infinity in the midst of the current crypto bull market.
Axie Infinity scholarships are not only offered by Crypto Gaming United; sponsorship programs often take a cut of the earnings made by gamers.
“The prospect for wealth creation in the NFT space is no longer confined to those with money, such as sports celebrities,” Sergienko explained. At Crypto Gaming United, we are removing the financial barrier to entry, allowing players to profit from their gaming exploits.”
Within the following 18 months, the gaming guild aspires to accumulate a user base of more than 100,000.
Carnegie isn’t alone in predicting that the creative play-to-earn games based on NFTs will help the crypto sector gain a larger piece of the $200 billion annual online gaming market.
About Zebedee
Zebedee acquired $11.5 million in Series A funding on Sept. 7 to extend its gaming ambitions, which include allowing game developers to pay out rewards to gamers in crypto assets.
Zebedee, which was founded in 2019, provides the platform and tools that allow Bitcoin to be utilized as in-game awards and micro-transactions over the Lightning Network architecture.
Co-founder and CEO Simon Cowell was previously the head of corporate development at Bitstamp, the world’s oldest Bitcoin exchange.
Lakestar led Zebedee’s round, which also included participation from Initial Capital, New Form Capital, and a number of gaming angels.
Axie Infinity’s user base grew from 30,000 in April to over one million last month, demonstrating the tremendous rise of crypto-native gaming this year.
Yield Guild Games, a Philippine play-to-earn gaming collective that offers Axie sponsorships, collected $12.5 million in mere minutes with an initial DEX offering (IDO) in July.
