Singapore’s central bank recently expressed its motive to regulate cryptocurrencies with new laws that would make it more difficult for retail investors to trade digital assets.
Following the plans for new regulation, Temasek Holdings Pte., a state investor, announced joining a $100 million funding for Animoca Brands Corp., as it preferred to back service providers in the crypto space instead of investing directly in crypto.
It has been a rough week for crypto investors as the value of the largest crypto asset, Bitcoin, and Altcoins tumbled massively. However, this has not dampened the enthusiasm of international players like Temasek. According to reports, the Singapore state investor will lead the financing through convertible bonds.
Animoca Brands Corp.’s first funding round was announced in January, where it raised around $359 million from George Soros and the Winklevoss twins. The Hong Kong startup raised another $75 million in the same round earlier this summer and is now valued at $6 billion. Meanwhile, its Japan subsidiary, Animoca Brands Japan, raised $45 million, led by Japan’s largest MUFG Bank and parent company, Animoca Brands. As per the press release,
“Animoca Brands Japan will use the new capital to continue to secure licenses for popular intellectual properties, develop internal capabilities, and promote adoption of Web3 to multiple partners.”
The valuation of Animoca Brands Japan is now $500 million.
Animoca began as a small mobile game publisher but has now become Asia’s biggest blockchain investor by assembling a portfolio of over 340 finance, gaming, and social media companies in less than five years. Gaming is going to change, and there is no doubt about it. While big players like Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. appear to be better positioned to leverage it, crypto and blockchain startups like Animoca challenged their dominance by building virtual worlds on the blockchain and creating web3.
