The world of decentralized gaming has seen significant growth in 2021 as the rise of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming merged with NFTs to open the first pathway to the Metaverse. Aavegotchi is currently making inroads in the blockchain-based gaming sector with a somewhat novel approach that incorporates features from P2E gaming, NFTs and decentralized finance (DeFi). Data from TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $1.56 on Oct. 1, the price of GHST, Aavegotchi's native token, has rallied 53% to a daily high at $2.40 on Oct. 29 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 45% to $135.8 million. Three reasons …

Nonfungible token (NFT)-game and virtual property developer Animoca Brands has doubled its valuation to $2.2 billion after closing a new funding round that fetched $65 million. The latest funding round was conducted at a pre-money valuation of $2.2 billion, and included backing from gaming giants Ubisoft Entertainment along with Liberty City Ventures, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital to name a few. It’s more vindication for a company that was kicked off the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in March 2020, in part for its involvement in cryptocurrencies. According to the Wednesday announcement from the firm, more than 43.8 million newly issued shares …

Yet another blow has been dealt to China’s cryptocurrency community, with news of a new high court ruling in the Shandong province that has drawn out the consequences of crypto’s lack of legal status in the country. As the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, the case in question was an appeal against a ruling this January by an intermediate court in the city of Jinan. The plaintiff in the case had lost 70,000 yuan (roughly $10,750) by investing in unnamed crypto tokens back in 2017, which friends of his had reportedly endorsed. Following the People’s Bank of China’s doubling …

Kieran Warwick, the co-founder of forthcoming NFT-powered gaming metaverse Illuvium, has revealed he made a gain of more than 9,000% from flipping a virtual plot of land purchased from the Axie Infinity metaverse. Warwick, the brother of Synthetix founder Kain, recounts purchasing the plots during mid-2020, noting there “weren’t too many use cases” for digital land at the time, with in-metaverse advertising and mining having yet to become common as utilities for virtual property. He purchased the plot for $300, and announced the sale a year later for $28,000 on July 13. I just sold a plot of land for …

Tokenized Walking Dead Ethereum-based NFT metaverse “The Sandbox” has partnered with Skybound Entertainment to incorporate a Walking Dead game in the virtual world. The Walking Dead is famous thanks to the TV show, however, the story and characters are based on original comics from Skybound Entertainment. The Sandbox is owned by NFT game and property developer Animoca brands, with the firm describing it as “part virtual real-estate, part amusement park.” It already has an impressive list of existing partnerships such as The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari, Deadmau5 and CryptoKitties. “The team will give users the possibility to get pieces of …

An ecosystem that allows nonfungible tokens to be backed by physical items has entered into a partnership with Enjin. Uniqly describes itself as a “bridge between virtual nonfungible tokens and real-world goods” — and aims to solve one of the last hurdles that the NFT sector faces. CryptoPunks, FC Barcelona fan tokens and $70 million Beeple collages are strictly digital, meaning you can’t hang them on a wall, wear them on your chest, or display them in a museum. But the NFTs on offer from Uniqly can be redeemed for something tangible, meaning these digital assets can be materialized and …

Tokenization platforms are “overwhelmingly centralized” and lack the scalability needed to be a force in the open finance movement, according to developers behind a new protocol. AMPnet says there is no shortage of innovative projects that are making their vision for a more inclusive financial future — but crucial pieces in the puzzle are currently missing. “Houses, apartments, renewable energy power plants, land, traditional financial instruments, company equity and much, much more are all locked away — not to be used or seen by the blockchain market. Five hundred trillion dollars in assets — just waiting to be brought to …

A blockchain project says it offers the first Massive Multiplayer Online Open World boasting photorealistic graphics in virtual reality — a world built and owned by users. Victoria VR is designed to be a universal platform encompassing games and decentralized applications. The resulting metaverse is a shared virtual realm where people are free to do “absolutely anything” — from playing games to trading goods. Quests can even be completed in order to gain access to a plethora of rare rewards. Creativity is at the beating heart of this ecosystem, and players have the freedom to design their very own realistic …

The value of the Decentraland (MANA) token climbed 31% leading into March 9, following news that classic game manufacturer Atari would set up a gaming casino inside Decentraland’s virtual realm. Announced on March 8, a partnership between Atari and Decentral Games will see the launch of Atari Casino within Decentraland this coming May. The casino is expected to feature various Atari-themed games, playable with MANA tokens, the DAI stablecoin, Decentral Games’ own DG token, or Atari’s eponymous Atari Token (ATRI). Decentral Games is a community-owned ecosystem-based inside Decentraland, which is governed by its own users with the help of a …

A non-fungible token, or NFT, representing digital plots of land has sold for a record $1.5 million in the crypto-tamagotchi virtual ecosystem, Axie Infinity. The platform offers NFTs for ‘Axies’, fantasy creatures that inhabit a player-controlled virtual realm called “Lunacia.” On Feb. 8, a community member purchased nine digital land plots in Lunancia as one parcel for 888.25 Ether — worth more than $1.5 million at the time. Lunancia spans 90,601 plots of land in total, of which 19% are already player owned. Is this real life?! Congrats to @Its_Falcon_Time and @seedphrase for making NFT History! 9 Genesis plots. 888.25 …

Nonfungible tokens are not a new phenomenon in the crypto space, as the emergence of blockchain technology has provided a useful base layer to create a sprawling economy for digital collectibles. Amid the growing appetite for digital art, in-game utility tokens and other forms of crypto collectibles, the NFT metaverse is experiencing a surge toward broad-based commercialization. Within the ecosystem lie numerous intersections among various industries such as arts and crafts, gaming, and virtual real estate. The 2020 decentralized finance hype has also helped to add more fuel to the NFT fire. Governance tokens and liquidity mining protocols appear to …

In the “real” world, real estate has historically been seen as a viable investment. Individuals and corporations usually purchase land and property either for development or to sell at a higher price in the future. With the world becoming increasingly digitized, it appears that the trend of ascribing significant value to land and property has been spreading to the virtual scene. At the intersection of emerging tech like virtual reality and blockchain, developers, investors and hobbyists alike are creating a vibrant virtual real estate market. While VR provides the tools to visualize these digital spaces, blockchain technology is acting as …