Binance invests 200 Million USD into a Blockchain Gaming Project

Blockchain gaming is a fast-growing domain of the crypto ecosystem. With billions of gamers across the globe and the gaming industry that is outperforming both the movie and music businesses for years now, there is no doubt that the potential here is huge. At the same time, the manifested potential presently for the same branch of the industry is very modest. It comes with some interesting projects in development, but very little in terms of actual video game releases that are popular right now and which utilize the blockchain backend. That is a state of the same industry branch for several years, with some analysts stating that the whole process is presently nothing more than a widely used buzzword that the gaming development companies like to throw around. 

But, a recent movement in that domain showcases a different trend and it involves one of the biggest players in the field of the crypto exchange business. Binance is that company and it announced that it is pouring a massive amount of money into a gaming fund that should see a lot more support and development for blockchain-based video games. While the details might be sparse, it is clear that the company is taking this very seriously and that it plans to tie it into wider crypto space. That space will, unsurprisingly, try to bank on the non-fungible token phenomena and see if that can move the same industry branch into a more crypto-colored future. 

Animoca Brands and Binance

The famous cryptocurrency exchange and Animoca Brands launched a big fund that might be able to change the face of global gaming that is in any way related to cryptocurrencies. The fund is valued at 200 million USD and it aims to invest in gaming projects that are utilizing blockchain networks built on the Binance Smart Chanin. Known as BSC, the same network is a part of the Binance wider initiative to assert its own brand into the crypto space. 

The much more famous version of that plan is the Binance Coin or BNB, which has been available on the crypto exchanges for some time now. But, the gaming initiative is also very exciting news not just for the developers of games that might use BSC, but anyone else who is considering investing either in this domain or mainstream crypto assets. If the initiative succeeds, both of these will profit immensely, just like esports players, gamers, and everyone else who is somehow invested, either personally or financially, in this space.

One Billion USD

Binance is not starting up anything new with this initiative. Instead, it is expanding its current capacity to finance different ventures that it deems valuable through the lens of its own growth and expansion. That involves mainly the process of tech support and expansion for BSC. Because of that the exchange already has its one billion USD Growth Fund for BSC. The other company is now joining it in the same venture. Animoca Brands has also been around for some time. It began as both a game development company focusing on titles created through a blockchain system, but it functions also as a venture fund.

It was created in 2014 in Hong Kong and clearly managed to rightly assess that the field of blockchain gaming, back then in its infancy, is ready to explode. While the explosion did not occur so far, the potential for the detonation is only growing and spreading out. Through this fund, both companies will contribute an equal amount of money – 100 million USD each. All of the money will be allocated to early-stage projects in the blockchain gaming space.

NFT Allure 

Besides more traditional (if that term can be applied here) forms of blockchain gaming, Animoca Brands is also heavily invested in the space of non-fungible tokens and the expanding sub-domain of metaverse projects. It already has a lot of money invested in OpenSea, an NFT tradition platform, but also The Sandbox, a video game set in a metaverse. It also appears very capable of supporting these and future investments. Its present value is around 2.2 billion USD after it added a further 65 million USD a couple of months ago. There is little doubt that NFT projects, especially those which are building their metaverse spaces, are taking the lead here. 

The money that Animoca Brands and Binance now wield will likely also go towards companies that are pursuing these non-fungible token possibilities. However, the prospects of building a true metaverse will remain somewhat elusive, no matter how much money these companies are willing to invest into promising projects. Even with tons of BTC tokens and/or fiat investment with hundreds of millions of USD, making a digital world like the one seen in the movie Ready Player One is not something that anyone, even Facebook/Meta can easily or quickly construct.  

Binance Metaverses

Binance’s one billion USD fund is a clear venture: it is a challenge to the ethereum network and its capacity to create and maintain smart contracts. More importantly, it is a challenge to the ETH token scalability potential and the likely issues any ethereum-based project takes on when it suddenly finds success. Until a couple of years ago, ethereum was the ultimate leader in this field. However, the explosion of DeFi and gaming apps that use the ethereum blockchain showed that there are some serious scalability issues with the same ETH protocols. 

Binance tried to exploit this issue and create its alternative to the needs of those who want to build these dapps. But, it seems that this company will soon find itself in the same boat. Firstly, the process of creating a true metaverse is insanely difficult and so far, no one has managed to do it. Even close attempts like Second Life are nowhere near what Mark Zuckerberg is trying to create. Animoca Brands, Binance, and its partners, even if one entity got the full sum of 200 million USD, stand absolutely no chance. But, even if they did manage to create that killer app (dapp), the BNB token would immediately suffer the same problems as ETH a few years ago.

Source: Coindesk