VanEck invests in Web3 game startup Gunzilla
VanEck's private crypto fund has invested in gaming startup Gunzilla Games, marking the asset manager's second bet on Web3-enabled gaming, VanEck said on Oct. 31, 2010.
Gunzilla is the creator of Off the Grid, a “dystopian cyberpunk shooter” where players earn Gunzilla-derived GUN tokens, according to VanEck's Matt Maximo in a post on the X forum.
“We see crypto as a tool to improve gaming experiences and monetization strategies,” Maximo said.
Source: Steam
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In March, VanEyck invested in Web3 card game Parallels; The traffic cards are represented onchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), he said.
A parallel funding round of $35 million included contributions from Solana Ventures and Coinbase's Base Ecosystem Fund.
“Gamers have been building systems to sell in-game items for decades,” Maximo said, adding that Steam's peer-to-peer gaming marketplace has seen more than $32 billion in transactions.
“Blockchain can solve players' need for transparency and control over in-game items,” Maximo added.
Off The Grid in-game. Source: Matt Maximo
In Off The Grid, players earn GUN tokens that unlock in-game items that they carry in Web3 wallets.
Players use GUN tokens to purchase in-game items directly from Off The Grid's Web3 marketplace.
Gunzilla marketplaces are operated by a sub-network of Avalanche (AVAX) called GUNZ, according to Maximo.
“Part of the OTG blockchain is a technical solution to create a marketplace for players to trade cosmetics – a very successful model pioneered by Steam” and others, Maximo said.
Gunzilla brought in Richard Morgan, Altered Carbon writer and director Neill Blomkamp to direct the creative design of Off the Grid.
In the year In 2022, VanEek launched a digital asset alpha fund to invest in liquid tokens using traditional valuation methods.
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