<div id="highlights-block_627bd33e60997" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>GameFi is considered a sector of Web3 because ownership is decentralized between builders, investors and players</li>
 <li>Gaming NFTs are simply a record of game asset ownership on a public blockchain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">GameFi explained&nbsp;</h3>



GameFi, as the name suggests, is the intersection of gaming and finance. It&#8217;s considered a sector of Web3 because ownership is decentralized between builders, investors and players. These two industries found each other on the blockchain through an exciting ecosystem of in-game tokenomics and gaming NFTs (non-fungible tokens).&nbsp;



In this context, gaming NFTs are simply a record of game asset ownership on a public blockchain such as Ethereum, Cardano or Solana.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The decentralization of GameFi allows game assets (or NFTs) to be transferred out of and between games. This transferability gives the assets value outside of the gaming ecosystem. And because the ownership status of an NFT is tracked on the blockchain, they can be bought and sold as collectibles on third-party exchanges.



This evolution in gaming isn&#8217;t about game mechanics. Rather, it&#8217;s about moving game monetization closer to the ultimate vision of Web3. Many big GameFi builders hope these games will become blockchain marketplaces where the free market gives value to in-game assets within a player-owned ecosystem.



Learn more: <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/can-gamefi-still-unlock-the-metaverse/">Can GameFi Still Unlock the Metaverse?</a>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">So what are the real world benefits of gaming NFTs?</h3>



It&#8217;s not just about digital collectibles. Gaming NFTs bridge digital worlds by introducing a new era of game asset collecting. It is the technology that will facilitate a unified metaverse, and Web3 gaming will bring several benefits that traditional gaming lacks.



Ownership: In traditional gaming, in-game purchases are non-transferable investments locked within a single gaming world. Gaming NFTs bestow ownership of in-game assets to players. That ownership is more meaningful as it&#8217;s not restricted within the game publisher&#8217;s walled garden.



Provable scarcity: The scarcity of gaming NFTs can be proven via the immutable records of the blockchain. This is important when you consider that rarity and authenticity are valuable traits in the minds of collectors. Furthermore, gaming NFTs cannot be tampered with or duplicated due to the immutable record generated on the blockchain upon digital asset issuance.



Interoperability: The traditional online gaming model relies on centralized servers. Such games operate on disparate systems. When it comes to gaming NFTs, they can be designed to be transferable, interconnected and interoperable with other games built on the identical underlying blockchain. The player then has the freedom to use them in other games (if other games support those assets) or to sell them to other players.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Obstacles to GameFi</h3>



One wrinkle that needs to be ironed out is scaling. Currently, most gaming NFTs are issued on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum gas fees are making transaction costs impractical. This bottleneck has meant that chains that achieve much higher throughput, such as Polygon and Solana, are becoming increasingly popular for blockchain-based gaming. This is likely to remain the case until the eth2 upgrade.



There&#8217;s resistance to blockchain-based gaming from many gaming communities. Previously, attempts to use micro-transactions to monetize games have seen backlashes. Due to bad experiences in the past, many gamers assume that a move to gaming NFTs is purely profit-driven and a mechanism that the most prominent game publishers will utilize to nickel and dime them.



Another fear is that a &#8216;pay-to-win&#8217; model will be pursued, resulting in more significant repercussions. If a player manages to buy their way through the game, they gain unfair advantages over other players.



The most prominent game publishers are interested in gaming NFTs but need to innovate ways to integrate monetization without sacrificing play. Top ten gaming company Ubisoft recently <a href="https://gamerant.com/ubisofts-project-q-nft-controversy-issue-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">experienced a community backlash</a> when it tried to introduce NFTs through one of its games. As a result of the community response, the company rolled back on its intention to use NFTs.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The future of gaming NFTs</h3>



While Axie Infinity has been a breakthrough for the play-to-earn model of blockchain gaming, further innovation is needed to bring the advantages of blockchain-based gaming to the mass market. An<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/play-and-earn-is-fixing-gamefi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> evolution toward a play-and-earn model</a> is already underway. This approach focuses on gameplay as much as it does on tokenomics.



This doesn&#8217;t mean that play-to-earn is going to go away anytime soon. It will remain an appealing segment of Web3 gaming to participants that are already crypto native. These games will continue to attract participation through their tokenomics more than anything else.



This contentious yet exciting merge of DeFi and gaming has vast untapped potential. As gamers, developers and investors find solutions that satisfy all parties, they will expose the remaining users of a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/053115/how-video-game-industry-changing.asp#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20gaming%20industry,than%20%24260%20billion%20in%20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$155 billion gaming industry</a> revenue. to DeFi.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How to invest in Web3 gaming</h3>



Investors can take several approaches to invest in this space.



Play-and-earn: The play-to-earn and play-and-earn blockchain gaming models are one approach. Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis was the first major innovator in this space. With this model, gamers can invest their time and effort in return for game NFTs and tokens that have value outside the Axie ecosystem.



This is particularly relevant in developing countries with significant potential earnings relative to the local economy and per capita income. The Philippines accounts for 40% of Axie Infinity players. In October 2021, the total number of in-game Axie tokens that had been minted accounted for 1.7% of the GDP of the South East Asian country.



Whether play-to-earn or the more recent advent of play-and-earn, playing games based on these models represents one of the most straightforward entries into investing in NFT gaming.



Rent-to-earn: As development in this space has progressed, many of the most popular NFT games now require a substantial investment to commence playing and earning. At its height, the <a href="https://dappradar.com/blog/axie-infinity-trading-volume-up-despite-crypto-price-dump" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">average price</a> for an Axie Infinity NFT is around $355 — and a minimum of three are needed before a new player can play the game.



Gaming guilds such as <a href="https://www.unixgaming.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UniX Gaming</a> have emerged to help players invest in gaming NFTs through offering newcomers the option to rent under a scholarship program. Profits are then shared between the guild and the player. This is yet another approach that removes entry barriers for a player to participate and earn.



In-game currency:&nbsp; A blockchain-based game will have an in-game token to function as the game&#8217;s currency. It&#8217;s possible to invest directly in these tokens. However, the degree to which the token supply is limited is one factor that needs consideration when deciding whether to take this approach. Games with a capped token supply are more likely to appreciate, given the game&#8217;s sustainability and demand.



Governance tokens: Blockchain-based games are also likely to have governance tokens. A governance token allows the holder to vote on smart contract code changes and treasury management items. Taking Axie Infinity as an example uses Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) as its governance tokens.



Stakeholders have a strong incentive to obtain governance tokens: they hold influence over game tokenonmics. Some of these tokens provide voting rights over the strategic direction of the protocol. Additionally, these tokens will often include rights to cash flow akin to dividends with equities.



Gaming guilds: Many consider investing in individual games risky due to the presumption that most fail. Gaming guilds offer investors a risk-averse strategy.&nbsp;



Take UniX gaming guild as an example. UniX carries out due diligence on games it believes will be successful and buys NFT assets in those games. Therefore, holders of the UniX token benefit from professional curation of NFTs much like an ETF or index fund. Additionally, the holder shares in the revenue from NFT scholar rentals and asset price appreciation. All of these assets are managed decentrally through a DAO. And the diversification spreads risk across all investments.



Initial game offering (IGO): Investing in an IGO through launchpads such as <a href="https://finalround.unixgaming.org/">UniX Gaming’s Final Round</a> offers the opportunity to get NFTs or tokens in upcoming games at a discount price. If the game achieves popularity with listings on major exchanges, investors can expect a significant return on investment.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Further Reading</h3>



The sponsor of this Investing Guide — UniX Gaming — has partnered with DAO Maker and SL2 on Final Round, its multi-chain launchpad, which is due to launch imminently. Further details can be found <a href="https://medium.com/@UniXgaming/unix-gaming-dao-maker-sl2-team-up-for-final-round-launchpad-40ed978fd023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Relevant Podcasts</h3>



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/podcast-the-future-of-play-to-earn-gaming-felix-sim-gabby-dizon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Future of Play-To-Earn Gaming | Felix Sim and Gaby Dizon — Empire podcast by Blockworks</a>



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/podcast-why-gaming-nfts-will-be-bigger-than-twitch-justin-kan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Why Gaming NFTs Will Be Bigger Than Twitch | Justin Kan — Empire Podcast by Blockworks</a>



<a href="https://youtu.be/tIVsk6aOafM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX&#8217;s Gaming Strategy | Amy Wu &#8211; Empire Podcast by Blockworks</a>



<a href="https://youtu.be/990N8M7UhIo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How Web3 Will Change The Gaming Industry | Carra Wu &#8211; The Unstoppable Podcast</a>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity"/>



This content was sponsored by <a href="https://www.unixgaming.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UniX Gaming</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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The Investor’s Guide to Gaming NFTs

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_61fbbb4687251" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Immutable previously partnered with TikTok for its first foray into NFTs</li>
 <li>Co-founder of Immutable said talks of a partnership with GameStop started over six months ago</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>





GameStop and Immutable are launching a $100 million joint fund to invest in <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-investors-guide-to-gaming-nfts/">gaming NFT</a> projects, according to an announcement on Thursday.



Immutable X, a layer-2 scaling platform built on Ethereum, will also be partnering with the company to power its forthcoming blockchain-based marketplace, co-founder Robbie Ferguson told Blockworks.



“We are going to market to try to bring NFTs to games,” Ferguson said. “The $100 million fund is going to be dedicated to everyone from indie games to AAA publishers who want to come and build on Immutable X and also want to have access to GameStop’s distribution [and] marketplace.”



The carbon neutral layer-2 has zero gas fees and nearly instant trade execution, according to Ferguson. It previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tiktoks-venture-into-nfts-the-hype-and-alleged-mess/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">partnered with TikTok</a> in September for its first foray into NFTs.



“Immutable is not for expensive and luxury JPEGs,” Ferguson said. “What I’m excited about is how we can take NFTs to the masses and actually create better experiences for players.&#8221;



The Sydney-based startup has not officially announced which gaming projects will receive funds, but Ferguson anticipates them to be “mid-market [gaming] studios” that are “looking to go heavily into NFTs.”



The co-founder of Immutable said talks of a partnership with GameStop started over six months ago and that the $100 million capital comes from Immutable’s token funds.&nbsp;



Reports of GameStop dabbling in the nascent NFT space emerged last month, when <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gamestop-entering-nft-and-cryptocurrency-markets-as-part-of-turnaround-plan-11641504417?mod=Searchresults_pos1&amp;page=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> wrote that the retailer would be launching a division to develop a marketplace for the digital collectibles and establish partnerships with cryptocurrency companies. GameStop did not immediately respond to Blockworks&#8217; request for comment on when the marketplace will officially launch.



“We believe our emphasis on the long term is positioning us to build what will ultimately become a much larger business,” GameStop Matt Furlong said on an earnings call in November.&nbsp;


[stock_market_widget type=&#8221;inline&#8221; template=&#8221;generic&#8221; assets=&#8221;GME&#8221; markup=&#8221;{name} ({symbol}) is trading at {price} ({change_pct})&#8221; display_currency_symbol=&#8221;true&#8221; api=&#8221;yf&#8221;]



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GameStop, Immutable to Launch $100M Joint Fund for Gaming NFTs

<div id="highlights-block_61df3688d6891" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Kan announced the launch of his gaming NFT marketplace, Fractal, on Dec. 30, 2021</li>
 <li>Kan previously co-founded Twitch, a live-streaming service that was acquired by Amazon for $970 million</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Justin Kan — like most people — had never heard of a non-fungible token in 2017 when a friend convinced him to back his NFT startup. That investment, little did he know, would go down as the first step toward becoming a major player in the nascent asset class.



Before that, Kan co-founded the popular live-streaming service Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rIL5vHoF34" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$970 million</a> — one of the company’s largest acquisitions at the time. He has since invested in a number of projects via his incubator fund <a href="https://goat.vc/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Goat Capital.</a>



Although his friend’s NFT-related project did not pan out, Kan has since ventured back into blockchain-based digital collectibles. Kan’s new project, dubbed Fractal, specializes in <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-investors-guide-to-gaming-nfts/">gaming NFTs</a>. It offers in-game NFTs with partner blockchain game companies and also operates a resale marketplace. 



I spoke with the 38-year-old tech entrepreneur about the future of gaming NFTs, his childhood favorite video games and the institutional investment case for alternative crypto assets.&nbsp;



Chittum: Can you give your best 30-second elevator pitch for Fractal?&nbsp;



Kan: I can do it in 15 seconds. The world is moving towards durable gaming assets. The gaming world has flipped so that in-game purchases are the primary business model of games, like people buying different things in games. This could be characters, skins, cosmetics, stuff like that.&nbsp;



Today, this is all centralized. It&#8217;s owned by the company, and it&#8217;s not transferable. You, as the player, don&#8217;t really own it. But the next wave of games is going to be an open economy or two-way economy where players own all of their stuff. They buy it, earn it in the game, but they still own it. And it&#8217;s all stored on the blockchain, which enables people, these economies to be open.&nbsp;



Fractal is a marketplace for people to discover, buy and sell these in-game assets or NFTs. We help gaming companies drop these assets, and create a market around these assets with their players.



Chittum: What NFT trends do you see emerging in the market?&nbsp;



Kan: The next wave is clearly non-fungible tokens that have utility. There&#8217;s already a multi-decade precedent for digital assets that have some sort of utility, and those are things that you have in games, right?&nbsp; It could be Fortnite skins or Counter Strike skins, all the way back to Ultima Online, which was like the first MMO (massively multiplayer online game.) You could get items like gold and build castles. People wanted this stuff badly enough that you&#8217;d want to buy it on eBay. This was like a really small game, I think it had 100,000 players at peak, but there was still this market.&nbsp;



To me, it&#8217;s very obvious now that there&#8217;ll be this wave led by gaming and utility NFTs.&nbsp;



Chittum: What do you think the value proposition is for traditional and institutional investors for NFTs?&nbsp;



Kan: It’s a new market with fairly high variance. If you think that these digital assets are going to be a thing, that&#8217;s a high alpha place to invest because it&#8217;s a new market that&#8217;s being created. It’s kind of like investing in technology stocks 15 years ago, right?&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">If you think like the world is going to look different in 15 years, because it&#8217;s going to be rewritten in some way — it&#8217;s a new way to bet on the edge of software technology.&nbsp;</blockquote>



Chittum: When was the first time you heard the words non-fungible token? Where were you? What was going through your head?



Kan: It’s funny. My friend started a competitor around the same time as OpenSea. He was like, ‘You should invest in my start-up. We&#8217;re doing a non-fungible token marketplace.’ I was like, ‘What the f*ck is that? I don’t get it.’ He’s like, ‘You can just store any data on a blockchain. And then basically you can create a unique token that represents anything you want. It could be an image or a piece of media, or it could be representative of something in the real world.’ And I was just like, ‘I don&#8217;t get it.’ But, I invested because I thought, ‘Well, he’s really smart and he’s my friend.’ So, I have this policy that I&#8217;ll always invest in friends because if they&#8217;re successful, and I don&#8217;t invest, the FOMO might literally kill me.&nbsp;



Chittum: What excites you about NFTs now? What changed your mind?



Kan: People now recognize them as stores of value. That&#8217;s the part that I didn&#8217;t really know would work at the time. I should have seen it coming, given what happened with bitcoin and ethereum. But nobody really knew that it would work then.



In the past year, you have started to see people create digital art and sell digital art. A large number of people now believe that it&#8217;s worth investing in, right? It&#8217;s worth something. If you buy this digital art, and it&#8217;s in an NFT, then it&#8217;s going to retain its value.&nbsp;



Chittum: How do you think gaming companies can ensure players stay interested without the money taking over?



Kan: So the question is, why are these games not just a series of different hyped-up pump and dumps? There has been a wave of play-to-earn games where I do think part of the interest in the game is if the token price is going to rise, but obviously, that doesn&#8217;t last forever.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">I think the next wave of gaming, at least from what I see in the market behind the scenes, is that a ton of people who are from traditional gaming companies like game builders want to be in the space because they see selling a bunch of assets as a better way to raise money for their game.</blockquote>



They&#8217;re focused on gaming and games that are mostly fun to play. There will be an economic component, but it&#8217;s more to create the feeling of durability among the assets.



This interview has been edited for length and clarity.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Twitch Co-founder Justin Kan Talks Gaming NFTs and the Institutional Investment Case for Crypto

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6185683c7980d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Whether it’s integrating NFTs with video games, ticketing for venues or events or teams, Bankman-Fried thinks that the industry is seeing activity that he believes makes “a ton of sense”</li>
 <li>“When you hear about top-tier gaming publisher looking to introduce crypto into their system, I’m pretty bullish on that,” he said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



If you asked FTX’s CEO and Founder Sam Bankman-Fried a year ago if he thought that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) would become popular, his answer would have been no. But, now? There’s a “decent probability” that NFTs — particularly <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-investors-guide-to-gaming-nfts/">gaming NFTs</a> — could be the driving force behind bringing crypto to the mainstream, based on the explosion of the crypto subdivision this past year, he said during a panel at the <a href="https://www.bloomberglive.com/event/bloomberg-financial-innovation-summit-november-4/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg Financial Innovation Summit</a> on Friday. 



“I don’t want to confidently say that will happen because I think (mainstream adoption) could be through payment rails instead,” Bankman-Fried noted. “There’s a few things that it could be. But I would put NFTs in that top category probability wise, along with a couple other things in terms of what brings a non-crypto native audience to crypto for something other than financial investing,” he added.



Whether it’s integrating NFTs with video games, ticketing for venues, events or teams, Bankman-Fried thinks the industry activity makes “a ton of sense” as a product. Additionally, it can serve as a pretty clean innovation layer to add on top of the existing structures, he said.&nbsp;



But there’s going to be a big difference between crypto companies trying to make a game and gaming companies trying to introduce crypto into their games, he said.&nbsp;



“I think, frankly, it’s really hard to make a really engaging video game. I don&#8217;t think I can do it. It would take a really long time to build up that expertise,” he said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“So when you hear about top-tier gaming publisher looking to introduce crypto into their system, I’m pretty bullish on that.”&nbsp;</blockquote>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Creating a liquid marketplace</h3>



Integrating markets into games could add greater engagement and that’s not exclusive to crypto, but is available all over the gaming space right now, Bankman-Fried said. Examples of this include these massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMO RPGs), like Eve Online or World of Warcraft, he said.&nbsp;



“Many games already have economies built into them, but they’re extremely illiquid because there’s just a random video game trying to make an economy out of nothing,” he said. “But if you get access to an integrated financial system, that even people who aren’t playing the game could get access to outside the game as well, that could create a much more liquid marketplace,” he added.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/NLpdL0NMlItPUqGiX7SdeE13SyDAzZSJeEyIExbUhQDFomSeVsYWr3lwtfz2D4_PlWpMW3DoqM2NJHOAIIlFzl4d7ALR7_0yoMTc1FfrfKzb5ZXm-40-zLVQE6s42LwZ8-bzpTuW" alt=""/></figure>



Play-to-earn projects, like Axie Infinity, have gained traction in the recent months and is an example of a liquid gaming marketplace. Founded in 2018, Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn (P2E) game where users can earn crypto rewards that can later be sold on exchanges, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/axie-infinity-rolls-out-staking-program-shakes-up-gaming-business-model/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Players can trade, battle, and breed NFT creatures called Axies — through a Pokémon-style investment opportunity.



Creating a liquid marketplace is one way crypto companies can work with traditional gaming businesses, Bankman-Fried said. NFTs elements like gaming skins or galleries that can be displayed both in the game or on other social media platforms can bring out users&#8217; representation of who they are online and is another piece to the equation that has potential to bring crypto to the mainstream, he added.&nbsp;



Ethereum-based video game ranks fifth among the top five video game organizations globally by market capitalization, data from Messari and TradingView shows. The monthly volume on Axie has increased from $8 million in April to all-time highs of over $1 billion in August, according to Axie <a href="https://marketplace.axieinfinity.com/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=qNj09.1DaXumKYZSeWS17mukKLovcW5wcm98NRQ5DGo-1636132122-0-gaNycGzNCP0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>. In the last 24 hours, the total volume for Axie was $41.64 million, or about 9,200 ether.



“One thing I’m really excited about is you take a top-tier gaming studio, that’s making a great game and wants to have market mechanics in it and wants to have real user-ownership of the digital assets in it and wants to use blockchain technology, payment rails and NFTs to enable that,” Bankman-Fried said. “That’s where I would guess you’re going to see the biggest adoption early on,” he added.



Earlier today, FTX, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Solana Ventures also announced their investment to create a $100 million Web3 gaming initiative, the companies said on Friday. The investment will focus on gaming studios, technology and projects that focus on the overlap between blockchains and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinfund-partner-thinks-nfts-are-the-future-of-gaming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gaming</a>.



Although Bankman-Fried said he doesn’t have an exact timeline for this to happen, he believes it will be implemented and every major gaming studio is looking into doing something tech-wise there.&nbsp;



“It’s not going to happen tomorrow, it’s going to be slow, trickle at the beginning. But I think all of them have decided they’re going to take the plunge somehow, someway,” he added.

gaming nft