Animoca Brands Denies Cutting $200 Mln of Its Metaverse Fund

Animoca Brands, a prominent Web3 investor and blockchain game developer, recently dismissed rumors about its intention to cut the money allocated to its metaverse fund by 20%, according to Cointelegraph.

A report published by Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, claimed that Animoca Brands scaled back its metaverse fund target by 20% to $800 instead of $2 billion due to the fluctuations in the crypto market and instability in the banking sector.

In a statement, Animoca noted: “The claim that the Animoca Capital fund target was ‘cut’ from $2 billion to $1 billion is not correct, because $1 billion has always been within the range declared.”

The NFT and gaming investor also denied that the metaverse fund’s valuation has dropped from $6 billion in July 2022 to roughly $2 billion in March 2023.

Earlier in November, Animoca’s Co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu announced his company’s plans to set up a fund worth $2 billion to invest in metaverse-related activities as the target size would be between $1 billion and $2 billion depending on how much was raised.

The firm has already admitted that the instability in the banking scene in the United States has a negative impact on the available venture capital, however, it stressed that the final amount of its metaverse fund had been determined without changes, adding it will inform the public about “with the appropriate details, including the final size of this fund.”

Commenting on the rumors which were given by unnamed sources, Siu told Cointelegraph “this makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who or what the sources and agenda are, which is unfortunate.”

Earlier in March, Saudi leading games production company Manga Productions inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Animoca Brands to build a strategic partnership through which they can develop Web3 initiatives and enhance the blockchain industry in the region. The partnership will showcase Mango’s content and characters in the Web3 ecosystem and develop Web3 pilot projects across Animoca’s extensive ecosystem to utilize Manga Productions’ high-quality content portfolio.