Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands form $200M fund for GameFi projects

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Animoca Brands are launching a $200 million investment program to incubate early cryptocurrency-focused gaming projects building on BSC.

BSC and Animonica announced Dec. 6 that they are co-investing up to $100 million each to support game projects in the GameFi sector.

One of the largest blockchain ecosystems, BSC will be investing from its $1 billion accelerator arm for decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT) and GameFi. The fund was set up earlier this year to extend BSC ecosystem services and drive mainstream adoption across the fintech sector.

Animoca Brands is a major player in blockchain gaming and the open metaverse, working on providing property rights via NFTs and gaming. The firm has invested in major NFT-related projects including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Bitski, Harmony and others.

“With this co-investment, projects building on BSC will get the opportunity to gain insights and expertise from leading gaming giants such as Animoca Brands, along with collaboration opportunities with blockchain experts from the BSC Community,” BSC investment director Gwendolyn Regina said.

Related: Animoca Brands raises $5M for NFT marketplace, Quidd

GameFi, a mix of gaming and DeFi, has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the cryptocurrency industry recently alongside the concept of the metaverse. GameFi refers to the financialization of video gaming and operates under a play-to-earn model instead of play-to-win.

A number of major crypto companies and investment firms have been investing in GameFi over the past couple of months, including Huobi crypto exchange, Solana Ventures, FTX, Sanctor Capital, and others.