Animoca denies reports of $200M cut to metaverse fund and valuation drop to $2B

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Animoca co-founder Yat Siu noted that given the sources anonymity, it makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who or what the source or agenda is. 3751 Total views 15 Total shares Listen to article 0:00 News Own this piece of history

Collect this article as an NFT Venture capital firm and Web3 game developer Animoca Brands has refuted claims that it scaled back its metaverse fund target by $200 million, or 20% to $800 million, amid volatility in the crypto market and instability in the banking sector.

The firm also downplayed suggestions that its valuation has plummeted from $6 billion as of July 2022 to roughly $2 billion in March 2023.

Stemming from a March 24 Reuters reportcitinganonymous people familiar with the matter, it was claimed that Animoca initially halved its $2 billion metaverse fund target in January, and recently cut itanother 20% to $800 million.

The fund in question was announced in November 2022to allocate capital to mid-to-late-stage startups with a metaverse focus. At the time, Animoca co-founder and chairman Yat Siu outlined that the fund target was between $1 billion and $2 billion, depending on how much capital was raised.

In a public statement shared with Cointelegraph, Animoca stated that 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 firm did acknowledge that the banking collapses in the United States have, of course, had an impact but stressed that the final amount raised for the fund has yet to be determined.

Theres no doubt that the FTX and banking crises have had a serious impact on available venture capital, but fundraising for the Animoca Capital fund is in progress. When the raise is concluded, we will inform the market with the appropriate details, including the final size of this fund, the firm stated.

Commenting on the leaked information, Siu told Cointelegraph that given the information came from unnamed sources, it makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who or what the sources and agenda are, which is unfortunate.

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Concerning the companys valuation, Animoca asserted that the figures reported by Reuters and an additional two other unnamed people cited were inaccurate.

Animoca, which trades as AB1, was initially listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in the firms early days. However, AB1 was delisted back in March 2020 due the ASXs assertions that Animoca had breached its listing rules by being involved in crypto-related activities, among other things.

Since then, its shares have traded on unlisted stock-focused exchanges such as the Sydney-based PrimaryMarkets.

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The data from this platform was used to calculate a total market cap of AB1 at around roughly $2 billion. However, Animoca argues that these figures dont fully represent the companys total valuation. AB1 stock price. Source: PrimaryMarkets

The claim […] that Animoca Brands now trades its shares on PrimaryMarkets is not technically correct. We terminated our arrangement with PrimaryMarkets in the second half of 2020, but PrimaryMarkets chose to continue to trade Animoca Brands shares on its platform, the firm stated, adding that: We do not consider the thin trading activity on PrimaryMarkets to accurately reflect the companys value. Trading volume is far too low to provide the price accuracy you would find on an actual primary market. #Business #Funding #Stocks #Games #Metaverse #Blockchain Game #Web3 #Gaming

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