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Animoca still bullish on blockchain games, awaits license for metaverse fund

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Blockchain-based games have been a hot topic in the cryptocurrency space over the past two years, accounting for considerable growth and daily activity on a number of protocols despite prolonged bear market conditions.

Market research estimates that Web3 gaming pulled in around $4.5 billion in funding in 2022 as asset managers, investment funds and venture capitalists look to cash in on the burgeoning sector.

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu highlighted the firm’s renewed optimism in the blockchain gaming sector and gave an update on its anticipated metaverse fund which grabbed headlines in late 2022.

Metaverse fund awaiting license

Animoca Brands originally earmarked up to $2 billion for a proposed metaverse fund in November 2022 which intends to invest in a variety of mid to late-stage startups building metaverse products and experiences.

The company was forced to scale back on its original investment target as per reports in 2023, reducing the amount to $1 billion in January. Reports citing unnamed sources in March then indicated that the fund would be further reduced to $800 million due to volatility affecting the cryptocurrency space.

Related: NFT games are ‘only scratching the surface’ of what’s possible — Animoca’s Yat Siu

When queried about the current state of the proposed metaverse fund, Siu told Cointelegraph that the firm was still awaiting a license before it can begin to put its money to work.

“That’s the gating factor. But Animoca has made many investments this year and we are over 450 portfolio companies today. That doesn’t come from sitting back and being passive.”

Siu added that Animoca continues to invest in a variety of early stage startups through its venture arm while the majority of investments still come directly from the company’s balance sheet.

Upcoming ‘AAA’ blockchain games on the horizon

While licensing remains a hurdle for Animoca’s Metaverse fund, Siu expects a number of ‘AAA’ titles in which the company has invested in to hit the market by the end of 2023 or early next year.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re so bullish about the segment, hopefully at least one of them will work out.”

Siu added that the quality of titles that Animoca is backing is sound and that blockchain-based games don’t necessarily need to have immediate breakout success to be sustainable, stating, “Most importantly, all these games are built on open protocol systems, like Ethereum or Polygon, meaning they’re on chain, which allows third parties to do some pretty cool stuff.”

Animoca’s co-founder sees a generation of AAA-level blockchain games coming out by the end of 2024, highlighting the shift in focus, capital and talent from mainstream gaming to the sector.

“They’re built by people who know how to make games whereas maybe three years ago, a lot of games came out built by excited blockchain guys, but who knew very little about what it takes to make a game,” he said.

Blockchain games need to do business in the biggest markets

Another factor that has ramped up the development and quality of upcoming blockchain games and those in beta has been the advent of scaling protocols like Polygon and technological advances like zero-knowledge proofs.

Siu highlighted the likes of layer-2 platform Immutable which has made use of zkEVM to reduce costs and improve transaction speeds of NFT generation for blockchain games. The infrastructure alone has made a difference, but Siu added that choosing the right chain also has a massive role to play in the success of a title.

“Because it’s a blockchain game, you need to do business in the biggest market there is and that happens to be Ethereum.”

Siu added that early blockchain games were hamstrung by game design that held onto “Web2 thinking” which was focused on monopolizing network effects of Web2. Siu said bootstrapping to decentralized protocols like Ethereum had an upside and a downside: “The more you open up your network effects. And the more inclusive you become, actually, the more value you end up generating, but there is a loss of control when you do that.”

He also admitted that taking a potential AAA, first-person shooter completely on-chain would be “really hard.” Adopting a hybrid on-chain approach might be better suited as the industry moves towards truly decentralized games.

Magazine: 2023 is a make-or-break year for blockchain gaming: Play-to-own

“Provenance, skins and certain things that don’t requireall the time and data is probably a good starting point,” he said.

Siu said that the established culture of gaming around the world could allow for gaming firms to design and implement blockchain elements as audiences continue to come to grips with Web3 functionality:

“There’s interfaces that we can design that are familiar to the gamer, and essentially introduce the whole experience of crypto and Web3, which comes also with financial literacy onboarding.”

Cryptocurrency

Ethereum Foundation, Whales, and Hackers: What’s Driving the ETH Sell-Off?

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TL;DR

  • Whales, hackers, and the Ethereum Foundation wallets moved over $500M in ETH through large sales and withdrawals.
  • Ethereum transfers rose to 4.6M ETH, nearing the monthly high of 5.2M recorded in July.
  • Staking inflows hit 247,900 ETH, the highest in a month, locking more supply from trading.

Large Withdrawals and Whale Activity

Ethereum (ETH) has seen heavy movement from major wallets over the past few days. On-chain data from Lookonchain shows a newly created wallet pulled 17,591 ETH, worth $81.62 million, from Kraken in just two hours. 

Over three days, two new wallets withdrew a combined 71,025 ETH, valued at $330 million, from the exchange.

One of these wallets, address 0x2A92, has withdrawn 53,434 ETH, worth $242.34 million, in two days. This includes a recent purchase of 30,069 ETH, valued at $138.46 million, during a market drop.

Major ETH Holders Offload Millions Amid Price Rally

In contrast, several separate entities have been disposing of some ETH holdings. A wallet tied to a hacker address 0x17E0 sold 4,958 ETH for $22.13 million at $4,463, securing a profit of $9.75 million. Earlier this year, the same address sold 12,282 ETH at $1,932 and later bought back part of the amount at higher prices.

A different whale sold 20,600 ETH for $96.55 million over the past two days, generating a profit of more than $26 million after holding the position for nine months. 

Meanwhile, an Ethereum Foundation-linked wallet, 0xF39d, sold 6,194 ETH worth $28.36 million in the last three days at an average price of $4,578. 

Recent sales from the same wallet included an additional 1,100 ETH and 1,695 ETH for over $12.7 million combined.

Network Activity on the Rise

CryptoQuant data shows Ethereum’s total tokens transferred have been climbing since August 9. After ranging between 1 million and 3 million ETH through late July and early August, transfers have risen to 4.6 million ETH, approaching the monthly high of 5.2 million recorded in mid-July. This increase has occurred alongside a price rally from about $3,400 to $4,600.

Ethereum (ETH) Tokens Transferred (Total)
Source: CryptoQuant

Interestingly, staking inflows generally stayed between 20,000 and 80,000 ETH per day over the past month. On August 14, inflows jumped to 247,900 ETH, the highest in the period. 

At the time, ETH was trading near $4,600. Large staking deposits reduce the amount of ETH available for immediate trading, as staked coins are locked for a set period.

Ethereum (ETH) Staking Inflow Total
Source: CryptoQuant

In the meantime, ETH trades at $4,647 with a 24-hour volume of $68.25 billion, down 2% on the day but up 19% over the week.

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Cryptocurrency

Massive DOGE Whale Activity Hints at $1 Breakout

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TL;DR

  • Whales bought two billion DOGE this week, lifting their combined holdings to 27.6 billion coins.
  • A single 900M DOGE transfer worth $208M to Binance drew attention to large exchange movements.
  • DOGE broke key resistance, with momentum building for a possible push toward the $1 price mark.

Price and Market Moves

Dogecoin (DOGE) traded at $0.23 at press time, slipping 4% over the past day but still showing a 2% gain for the week. Daily turnover came in at about $6.18 billion. 

Meanwhile, the broader crypto market saw over $1 billion in liquidations. Hotter-than-expected US Producer Price Index data pushed traders to scale back expectations of a near-term Federal Reserve rate cut. DOGE had roughly 290,500 coins liquidated during the sell-off.

On the two-week chart, analyst Trader Tardigrade notes that DOGE has cleared a downward-sloping resistance line after completing what appears to be a “wave V” in an Elliott Wave sequence. Similar setups in the past, where prolonged declines stayed within falling channels before breaking higher, have been followed by sharp rallies.

Momentum gauges are also turning up. The Stochastic RSI, which had dropped into oversold territory, is now heading higher. Previous reversals from this zone have coincided with sustained upward moves. The current formation points to a possible run that could carry DOGE past the $1 mark.

Heavy Whale Buying and Large Transfers

As reported by CryptoPotato, blockchain data shows large investors have added two billion DOGE in the past week, spending just under $500 million. That brings their holdings to about 27.6 billion coins, or 18% of the supply. The buying streak has prompted speculation within the community. 

Recently, Whale Alert flagged a 900 million DOGE transfer worth about $208 million into Binance. The tracking indicates that it originated from a wallet connected to the exchange, likely as an internal activity. The address involved holds 2.88 billion DOGE, one of the largest balances on the network.

Ali Martinez also reports that transactions above $1 million reached a one-month high, with activity building since early August and peaking as DOGE traded at $0.25.

Sentiment Building

Analyst Gordon described the current setup as “a nice bit of consolidation” before a potential breakout, adding, 

“This will be one of the first coins normies FLOCK to & the pump will be MASSIVE.”

With whale accumulation rising, high-value transfers increasing, and a bullish technical pattern in play, DOGE is positioned for a potential push toward $1 if momentum holds.

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Cryptocurrency

Ripple Price Analysis: XRP at Risk as Key Support Levels Could Trigger Sharp Drop

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XRP has recently entered a consolidation phase after a strong rally earlier this summer, with the price action now hovering around key resistance levels on both its USDT and BTC pairs. Yet, while momentum has slowed, the charts still indicate a generally bullish structure, with multiple key support levels remaining firmly in place.

Technical Analysis

By ShayanMarkets

The USDT Pair

On the XRP/USDT daily chart, the price is currently trading near the $3.10 mark, facing a strong resistance zone around $3.40. This follows a breakout above the $2.70 range in July, which has now flipped into a support area.

Both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages are also trending upward and recently formed a bullish crossover around $2.45, reinforcing the medium-term bullish sentiment. If the $3.40 resistance breaks, a push toward the critical $4.00 range becomes likely.

However, the RSI hovering near the neutral 50 level suggests a lack of strong momentum for now, meaning a short-term pullback into the $2.80 support zone is still possible.

This zone will be key for maintaining the bullish structure. Losing it could open the door for a deeper correction toward the 200-day moving average located around the $2.40 mark. Yet, as long as the price stays above the moving averages, the broader trend remains bullish.

The BTC Pair

Looking at the XRP/BTC chart, the pair has recently pulled back after hitting the 3,000 SAT resistance, with the price currently around 2,600 SAT.

This follows a clean breakout above the long-term descending channel and a successful retest of its upper boundary, which coincided with the 200-day moving average and the 2,400 SAT support zone. This confluence remains a key bullish technical factor, as holding above it could attract renewed buying pressure.

That said, RSI levels around 48 show that momentum has cooled after the sharp July rally, meaning XRP may continue ranging between 2,400 SAT and 3,000 SAT in the near term. A decisive close above 3,000 SAT would likely open the path to the 3,400 SAT zone, while losing 2,400 SAT could shift the bias back toward 2,000 SAT support. For now, the structure still favors the bulls as long as higher lows remain intact.

 

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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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