Framework Ventures, a crypto-focused venture firm, has raised $400 million in new funding to invest in early-stage companies in the Web3, blockchain gaming, and decentralized finance (DeFi) industries.
The funds raised will be used to fund “FVIII,” a $400 million oversubscribed fund, the company announced on Tuesday. A total of $200 million will be allocated to the emerging blockchain gaming industry.
The venture firm, which had early exposure to DeFi, now manages more than $1.4 billion in assets. Framework Ventures was an early backer of projects like Chainlink, Aave, and The Graph.
Gaming and Web3 have been identified as the next major growth plays for the blockchain industry, similar to DeFi in 2020. Axie Infinity, a popular play-to-earn (P2E) game based on the collection of digital pet avatars known as Axies, has provided a solid use case for this emerging paradigm. There are currently 2.8 million unique addresses holding 11.1 million Axies, according to blockchain analytics platform Nansen.
According to Cointelegraph, Web3 is also fostering the continued growth of the nonfungible token (NFT) market by allowing creators to create NFTs with actual use cases within virtual ecosystems.
Venture capitalists and other smart money investors have been eager to support Web3 development firms. Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday that KuCoin ecosystem companies had established a $100 million Web3 developer fund focused on NFT projects. Separately, cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has raised $135 million to support Web3 projects.
Beyond the blockchain industry, the play-to-earn model is thought to have a significant impact on the future of gaming. Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and former CEO of Myspace, told Cointelegraph that the play-to-earn business model gives players more control over their in-game experiences.
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