Flush with funding, blockchain gaming is ready to evolve
What do Michael Jordan, Ashton Kutcher, and Will Smith have in common?
Besides that they are celebrities who have all had big moments on television — and movies, if we’re counting Space Jam — all three are technology investors. What’s more, they all recently invested in the startup Dapper Labs, a company whose funding success is liable to contribute to the meteoric rise of the blockchain gaming and collectibles sector.
Dapper Labs is best known for NBA Top Shot, a blockchain-based trading card system that lets users buy, trade and sell NBA moments — assets that qualify as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. This explains the interest of Jordan and other prominent NBA players in Dapper Labs, and given the rising popularity of NFTs, it also lends additional validation to the interest in nonfungibles as more than a passing trend.
Also the creator of Flow (a blockchain built for NFTs and crypto-gaming, with CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot chief among its users), Dapper Labs raised $305 million in private funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $2.6 billion. Another significant round came from the blockchain development firm Enjin, which raised $18.5 million to build a blockchain network specifically for NFTs.
