Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have gained a frenzy over the past few months as the crypto market has turned bullish. The digital currency revolution is now entering the gaming industry, creating an intersection between DeFi and gaming experiences that experts predict will play a huge role in the next generation of gaming.
DeFi-focused tokens such as Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), and Chainlink (INK) are experiencing a feverish moment in the market, gaining significant traction as major developments continue.
Given the bold moves by Solana Foundation and Houbi Ventures to invest in early blockchain gaming platforms incorporating DeFi into their systems, investors and speculators should expect more developments to come.
The emerging play-to-earn model will highlight the benefits of blockchain technology in the gaming industry and beyond. In this article, we’ll look at some of the latest developments in the DeFi gaming space and discuss the future of this nascent space.
Simplifying the DeFi game
DeFi Land, a multi-chain farming simulation game that aims to gamify the decentralized financial experience, raised $4.1 million in a funding round with participation from more than 40 investors.
Founded in 2021, DeFi Land is privately held by an India-based company primarily focused on creating educational and entertainment solutions for users who want to explore the DeFi space.
DeFi Land's farming simulation design has all the features found on traditional DeFi platforms. However, unlike most DeFi platforms, DeFi Land has an interoperable ecosystem capable of running on other established platforms such as Uniswap and even Binance Smart Chain’s PancakeSwap.
This approach is designed to help DeFi Land avoid duplication, allowing its users to access leading protocols on automated market-making protocols, decentralized exchanges, and other blockchain networks. On DeFi Land, every digital asset is represented in the form of a plant. For example, Solana’s SOL token is a sunflower, and the USDC stablecoin is a corn plant. Users can farm these tokens and receive annual returns in the form of a bountiful harvest.
To make it easier for users to learn the ins and outs of DeFi, DeFi Land offers a practice mode where users can learn all about DeFi using fake assets in the guided version of the game.
Alameda Research is one of the companies participating in DeFi Land’s investment. Brian Lee, executive of the company, said that DeFi Land combines “two of the most interesting things in the encryption field right now-gaming and DeFi.”
Huobi Ventures invests heavily in DeFi games
As more institutional capital pours into the DeFi space, more and more companies are starting to pay serious attention to the space, and Huobi Ventures is one of them.
Huobi Ventures, the investment arm of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, recently launched a $10 million fund that will invest in early-stage projects that combine gaming experiences with decentralized finance capabilities (GameFi).
In addition to financial support from Huobi Ventures, startups that accept the challenge will also receive legal and technical support from Huobi for their projects, not to mention PR and business assistance.
Unica Yin, director of Huobi Ventures, said: "Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize game business models and will play a central role in the next generation of games."
Huobi Ventures also launched a $100 million fund dedicated to DeFi projects, which will reportedly help Huobi make strategic acquisitions in the blockchain and crypto space.
Play and earn mode
In addition to investors and project developers powering earn-as-you-play games, communities of gamers and non-fungible token (NFT) enthusiasts have also joined in, as Crypto Gaming United and Zebedee recently closed $5 million each and $11.5 million in financing.
Crypto Gaming United, a startup aiming to build a global community of gamers in the earn-by-play space, has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by top Australian venture capital firms Mark Carnegie and Chrono.tech led the round.
Crypto Gaming United is an NFT-based game player association with over 1,500 members. Across multiple gaming platforms, the association provides players with education and financial literacy in the digital economy. It makes money by sharing revenue from sponsored gaming platforms with its members.
Based in Singapore, the association's players are mainly from South Africa, India and Indonesia, and what they all have in common are low-income economies. Considering that most players cannot purchase expensive game equipment and assets, sponsors of the association can provide funds to allow players to generate income. The founder of the association also stated that Singapore is a forward-looking jurisdiction when it comes to digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
“At Crypto Gaming United, we are overcoming the entry fee requirement for the game, allowing players to generate income by playing the game,” Carnegie noted.
Crypto Gaming United is not the only organization involved in the race. Zebedee is also getting in on the action, raising $11.5 million in Series A funding.
Zebedee provides a suite of tools and products that enable developers to integrate Bitcoin into their games, while giving players access to wallets, streaming tools, and other performance-enhancing game infrastructure.
Gaming is a turning point
The relationship between the DeFi space and the gaming industry is mutually beneficial. On the one hand, players who have invested a lot of time and money in gaming platforms are now able to profit from their time and progress. DeFi platforms and the industry as a whole will also have an easy onboarding process for new users, increasing mainstream adoption.
Experts are already predicting that the earn-as-you-play trend will further blur the lines between financial assets and in-game collectibles once considered worthless. This will allow a new generation of players to trade in-game assets outside of the gaming platform.
The DeFi mechanism enables each game platform to not only provide interesting gaming experience, but also allow players to earn income from simple games.
Blockchain-based collectible and trading games, such as AXIE Infinity and Splinterlands, have proven that earn-as-you-play business models have the potential not only to disrupt the gaming industry, but also change the way users learn and interact with DeFi platforms.
With the video game industry worth $175 billion and the total value locked in the DeFi space currently approaching $100 billion, the intersection of these two industries could prove to be a real game changer.
Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness. In view of the fact that China has not yet issued policies and regulations related to digital assets, users in mainland China are advised to be cautious in digital currency investment.
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