OKX Blockdream Ventures Report—April 2022
Contents
Blockchain Funding Overview
OKX Blockdream Ventures April Investments
Joyride
Ember Sword
Klaydice
ArthSwap
Market & Investment Insights
Continued active investment amid crypto market lull
NFT market briefly resurgent as we proceed with long-term strategy
Taking a hard look at “X to Earn”
About OKX Blockdream Ventures
Media Contacts
Blockchain Funding Q1 Overview
- This has been a record quarter for global blockchain funding with volumes rising to USD 9.2B.
- While most other sectors saw Q1 ’22 declines, venture funding to blockchain startups grew for the seventh straight quarter as VCs doubled down on blockchain and crypto.
- Web3, which includes NFTs and DeFi, was the biggest driver of growth.
- OKX Blockdream Ventures ranked third in Top CVCs in Q1 ’22, according to the “2022 Q1 Blockchain Report” released by CB Insights.
[Source: “2022 Q1 Blockchain Report” from CB Insights]
Blockdream Ventures’ April Investments
Joyride
Project Overview
- Joyride, a Web3 game development platform, is mainly for building and operating blockchain-powered mobile games.
Project Highlights
- Joyride is optimized for the Unity ecosystem and allows developers to build and launch blockchain-powered esports and casual and social games on mobile devices.
- The blockchain features offered by Joyride include a token wallet for players supporting multiple chains, the minting and management of non-fungible token (NFT) game assets and fungible token economy support.
- Joyride provides game developers with an end-to-end publishing platform for everything they need to build, launch and operate a high-quality Web3 game. They provide tools and capabilities that address not just blockchain features but also publishing support, which includes analytics, A/B testing and live operations.
Investment Logic
- We are excited to work with Joyride to build a platform that enables game creators to build Web3 games for those developers who aren’t familiar with crypto technologies. Such innovations will allow a better quality of games to be integrated into the Web3 world. We therefore believe Joyride has great potential in the future market.
Ember Sword
Project Overview
- Ember Sword is a free-to-play Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) for browser and PC gaming with a vast fantasy universe owned and developed by its players.
- Ember Sword provides a player-driven economy, a classless combat system, and scarce, tradable cosmetic collectibles.
- Ember Sword wants to open up the economy by bringing premium currencies and collectibles onto the blockchain. This will allow players to buy and sell rare collectibles, in and outside the game, to earn tokens.
- Ember Sword is currently in pre-alpha. The team are testing the capabilities of the proprietary game engine, as well as various networking features. They are planning on opening up pre-alpha testing to the community in 2022, with more gameplay focused testing coming throughout the year. Later in 2022 they will open up the capital of Solarwood, the first nation they are planning on releasing, for pre-alpha testing. Other nations will follow the same process, with their releases currently planned for 2023 and beyond.
Project Highlights
- Players of Ember Sword have the freedom to choose. After creating your character and picking a home region, you can venture out into the world to prove your worth by defeating monsters, bosses, and other players. Or you can explore the world as a peaceful forager and make a name for yourself as a talented craftsman.
- The Embersword team are swiftly developing a number of nations for players to explore, develop and enjoy.
Investment Logic
- Ember Sword stands for the next-generation of Free to Play MMORPG experiences.
- Ember Sword believes in empowering players by sharing the revenue generated with their community through true ownership of digital assets. Their message is: Video Games Are Transcending, The Future Is Now.
Klaydice
Project Overview
- KLAYDICE, a gamefi and P2E project built on the Klaytn mainnet, aims to build a multi-platform in the blockchain space by uniting P2E, an NFT marketplace, and the metaverse into one world using KLAYDICE NFTs.
Project Highlights
- Klaydice is an instant growth system game in the AOS (LOL) genre that anyone can enjoy, regardless of age or gender. It is based on a traditional board game with minimal cultural bias.
- In just the two months since the project was revealed in February, the number of community members surpassed 71K on Twitter and 37K on Discord.
- Klaydice Item NFTs sold out as soon as they were listed on the Binance NFT Market on the 27th, reaching no. 1 in trading volume.
Investment Logic
- Klaydice aims to create a network of various P2E games to provide its users with the most dynamic play-to-earn experiences.
Arthswap
Project Overview
- The ArthSwap team focuses on growth in the Astar Network ecosystem and is looking to optimize all the elements for Astar. They consider themselves an “Astar-native” dApp.
- The Astar Network (previously known as Plasm) is a Build2Earn dApp hub on Polkadot that supports EVM and WASM. Astar has a feature called dApp staking, which allows developers to earn revenue by developing apps and infrastructure on Astar.
Project Highlights
- ArthSwap provides all Defi functions, including swapping, pooling, farming, staking and IDO launchpad. With a simple UI and design for high APY, they enable high-frequency trading on the Astar Network.
Investment Logic
- ArthSwap is a one-stop Defi protocol on the Astar Network, and has the no.1 TVL and community in the entire Polkadot ecosystem.
Market & Investment Insights
1. Continued active investment amid crypto market lull
Market Insights:
April of 2022 saw a reduction in the total cryptocurrency market cap of 15.32%, from 2.09 trillion to 1.78 trillion.
[Source: CoinMarketCap]
April also saw the largest monthly net outflows in BTC ETP history, with outflows amounting to 14,327 BTC. Trends indicate sharp de-risking and the preference for gold as a vehicle for hedging against uncertainty.
[Source: Arcane Research]
In April, Bitcoin’s 30-day correlation to tech stocks climbed to highs not seen since July of 2020. Difficult months for tech are being pointed to as the key force behind the crypto sector’s poor performance since November. However, such high levels of correlation with the tech sector are not expected to continue.
Bitcoin has also been closely correlated to the Nasdaq 100 index since the start of the pandemic. The 40-day correlation between the two reached a record of 0.6945 on April 8, further eroding the argument that Bitcoin works well as a diversifier.
Blockdream Ventures Outlook:
Despite the fact that the crypto market is going through a difficult period, we invested in four outstanding new projects in April.
Regardless of market conditions, we will continue to back the companies we have invested in and seek out great opportunities for new investments in the sector.
2.NFT market briefly resurgent as we proceed with long-term strategy
Market Insights:
In April, NFTs saw a surge in trading volume, reaching over $6 billion for only the third time in history.
Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges globally, launched its NFT marketplace on April 20 and saw sales volume of $668,668 and 1,287 test users according to Dune Analytics data.
Blockdream Ventures Outlook:
As for possible fluctuation, the global NFT market may experience a drawdown in May.
However, we maintain a positive outlooking regarding the development of the NFT market. Cointelegraph expects that the existing $3 billion market will grow to $13.6 billion by the end of 2027.
We hold that the development of the necessary NFT infrastructure is still at an early stage, and expect that high-performance infrastructure will continue to contribute to the growth of the NFT ecosystem.
It is expected that these new developments will be in areas such as a new public chain for NFTs, a side chain and L2 solutions for high-performance NFTs, customized underlying infrastructure for specific scenarios, and multi-chain NFT protocols for interoperability and composability.
3. Taking a hard look at “X to Earn”
Market Insights:
The popularity of “X to Earn” began with “Stake-to-Earn” models in the DeFi space. Now, the space has expanded to include everything from Axie Infinity’s “Play-to-Earn” model to StepN’s “Move-to-Earn”.
Blockdream Ventures Outlook:
We have received a lot of proposals regarding “X to Earn”. However, we hold that the recent popularity of the “X to Earn” model does not mean that everything can be “X to Earn”.
We believe that the core of any “X to Earn” project needs to be clearly defined. To do this projects should:
- Choose a clear direction, select a design form with flexible configuration and open themselves to timely feedback
- Split design elements, retain quantifiable behavior patterns, and consider market efficiency and low-friction market costs
- Design around labor value to make the network more durable and more valuable, and create more externalities
We expect more integration and innovation from entrepreneurs and startups in this field.
About OKX Blockdream Ventures
OKX Blockdream Ventures is the investment arm of the world-leading global cryptocurrency trading platform OKX.
We help entrepreneurs build great companies, supporting cutting-edge blockchain innovation and promoting the development of the global blockchain industry. The initial capital of OKX Blockdream Ventures is USD 100 million.
Media Contacts
For further information, please contact:
Richard Kay, Global Communications Lead, OKX
Jack Sutherland, Communications Manager, OKX
Or reach out to media@okx.com
