Animoca Brands announces a $75.32M raise at a $5.9B valuation, the second tranche of its $360M round in January 2022 that valued the NFT company at $5.5B
Context & Ripple Effects
Animoca's valuation has compounded fast: $88M at a $1B valuation in May 2021, then $65M at $2.2B five months later, then the $359M January 2022 round that set the $5.5B mark this tranche just closed against. Completing the second $75.32M slice at $5.9B confirms the January round fully subscribed at a higher price — the peak of the NFT-gaming funding curve.
The raise matters less as a financing event than as a war chest: Animoca is positioned as Asia's biggest blockchain-project investor and frames itself against the 'digital dictatorships' of Meta and Microsoft, so this capital is earmarked for spreading player-ownership NFTs through its portfolio.
First-order effects
- New tranche investors buy in at $5.9B, a 7% step-up from January's $5.5B and nearly 6x the October 2021 price, while Animoca gains fresh capital to deploy into blockchain gaming investments at the top of the market.
Second-order effects
- The equity window closed fast: two months later Animoca was raising $110M via convertible notes led by Temasek, Boyu and GGV rather than priced equity, a structure that signals investors would no longer underwrite the $5.9B mark outright.
- Rival web3 gaming studios and NFT platforms competing for Animoca's portfolio capital face a better-funded consolidator, while its portfolio companies get a well-resourced anchor investor through the downturn.
Third-order effects
- The $5.9B private mark set in mid-2022 now hangs over the exit: with the company delisted in Australia and reportedly weighing a Hong Kong or Middle East IPO, public markets will eventually have to validate or reprice the peak-era valuation — the classic private valuation–liquidity gap.
- If the pattern holds, web3 gaming consolidates around capital-rich platform investors like Animoca rather than standalone studios, with the 2026 Nasdaq reverse merger with Currenc Group as one route to liquidity.
The trend: Web3 gaming valuations peaked in mid-2022 with priced equity rounds like Animoca's, then repriced through convertible debt and now face a public-market reckoning via IPO.