Pixel Vault, a decentralized entertainment startup focused on an NFT collection of superheroes, raises $100M from 01 Advisors and Velvet Sea Ventures
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
When The Verge profiled the space last November, it framed Pixel Vault alongside projects like the Voguverse as an attempt to build media franchises on top of NFT collectibles rather than sell static art. Today's $100M round from 01 Advisors and Velvet Sea Ventures is the largest check yet disclosed in that cohort — bigger than Mythical Games' $75M Series B for playable-NFT game avatars and far above the $21M Big Time Studios raised out of stealth.
The round also rhymes with an earlier wave: VR content studios like Survios ($50M with MGM involved), Pixvana, and Penrose Studios all raised franchise-scale funding on the promise of a new content format. Pixel Vault's raise suggests entertainment capital has rotated from VR-native studios to NFT-native IP.
First-order effects
- Pixel Vault now holds the largest disclosed war chest among NFT-franchise startups, letting it fund superhero media development without near-term revenue pressure while rivals Mythical Games and Big Time Studios operate on Series B-scale capital.
- 01 Advisors and Velvet Sea Ventures are making a concentrated bet that community-owned superhero IP can sustain a franchise, putting their reputations behind the NFT-as-entertainment thesis at peak market attention.
Second-order effects
- Competing NFT-entertainment startups will face upward pressure on valuations and talent costs as founders benchmark against a nine-figure round in their category.
- Traditional studios and media investors watching this space now have a price signal for what NFT-native IP commands, which could pull established entertainment players into bidding for partnerships or acquisitions rather than building in-house.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, franchise creation splits into two tracks — legacy studios licensing existing IP and NFT-native companies minting IP first and selling media later — with ownership structure, not distribution, as the differentiator.
- The parallel with the VR content funding wave is cautionary: large early rounds did not guarantee durable studios, so the structural question is whether NFT-native franchises can convert speculative collectible value into recurring audience demand.
The trend: Entertainment venture capital is rotating from VR-era content studios toward NFT-native media franchises, with round sizes escalating as investors bet that community-owned IP can anchor full franchises.