Blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands and digital asset custodian Hex Trust announced today they have formed a joint venture to provide institutional digital asset wallets and financial services for online gamers. The two companies are based in Hong Kong.
Fast facts
- Hex Trust is a financial institution licensed in Hong Kong and Singapore. As a custodian, it will provide its highly secure digital asset wallet technology and custody infrastructure and other financial services to gamers in Animoca Brands’ ecosystem, including banking services for NFTs and other crypto assets.
- Animoca Brands has an extensive gaming portfolio that includes The Sandbox and F1 Delta Time. It also has a significant investment portfolio of over 100 blockchain companies including industry leaders Sky Mavis, maker of Axie Infinity; Dapper Labs, which created the CryptoKitties game and launched the NFT collectibles marketplace NBA Top Shot; and NFT marketplace OpenSea.
- The joint venture will tackle a significant barrier to online play-to-earn gaming, also known as gamefi: the lack of online wallet solutions that conveniently and safely store users’ gaming-based crypto tokens while providing access to financial services.
- “Animoca Brands seeks to create a new asset class, play-to-earn economies and a more equitable digital framework in order to contribute to making the open metaverse a reality,” said Animoca co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu in a statement. “The joint venture with Hex Trust will enable gamers to access a greater range of financial opportunities and services than those normally available to them.”
- “GameFi is proving to be the second killer app and will further increase adoption of blockchain outside, or in parallel with, financial markets,” stated Alessio Quaglini, CEO and co-founder of Hex Trust. “We believe that GameFi will follow the same process of institutionalization we experienced in the cryptocurrency market and we want Hex Trust to be at the forefront of this incredibly interesting market. This partnership will be a deep collaboration that will bring cutting-edge solutions to millions of clients.”