MUFG invests $22.5m into Animoca Brands’ Japanese subsidiary for NFTs, metaverse – Ledger Insights

Japan’s largest financial institution MUFG has invested $22.5m into Animoca Brands’ Japanese subsidiary for NFTs and the metaverse. Along with Animoca, the 2 firms have collectively invested $45m at a claimed $500 million pre-money valuation into Animoca Brands KK.

This announcement comes off the again of a strategic NFT partnership launched between the 2 firms in March 2022. The funding alerts that MUFG and Animoca are tangibly shifting in the direction of capitalizing on the all-time peak of NFT recognition in Japan.

Probably, MUFG was drawn to working with Animoca, given the startup’s presence within the area and Animoca’s prolific investing expertise in 340 metaverse firms.

Animoca has quite a few joint ventures, together with with OneFootball and Planet Hollywood. Its subsidiary, The Sandbox, is the second largest metaverse on the Ethereum blockchain and hosts digital worlds that includes celebrities reminiscent of Gordon Ramsay and Paris Hilton. Even banks like Standard Chartered and HSBC have purchased digital actual property in The Sandbox. Animoca’s numerous metaverse involvement means they’ve a wealth of expertise to attract on to additional the goals of this three way partnership.

But, MUFG has not been sluggish in adopting blockchain expertise both. By way of its blockchain platform, Progmat, MUFG has been positioning its platform to allow itself and others to situation stablecoins and security tokens. The primary utility token on Progmat was launched earlier this month, offering customers with significant discounts on the buying complicated Tokyo Dome Metropolis. Evidently, NFTs are the following blockchain-based product for the financial institution to enterprise into. How MUFG will incorporate NFTs into its wider metaverse technique stays to be seen.