Matt Finestone, head of the blockchain team at Video game retailer GameStop Corp, announced his departure from the company.
According to his official Twitter account, he will continue to focus on dedicating to the Ethereum ecosystem and plan to move closer to protocol/infrastructure.
After starting at GameStop in April 2021, Matt Finestone has grown his blockchain team from zero to dozens.
Establishing a blockchain department at such a large company is not an easy task, noted Matt Finestone, who brings together a lot of talent and energy from all corners and levels of the organization.
By expressing his appreciation for his company and accomplishments during his one and a half years at the company, Finestone expressed his gratitude to the company, noting that the company will help them get better opportunities. However, he did not disclose where he would go, but he said that he will continue to contribute to the blockchain field.
Earlier this month, GameStop, the world’s largest video game retailer headquartered in Texas State, announced that it has signed a partnership with FTX US (“FTX”) to become FTX’s preferred retail partner in the United States.
At the end of May, the video game retailer launched a digital asset wallet for sending, receiving and storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs,
In July, Video game retailer GameStop Corp announced Monday the launch of a public beta version of a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace amid the crypto market’s downturn.
GameStop, the world’s largest video game retailer headquartered in Texas, USA, announced that it has entered into a partnership with FTX US (“FTX”) to become FTX’s preferred retail partner in the United States.
The partnership aims to promote “FTX’s digital asset community and marketplace” and bring more GameStop customers into FTX’s ecosystem.
In addition to partnering with FTX on new e-commerce and online marketing campaigns, GameStop will begin rolling out FTX gift cards at select stores.
Specific financial information was not disclosed to the public.
Shares of GameStop rose nearly 12% to $26.84 a share in after-hours trading following the news, even though GameStop reported an almost 4% drop in net sales for the quarter to $1.14 billion.
The company reported revenue of $1.14 billion in the second quarter as of July 30. Operating loss for the quarter was $108 million compared to -$58 million a year ago.
The latest earnings data showed that its second-quarter loss was 35 cents per share on an adjusted basis, below the average Wall Street analyst estimate of 38 cents per share.
Although GameStop reported lower net sales for the quarter, the partnership with FTX US attracted an influx of buyers, with GameStop’s jumping 11.06% to $26.48 in after-hours trading.
On a recent GameStop earnings call, Furlong said the company has started working on updating the brand and driving growth. He revealed that the company had developed a redesigned app, its rewards program has attracted new users, and it has hired employees with backgrounds in e-commerce and blockchain gaming.
At the end of May, the video game retailer launched a digital asset wallet for sending, receiving and storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs,
In July, Video game retailer GameStop Corp announced Monday the launch of a public beta version of a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace amid the crypto market’s downturn.
Video game retailer GameStop Corp announced Monday the launch of a public beta version of a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace amid the downturn of the crypto market.
The company’s NFT marketplace is a non-custodial, Ethereum-based layer 2 marketplace that enables parties to truly own their digital assets, which are represented and secured on the blockchain. Users are allowed to connect to their own digital asset wallets such as the recently launched GameStop Wallet, according to the statement.
The new feature product just come amid the downturn of the crypto market. Currently, there are 236 NFT collections on the public beta NFT marketplace, and more than 53,000 NFTs listed on the marketplace.
Clients can use this Ethereum Layer 2-based non-custodial application to buy, sell and trade NFTs related to digital assets used in various games.
The marketplace would also provide essential statistics and educational content for customers to enjoy the connection between their wallet and the marketplace.
Partnering with Loopring, an Ethereum-compatible zkRollup protocol will provide players with faster, cheaper, and more secure access to digital property rights.
As Loopring zkRollup is based on Ethereum’s self-hosted security while extracting expensive gas fees, it reduces customer costs.
The company’s stock soared unusually back in January this year as it unveiled its grand entry into the crypto and NFT ecosystem.
Previously, GameStop partnered with blockchain company Immutable X to build a marketplace for NFTs, which they expect to launch later this year.
This launch is a public beta, and the full version of the NFT marketplace may be released in the near future.
GameStop, the largest video game retailer worldwide based in Texas, US, has sacked its Chief Financial Officer, Mike Recupero, and laid off several employees across departments. The layoffs, which were announced by the video game retailer through an internal memo to employees, are part of an aggressive turnaround plan, GameStop said.
Recupero, who joined GameStop about a year ago, was sacked as the firm considered him not “the right culture fit” and he was “too hands off” – meaning that he appeared to put more responsibility in the hands of team leaders and was much less present in the team’s day-to-day activities.
According to sources familiar with the events, GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen was the one who triggered Recupero’s sacking. The company has therefore said that Diana Jajeh, the Chief Accounting Officer at GameStop, will now become the new CFO.
The job cuts are on the side of the company’s corporate section rather than its retail stores. Those with knowledge of the matter said that the layoffs are aimed to reduce bloat as GameStop now focuses on investing in other areas.
The brick-and-mortar retailer has been making attempts to reinvent itself to catch up with the videogame industry which is largely moving online.
GameStop hired Mr. Cohen last year to lead the company’s turnaround initiative. The firm also brought fresh corporate leaders such as former Amazon executive, Matt Furlong, as its CEO, and another Amazon executive, Mike Recupero, as its Chief Financial Officer. Since the beginning of last year, GameStop hired more than 600 corporate staff.
In the memo sent to employees on Thursday, GameStop CEO Furlong stated that the firm has to take bold commitments as it invests in its digital future.
“This means eliminating excess costs and operating with an intense owner’s mentality. Everyone in the organization must become even more hands-on and embrace a heightened level of accountability for results,” Furlong said.
In a recent GameStop earnings call, Furlong said the firm has embraced efforts to refresh its brand and drive growth. He disclosed that the company has developed a redesigned app, attracted new users to its rewards program, and employed staff with backgrounds in e-commerce and blockchain gaming. He further said that GameStop plans to launch a marketplace for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) towards the end of this year.
Crypto Winter Concerns
Towards the end of May this year, the video game retailer launched a digital asset wallet for sending, receiving, and storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs ahead of its plans to launch an NFT marketplace later this year. The self-custodial Ethereum wallet is now available for download from GameStop’s website.
GameStop jumped into NFT pursuits at a time when crypto and equities markets collapsed as a result of interest rate hikes to contain soaring global inflation. The current economic crisis has left the NFT market collapsing, with NFTs sales and active wallets dropping massively.
The NFT market and other blockchain-associated assets like cryptocurrency are facing difficulties with the ongoing market crash, as their monetary values have significantly evaporated.
GameStop is not the only firm that recently announced job cuts. Last month, prominent crypto companies laid off thousands of employees as they prepared to brace for a long crypto winter.
Coinbase cut 1,180 staff (about 18% of its workforce) and withdrew job offers. BlockFi laid off a fifth of its employees, Gemini fired 100 employees and Singapore-based Crypto.com reduced its workforce by 5%, about 260 people. These major firms recently downsized their workforce, citing cost reductions and the need for increased efficiency.
Blockchain infrastructure platform Immutable has launched a new $500 million fund for emerging gaming protocols and non-fungible token (NFT) startups in the Web3.0 ecosystem.
As reported by TechCrunch, the new fund will be used to back protocols that are building web3 games and NFT-focused companies on its layer-2 Ethereum-focused platform, Immutable X.
“We see gaming being one of the biggest opportunities in web3 to have ever existed,” said Robbie Ferguson, president, and co-founder of Immutable. “The total addressable market is going to be enormous and much bigger than what gaming is today — a $100 billion industry for in-game items alone,” a figure that emphasizes how important the industry is and why Immutable is all out to support this new niche.
Ferguson noted that the funds came from diverse sources including from its “venture partners who are using their balance sheets and VC allocations to come in on these deals, there’s cash-backed on [Immutable’s] balance sheet and there’s also the foundation’s grants, which are specifically designed for this purpose to incentivize and build the Immutable ecosystem.”
Immutable’s ImmutableX is fast becoming the go-to place for both Web2 and Web3 companies looking to embrace blockchain gaming and NFTs. While the protocol currently plays host to outfits like GameStop, OpenSea, TikTok, and Illuvium, it plans to partner with a couple more brands in the industry in order to bolster its plans to support its chosen startups.
According to the report, the outfit Immutable plans to explore new partnerships with include BITKRAFT, Animoca Brands, Arrington Capital, Double Peak, AirTree, and King River Capital. With its broad-based plans, Immutable is counting on becoming a prominent platform that will help onboard more brands into Web3 in the next couple of years when more names will hope to make a dash into the ecosystem.
The new investment fund mimics those of other major players in the Web3.0 world including Avalanche and Binance Labs, and it shows that Immutable is being properly funded by venture capital firms to achieve its mission.
Many wallet addresses that have been in losses for the better part of the year hit take profits on centralized exchanges in the past week as the broader digital currency ecosystem charted a very impressive growth momentum.
The global crypto industry set a new record by crossing and maintaining support above the $2 trillion market capitalization this week for the first time in about 3 months.
The trend set by the digital currencies has given a new leap to many cryptos and here are those picked out to watch in the coming week.
Bitcoin is still the industry leader by far with a current price, just a breakthrough above $46,000, atop a market capitalization of $848.7 billion. For Bitcoin, the growth is not unexpected seeing how impressed investors are in the wake of regulations and positive deeds in Ukraine for the past month. Investors, cutting across those in both retail and institution classes have witnessed the coin resilience to maintain support at $42,000 and many may want to tap into the current growth in a bid to avoid missing out on the potential price gains. All things being equal, Bitcoin is on track to print a new monthly price high as more cash inflows are imminent this week.
Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is an old kid in the bloc whose potential is just been taking into account. Despite its impressive weekly growth of over 27%, Cardano’s price of $1.13 is at least 63% below its all-time high (ATH) price of $3.10.
Nonetheless, the smart contract capability of the Cardano blockchain is becoming the basis for a lot of ecosystem growth which the protocol has garnered lately with more than 4 million Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) minted thus far amongst much positive news. The ecosystem growth, coupled with the healthy industry outlook is billed to fuel Cardano’s growth in the short to medium term.
Loopring (LRC)
LRC is the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency token of Loopring, an open Layer-2 protocol designed for the building of decentralized crypto exchanges and applications. The token was unveiled as the protocol powering GameStop’s NFT marketplace as announced last week, a milestone that has effectively placed the coin on the investor’s radar.
While its price is currently pegged at $1.09 per data from CoinMarketCap, the chances of enhanced price action in the coming weeks are very high.
GameStop’s NFT marketplace is out in beta and integrated with the Ethereum Layer 2 zkRollup protocol, Loopring (LRC).
The partnership will provide players with faster, cheaper, and more secure access to digital property rights.
Since Loopring zkRollup is based on Ethereum’s self-hosted security while abstracting away expensive gas fees, it lowers customers’ costs.
Adam Browman, Head of Growth at Loopring explained that Users can directly mint NFTs on Loopring L2 while inheriting the security of Ethereum L1 at a fraction of the cost of L1 minting (less than $1).
In January, the major US video game and electronics retailer disclosed that it was getting into the NFTs marketplace and entering into crypto collaborations. GameStop hired 20 new employees for its cryptocurrency division to develop a digital marketplace for people to purchase, sell, and trade NFTs linked to digital assets for use in various games.
Last month, GameStop partnered with Immutable X, a blockchain firm, to build a marketplace for NFTs, which they expected to roll out later this year.
As reported by blockchain.News on March 18, in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, GameStop announced that it plans to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace by the end of the second quarter (the end of July this year).
In its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, GameStop, a major US video game and electronics retailer, announced that it plans to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace by the end of the second quarter (the end of July this year).
The timeline for launching its NFT Marketplace was disclosed on the announcement of its Q4 2021 earnings release on March 17, 2022. In the earnings report, the video game retailer stated that it was able to record a beat on revenue but witnessed an unexpected loss in earnings-per-share. GameStop mentioned that it lost $147.5 million, or $1.94 a share, in the fourth quarter, versus earnings of $80.3 million, or $1.23 a share, in the year-ago period.
However, the firm said it is strengthening relationships with gaming brands and looking for new ways to make money — including developing a new marketplace for NFTs.
Embracing Innovation to Thrive
In January, GameStop disclosed that it was getting into the NFTs marketplace and entering into crypto collaborations. GameStop hired 20 new employees for its cryptocurrency division to develop a digital marketplace for people to purchase, sell, and trade NFTs linked to digital assets for use in various games. The items will include things such as character skins, weapons, and virtual real estate. The new marketplace would compete with the likes of OpenSea, the NFT marketplace that currently has a $13.3 billion valuation.
GameStop also announced plans to collaborate with two other cryptocurrency companies, which will help better position the retailer to invest in video games with crypto features. Reports show that GameStop is seeking to enter into many partnerships and make investments for hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone.
Last month, GameStop partnered with ImmutableX, a blockchain firm, to build a marketplace for NFTs, which they expected to roll out later this year.
GameStop is hoping to attract game developers and studios to use the marketplace with the help of a $100 million fund. Last month, GameStop and Immutable launched a $100 million joint fund to invest in gaming NFT projects.
GameStop’s revenue is down, and its business model has been hit hard by the increase in digital downloads. The stock market signalled that GameStop was going into the cryptocurrency business early last year. In January 2021, the gaming retailer suddenly found itself turned into a “meme stock” fiasco which resulted in a Justice Department probe.
The stock price of popular video game store chain GameStop (GME) surged roughly 13% in one day amid rumors circulating online regarding a partnership with Microsoft to work on NFT gaming.
At the time of writing, GME sits at $115.60 as of market close on Feb. 8 and has also held around that level in after-hours trading according to data from TradingView.
GME started February at around the $100 region and has been pumping this month on the back of GameStop’s partnership with NFT focused Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution Immutable X to develop its upcoming NFT marketplace. As part of the deal, GameStop is also rolling out a $100 million grant program denominated in IMX tokens for NFT content creators and tech developers.
The latest rumors circulating via channels such as Reddit and Twitter suggest that GameStop may team up with Microsoft to launch NFT integrations into existing games, along with creating new NFT focused games.
Microsoft partnering with GameStop for #NFT and #Metaverse ?? big companies behind the curve will scoop up the existing industry leaders that have been building the space already.
— AF (@OmniFurukawa) February 8, 2022
Twitter user “P_MackD” shared a photo earlier today that contained compiled screenshots of tweets from Immutable X and Microsoft execs cryptically posting the “probably nothing” meme regarding the major partnership with GameStop.
Yorke Rhodes III in particular, the director of Microsoft’s blockchain department tagged Xbox, Microsoft and GameStop in his tweet, potentially hinting that the tech giant may have a role to play in the Immutable X and GameStop partnership behind the scenes.
Best graphic I’ve seen about all this nothingness so passing it on. Probably nothing though…#GameStop #gme #Microsoft #must#immutableX #loopring #Apple #lrc pic.twitter.com/9vCZn33O5a
— moonape.nft (@P_MackD) February 8, 2022
While it is unclear what the exact connection between the three parties is, a Feb. 6 post on the r/Superstonk Reddit community outlined a notable hypothesis of what the partnership could entail.
Commenting on Microsoft’s major $69 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard, bamfcoco1 pointed to the firm’s turn-based player vs player collectible card game Hearthstone as something ripe for NFT integrations via Immutable X and GameStop.
Related:3 things every NFT investor should know to avoid a tax nightmare
The Redditor argued that Hearthstone’s declining user base from a peak of roughly 23.5 million to 3.5 million was partly due to the hefty costs of card collecting and lack of true ownership over the user’s assets, something which could be solved via NFT integrations:
“With the ability to freely mint and trade NFTs on Immutable X’s platform, it’s a no brainer. GameStop could launch Hearthstone on their brand new Web3 platform by simply making an NFT for every card and then distributing them accordingly to users’ existing card collections. It’s about as easy as it would get.”
It appears that Web3 and NFT related announcements have a strong impact on the price of GameStops shares. Cointelegraph reported in early January that the price of GME gained a whopping 26% in after hours trading after the unveiling of the firm’s new NFT division.
GameStop has sold nearly 15 million IMX tokens in the past few days.
Immutable, the developer of Immutable X, has so far sent around 37.5 million IMX tokens to GameStop, with around 15 million more to come.
Yesterday, Immutable announced it had been tapped by GameStop to help build its NFT marketplace.
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GameStop has dumped almost 15 million IMX tokens it had received as part of a development deal with Immutable.
IMX Floods Market
Yesterday, Immutable, the developer of Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution Immutable X, announced a partnership with GameStop that included building out its NFT marketplace.
As part of the deal, GameStop was set to receive up to $150 million worth of its IMX token in grants upon the completion of certain milestones. Transaction records on Etherscan indicate that GameStop received has received more than 37.5 million IMX tokens over the past four days.
Since then, GameStop has dispensed with 14,989,293 of those tokens.
Over a series of three transactions—two of which took place two days prior to the partnership announcement, and one which took place a few hours after the announcement—GameStop moved the roughly $44 million in IMX to centralized exchanges Binance, Huobi, and OKX.
With a current circulating supply of around 225 million, 15 million IMX tokens represents about 6.5% of the token’s supply.
The flood of IMX tokens onto the market has likely contributed to its sharp price decline in the past day and a half. Following Immutable’s announcement yesterday, the IMX token reached prices of over $4.20, but today the token sits under $3 at press time, representing a 40% price decline.
Immutable X is a Layer 2 NFT protocol for Ethereum that allows for quick transactions without gas fees. It utilizeszero-knowledgerollups to scale on Ethereum.
In September, Immutableraised$60 million in funding for its Immutable X scaling solution platform.
Down from its highs of around $380 per share last January, GameStop stock hovers slightly above $100 at press time. It is up around 3% today.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned IMX, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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