Tag: Immutable X

NFT Layer-2 Protocol ImmutableX Raises $200M in New Funding

by Blockchain News

Immutable X, an Ethereum-based layer-2 Non-Fungible Token (NFT) token platform, has announced the completion of its Series C funding round. It raised the sum of $200 million from leading investors in the space.

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As announced by the startup, the funding round was led by Temasek, with participation from leading blockchain game juggernaut Animoca Brands and technology company Tencent. Other investors include ParaFi Capital, Princeville Capital, Arrington Capital, Mirae Asset, Liberty Global etc.

The Series C round effectively brings the valuation of Immutable X to $2.5 billion. The funding raised will bolster the ongoing growth on the Immutable X platform while also scaling the Immutable Gaming Studio. Amongst the direct products, the startup will be building on more is its Gods Unchained game, one of the largest blockchain games by the number of active players.

“Immutable is locked in on developing a leading, ambitious, and dependable web3 ecosystem for a new era of creators that desire scalable results in the world’s fastest-growing industry,” said James Ferguson, CEO, Immutable. “Our investment partners understand the power and potential of the Immutable X platform and will play an integral role in this next phase of our growth. We are also excited to welcome new executive team members who will help execute on our aggressive business and growth plans.” 

The funding will also be diverted into hiring more talent globally as it looks to register its presence on the global scene. Immutable X is building out its ecosystem as it recently inked a partnership with Gamestop, as reported earlier by Blockchain.News. In its bid to advance its role in the gaming world and the broader Web3.0 ecosystem, the platform will ride on its growing network of partners to ink more related deals soon.

Image source: Shutterstock

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GameStop stock up on rumors of Microsoft NFT game partnership

by Cointelegraph

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.

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.

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.