Metamatic Group

Metamatic is excited to back Validation Cloud. We think the markets they are competing in (Staking, Node API, and Data services) will become significantly larger as web2 enterprises expand B2B and B2B2C blockchain use cases. Their elite commercial acumen and thoughtful approach to constructing and sequencing their suite of products stood out to us and gives us confidence they can continue to capture market share and win in this competitive and dynamic sector. https://lnkd.in/edVw3W4h

Our Founding General Partner Jason Magnus enjoyed representing Metamatic Group at HK Fintech Week. His panel was hosted by Kavi Harilela and also featured Bosco Lin, Eugene Yeung, and Julia Charlton. #hongkongfintechweek2023 #metamaticgroup #digitalassetmanagement

HK Fintech Week! We look forward to seeing some of you there soon.

Game publisher, Sega (of Sonic the Hedgehog-fame), has recently adopted a more conservative stance toward blockchain gaming than it has historically held. The shift is set against a backdrop of Sega, alongside the likes of Square Enix, becoming an early validator on the gaming-oriented Oasys network, and the publisher exploring the creation of its own blockchain games. More recently, Sega has withdrawn its A-list IP, including Sonic, from external blockchain game developers - Perhaps made cautious by Ubisoft's controversial exploration as early as mid-2021. Certainly, this is a more conservative stance than expected, and Sega's COO has been verbally critical of existing blockchain games dubbing the gameplay 'boring'. However, Sega is leaving its less high-profile IP (such as Three Kingdoms and Virtua Fighter) open to third party creativity, meaning its stance's bullishness has only lessened from fully-fledged adoption, to mere experimentation. The impact of Sega's move is yet to be seen, but it now means that the publisher is lagging behind other competing blue-chip IP-holders in the gaming industry, when it comes to exploring innovative technologies.

The battle for NFT marketplace dominance rages on, despite altogether less coverage owing to the ongoing slump in NFT volumes and activity across the board. OpenSea has recently announced its support for NFTs hosted on yet another Eth-L2, this time in the form of Zora's optimistic roll-up L2. Zora is especially apt for support, owing to its original NFT-focused vision. However, its integration forms part of the larger contest for NFT volumes taking place between, predominantly, OpenSea and Blur. Blur surged to power on the back of a compelling airdrop campaign in Q4 '22 and Q1 '23, and, though its marketshare is below all-time highs of ~77%, it remains the major player, dwarfing OpenSea dominance of 33% at time of writing. What is exciting about the sudden increase in NFT marketplace competition is its impact on offerings to the end-user. Shortly after Blur's rise, OpenSea launched its 'Pro' trading version, to largely positive response, and updates haven't stopped there. Emerging markets, like Web3 and NFTs, can sometimes give rise to monopolistic tendencies, which in turns creates a limited offering to the consumer. This was true of NFT marketplaces but is now beginning to wane. Wherever NFT marketplace volumes sit in the future, it is likely that the biggest winner is the consumer, and that is precisely what the vertical needs.

2022 was a rough year for most all cryptocurrency projects and organizations, but perhaps more so for the Solana network, which saw network outages, and aggressive BD pushes from other ecosystems, diminish both network activity and token price. However, the Solana foundation, amidst a host of other initiatives aimed at cementing its place as a cornerstone blockchain ecosystem, has announced the development of an AI-driven tool to help inexperienced users select the 'right' NFT collection for them. Solana's Head of Product points to an intimidating number of potential factors, alongside a saturation of hype-only projects, as a potential barrier to entry for would-be participants in the NFT ecosystem. "AI can come in and make that data accessible for a normie, for somebody new coming into [Web3] to discover what are the things that they care about" Though referring to would-be users as 'normies' is perhaps an interesting choice of phraseology, the fact that blue-chip ecosystems are beginning to action initiatives to onboard additional non-crypto-native users is encouraging. What's more, Solana's tool's overlap with a current 'hot-topic', in AI/ML, could render the tool both more accessible, and more interesting to the Web2-consumer.

When it comes to successful Web2 game publishing studios adopting blockchain technology and its advantages, none were as early as Ubisoft - Creator of major gaming IP such as Assassin's Creed and Tom Clancy. Back in 2021, the studio faced backlash over perceived attempts to force NFTs upon its player-base. However, early learnings have not deterred the gaming giant. Last week saw the announcement of Champions Tactics, Grimoria Chronicles - A wholly original PvP/RPG PC game. All we have on the game so far is a teaser trailer. However, we also know that the game itself is built using Oasys Network - A verticalized gaming blockchain that has raised $20 million in rounds led by the likes of Galaxy Interactive. Ubisoft is amongst the best positioned of many high-profile gaming studios entering the space, owing to both: - The amount of time it has been experimenting with and developing in the Web3-World. - The learnings it has garnered from historical attempts to break into the industry. As further announcements and reveals are made in the coming days/weeks, the extent to which Champions Tactics is leveraging Web3-technology is likely to become all the more clear.