FTX, Animoca Back $500M Crypto Gaming Platform on Terra

South Korean game publisher Com2uS has increasing ambitions in the crypto games space, and revealed its upcoming C2X blockchain gaming platform in December. Now C2X has raised funds via a private token sale to a number of major crypto players at a $500 million valuation.

Today, C2X operator MetaMagnet Ltd. announced that it has sold $25 million worth of its token at that half-billion-dollar valuation in a round led by FTX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Jump Crypto. FTX Ventures is the investment arm of crypto exchange FTX, while Animoca is a leading game and metaverse investor, and Jump is another major crypto investment firm.

Beyond those investors, other participants in the private token sale include Terra, Hashed, Crypto.com, Galaxy Interactive, Huobi Ventures, and The Walking Dead IP holder Skybound. FTX held a brief initial exchange offering (IEO) for C2X’s token (CTX) today, with a public listing scheduled for March 21.

C2X is built on Terra, the rising blockchain network. Terra’s LUNA coin is currently the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by total market cap, currently topping Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) by that metric. Terra, which is part of the Cosmos ecosystem, also plays host to the UST stablecoin.

Com2uS and Com2uS Holdings are described as the “original contributors and master content providers” of the C2X network. Terra developer Terraform Labs and crypto-centric VC firm Hashed will serve as advisors to the platform.

C2X is slated to host a number of upcoming crypto-powered games, including play-to-earn role-playing game Summoners War: Chronicles, baseball game Crypto Superstars, and Golf Star. The company plans to launch more than 10 games on C2X during 2022.

Com2uS is primarily known for free-to-play mobile games, including the original Summoners War, which has generated more than $2 billion in revenue to date. The firm’s other notable games include licensed titles like MLB 9 Innings 22 and NBA NOW 22.

Prior to launching C2X, Com2uS signaled its interest in the growing blockchain space by investing in Animoca Brands during its own $65 million round last October, which valued Animoca at $2.2 billion (it’s since jumped to over $5 billion).

Animoca is the publisher behind the upcoming Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox, and an investor in notable crypto startups like OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis.