Animoca Brands has become the largest validator on the TON Network after its investment in TON Play.
The Hong Kong-based investment firm announced in a press release published Tuesday that it had partnered with the TON Blockchain to provide funding, research, and an analytics platform for third-party TON applications.
With its investment in TON Play, Animoca also plans to deliver an array of blockchain-based games to the messaging app Telegram’s 800 million users.
“Animoca Brands’ investment in The Open Network is a pivotal step towards the next era of blockchain-based gaming,” said Justin Hyun, Director of Growth at TON Foundation. “Its new analytics platform and in-depth research reports represent alignment with TON Foundation’s mission. Together, we will infuse Web3 seamlessly into the daily experiences of Telegram users, particularly in gaming, for a global audience to enjoy.”
In particular, the company intends to support TON Play, a gaming infrastructure initiative built upon the TON blockchain. This framework enables the development of gaming applications on TON, facilitating their launch on Telegram’s messaging app. Additionally, it can seamlessly transfer existing web-based games to the messaging application.
With its investment in TON Play, Animoca also plans to deliver an array of blockchain-based games to messaging app Telegram’s 800 million users through its web app and mobile app’s PlayDeck bot, which contains a selection of mobile games for users to browse.
The exact amount of Animoca’s investment was not revealed in the press release. However, it is understood that a portion of the acquisition was directly allocated to Toncoin, which has been staked as part of the validator agreement.
The investment firm is exploring the potential of transferring a curated selection of gaming titles and applications from its extensive portfolio of over 400 Web3 projects to the Telegram platform.
In addition, Animoca Brands Research has created its own TON Analytics Dashboard, a tool aggregating diverse metrics from TON’s open internet ecosystem. This encompasses data from TON Blockchain, TON DNS, TON Storage, and TON Sites.
Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, emphasized that the investment in TON aligns with the company’s commitment to easing the transition from Web2 to Web3.
“This strategic investment in TON is a key part of our broader commitment to help onboard the next million Web3 users by facilitating a seamless transition from Web2 to Web3,” Siu said. “Taking part in the network’s validation underlines our faith in the successful realization of the vision behind the TON project as it looks to bring Web3 into the mainstream. We have already seen significant growth potential in games with TON, and we’re looking forward to working with the other innovative teams to build exciting TON-based games.”