After raising $7.5 million on a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, the company is already negotiating with several well-known brands to leverage its open-world experience or Cryptoverse. This digital environment will allow users to play with their toys with play-to-earn features, earning in-game rewards and NFTs.
Size of the NFT and Gaming Industries?
According to a Harris market-research firm poll, 11% of American adults allege they have purchased an NFT, which is comparable to commodities investing. Moreover, analysts at the Jefferies investment bank expect the value of the NFT market to double in 2022 and surpass $80 billion by 2025.
That storm has also taken the gaming industry. Among the most traded non-fungible tokens are those used in the Axie Infinity game, which reached 2 million daily active users. Using NFTs, players collect, trade, breed, and battle digital creatures and earn SLP tokens in exchange. There’s even a governance token with staking capabilities.
CrypToys Origins
Global momentum of NFTs began to take off in late 2020, marked by the release of NBA Top Shots, one of the first mainstream NFT product launches. Will Weinraub, co-founder, and CEO of On Chain, a father of three young children, took the opportunity of this connection with the game industry and involved all the children in getting feedback on the game elements.
“If people are spending hours and hours of their time playing games and in these digital worlds, then they should earn certain things for that time and have full ownership of it, rather than the old world of gaming,”
Weinraub said.
In addition to CEO Weinrub, the veteran team includes Emilio Cueto and Alfonso Martinez. Together, they launched LiveNinja in 2012, a business messaging platform. Freddy Oropeza and Jhonathan Torres complete the founding team, bringing in 3D gaming, technology, and finance experience.
What are CrypToys Goals?
With the funding, OnChain now has 22 person staff and continues to hire for the gaming component of the platform: Web3 engineers, Unity developers, 3D artists, and animators. That will help Cryptoys to be released soon on the Flow network. Players will be able to trade, collect and play within an immersive world built on the blockchain.
Cryptoys will be playable in various games, applications, and experiences inside the CryptoyVerse: a fully interactive world that’s constantly growing and ever-evolving.
What are the Next Steps?
OnChain launched the CryptoToys website in October and is starting to roll out its collectible and interactive items. When you unbox your CryptoyCube you’ll find a random, newly minted Cryptoy — with some variants being rarer than others.
The idea is to include mini-games and sell accessories for your Panda or Corgi Cryptoy. All these characters and accessories are NFTs that you can trade with other players. You can give your Cryptoys new talents and capabilities with Gems, which can be purchased to unlock new powers, games, intelligence, and integrations.
How Much will it Cost?
Traditionally, NFTs are collector’s items, with many having high price tags in the thousands of dollars. Although Crypotoys has collectors’ editions, they’ll also have others at affordable prices.
The purchase process will be using the traditional MetaMask wallet. Cryptoys will accept credit card purchases on its website for those who would rather spend fiat money, to simplify the process.
