Ethereum-powered virtual world “The Sandbox” ($SAND) has announced that it managed to raise $93 million in its latest funding round, which was led by SoftBank Group’s second venture capital fund, Vision Fund 2.
Here is how Binance Research described The Sandbox back in August 2020:
“The Sandbox is a virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain, where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences… The SAND token is an ERC-20 utility token that is used for value transfers as well as staking and governance… Players can create digital assets in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), upload them to the marketplace, and integrate into games with Game Maker.“
A Reuters report published on November 2 said that this latest funding round “came a little over a year after its last round, as the company saw fast growth in monthly active users and crossed $144 million in transaction volume on the platform.” It also mentioned that this was the first time that Vision Fund 2, which might be the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund, had invested in “a company that issues its own cryptocurrency.”
The list of celebrities and brands that The Sandbox has partnered with includes Snoop Dogg, South China Morning Post, Hell’s Kitchen, and Atari.
Sebastien Borget, Co-Founer and CEO of The Sandbox told Reuters in an interview:
“We are creating this open metaverse. We are positioning the Sandbox against those giant tech companies who are claiming the metaverse to be theirs, offering an alternative where users are first.“
On the same day, The Sandbox tweeted that this investment round will help it scale up its “growth strategy, operations, and player acquisition” in The Sandbox’s ecosystem “while sending a clear statement that the world’s most innovative fund believes in Web3 and decentralization as the next major trend.”
The company went on to say that its new strategic partners, such as Galaxy Interactive, will also “benefit The Sandbox’s global reach and expand the network of brands, IPs, and gaming studios interested in entering an open metaverse focused on a player-owned economy and UGC.”
The Sandbox also highlighted its success in the world of virtual real estate:
Finally, the firm pointed out that it rewards creators on its platform with “95% revenue share” and “reinvesting 50% of all $SAND revenue streams into the Foundation, now worth $100M+, which gives grants to artists, creators and players.”
As you can see in the one-month SAND-USD price chart below by TradingView, $SAND has enjoyed quite a strong rally since October 28, which is when Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company’s name is being changed from Facebook to Meta and explained that “Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.”
Currently (as of 17:50 UTC on November 4), $SAND is trading at $2.69, which means that in the past seven-day period, $SAND is up around 205%.
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