Animoca Brands, a leading company in advancing digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse, has recently announced a significant strategic investment in the Open Network Foundation (TON) ecosystem. 

As a result of this investment, Animoca Brands has become the largest validator of The Open Network Blockchain, marking a significant milestone in the growth and development of both entities.

Animoca Brands Supports TON Play

As announced in a recent blog post, the investment by Animoca Brands is a demonstration of their interest in supporting third-party gaming projects within the Open Network ecosystem. 

One of the key initiatives supported by Animoca Brands is TON Play, a gaming infrastructure project that provides support and solutions for gaming projects built on the Open Network. 

TON Play leverages the massive user base of over 800 million active Telegram users, providing a “powerful platform” for developers to launch their blockchain-based games directly on Telegram. 

Moreover, Animoca Brands has undertaken “comprehensive research” to evaluate the potential of Open Network Blockchain in accelerating the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies. 

Through their research papers, they have highlighted the “user-friendliness” of TON-based decentralized applications (dApps) and the scalability of the blockchain as crucial factors for community growth and wider crypto adoption.

Notably, to provide what the digital company calls “transparent insight” into the blockchain’s growth, Animoca Brands developed an analytics dashboard that visualizes key metrics. According to the announcement, this dashboard will allow the public to better understand the Open network’s progress and achievements.

Seamless Onboarding?

According to the November 28 announcement, the collaboration between the Open Network and Animoca Brands aims to seamlessly onboard existing Web2 users into Web3 mini-apps, creating new experiences for welcoming users.

This initiative strengthens the shared vision of both companies in facilitating a “seamless transition” from Web2 to Web3, offering a new array of applications to the platform’s extensive user base. 

Justin Hyun, the Director of Growth at the Open Network Foundation, expressed his enthusiasm about Animoca Brands’ investment, stating that it is a pivotal step towards the future of blockchain-based gaming

Hyun also emphasized the alignment between Animoca Brands’ analytics platform, research reports, and the Open Network Foundation’s mission.

On the other hand, Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, highlighted the significance of the strategic investment in TON, emphasizing their commitment to onboard the next million Web3 users. 

Siu believes the Open Network’s vision of bringing Web3 into the mainstream aligns with Animoca Brands’ broader mission. Siu expressed excitement about the growth potential in TON-based games and looks forward to collaborating with other “innovative teams” to develop exciting projects. Siu concluded:

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. 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 building exciting TON-based games. 

The daily chart shows Toncoin’s 2% uptrend over the past 24 hours. Source: TONUSDT on TradingView.com

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