Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands, well known for its virtual gaming world the Sandbox, has reportedly cut its target for its metaverse fund by a further 20% to $800 million amid market volatility in the cryptocurrency sector, Reuters reported, citing sources closed to the matter.

The corporation had first stated in November 2022 that it was working on a new Animoca Capital fund with a target of $2 billion; but, in January 2023, that aim was lowered to $1 billion. Recently, the goal was reduced by further 20%, to $800 million,

Animoca's market capitalization, which was previously estimated at about $6 billion following a Temasek-led financing round in July 2022, has reportedly dropped to below $2 billion, with its shares trading at a significantly lower valuation in secondary markets, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters.

With the completion of 15 metaverse agreements in 2022 and the receipt of nearly $564 million in capital, Animoca Brand was recognized by Nasdaq as the metaverse developer with the highest funding in 2022.

Founded in 2014, Hong-Kong based Animoca Brands focuses on bring digital property rights to video gamers utilizing NFTs, it owns popular blockchain game the Sandbox after it acquired the game developer Pixowl in 2018, it has also developed a number of blockchain game project like Formula E: High Voltage, F1 Delta Time, and REVV Racing.

Non-fungible token (NFT) has fueled the development of Metaverse because NFT collectibles are 3D avatars in the metaverse with asset ownership enabling new kinds of income streams for users.

Animoca continued to push for what it calls an “open metaverse”, Yat Siu said any kind dominance by tech giants such as Meta and Tencent will hurt the development of metaverse because the principles of the metaverse will be openness and interoperability.

In order to expand its influence in the NFT sector and achieve its goal to build powerful metaverse ecosystem, Animoca Brands make more than 200 investments in NFT-related platform and companies, most notable case including the world’s largest NFT marketplace OpenSea and the creator of trendy and hit Etherum-based play-to-earn blockchain game Axie Infinity, Dapper Labs ( the owner of Cyrpokitties and NBA top shot).