Blue Pool Capital, which manages part of the fortune of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, has invested in a gaming company that specializing in blockchain-based nonfungible tokens (NFTs)
Detail:
Jack Ma’s family fortune manager Blue Pool Capital has invested in recreation developer and blockchain firm Animoca Manufacturers for undisclosed amounts.
Founded in 2014, Animoca Manufacturers focuses on bringing digital property rights to video gamers utilizing NFTs.
According to Venture Beat’s report, Blue Pool Capital manages USD40 billion family fortune of Jack Ma and roughly USD10 billion wealth of Joe Tsai.
The family fortune manager was well known for managing Joe Tsai’s purchase of NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
Hong-Kong based Animoca Brands was founded by Hong Kong tech entrepreneur Siu Yat in 2014. In 2015, Animoca Brands went public on the shell through the acquisition of ASX-listed Black Fire Mineral.
According to its website, Animoca Brands develops and publishes a broad portfolio of blockchain-baed products including SAND token, the blockchain project behind the virtual gaming world The Sandbox, as well as intellectual properties including Formula 1, Marvel, WWE, Power Rangers.
Context:
Alibaba’s billionaire co-founder is a supporter of blockchain technology, although he holds cautious views on bitcoin.
Speaking at the 2020 Smart China Expo Online, Jack Ma said “Nowadays, many enterprises add blockchain label to their businesses, hoping to gain attention from investors. In fact, they have nothing to do with blockchain technologies. Alibaba is dealing with transaction volumes of trillion yuan, we will go nowhere without blockchain technologies. Bitcoin might me a bubble, but the underlying technologies-blockchain is not. Blockchain can offer great solution to solve the issues in data privacy and security, intellectual property.”
In June, Alipay, a mobile payment app operate by Alibaba fintech affiliate Ant Group, launched 16,000 limited-edition non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its consortium blockchain network “Ant Chain”.
Through the partnership with Dunhuang Research Academy, the NFTs features flying apsaras along with sacred deer from “Mogao Cave” in the Dunhuang of China’s Gansu province, where has been listed as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Ant Group's payment platform Alipay begun to run a consortium blockchain network called AntChain in April 2020. It enables small and micro enterprises and developers to deploy smart contracts and decentralized apps (DApps) on its network.