Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61e580771404c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The firm previously invested $100 million in over 20 projects including in blockchain games like Star Atlas, Ember Sword, Yield Guild Games and Merit Circle</li>
 <li>In addition to the new fund, the firm shared that Steve Cho, a former Apple App Store games business manager, is joining the team in a partnership to lead the fund</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto investment firm Mechanism Capital is launching a $100 million fund focused on the play-to-earn (P2E) gaming industry, the company shared on Monday.&nbsp;



The new fund will be called Mechanism Play and will focus entirely on gaming investments and direct partnerships with studios to develop new games, it said. In addition to announcing the new fund, the firm shared that Steve Cho, a former Apple App Store games business manager, is joining the team in a partnership to lead the fund.&nbsp;



“NFTs and new gaming paradigms like play-to-earn are exciting new ways to approach how we make games,” Cho said in a statement. “For the first time, players can actually own parts of the experience, invest not just time, but make money,” Cho added.&nbsp;



The firm was launched in August 2020 with an original focus in DeFi, but broadened its reach across the crypto space into sub sectors like data analytics, cross-chain infrastructure, scalability infrastructure and NFTs.



It previously invested $100 million in over 20 projects including in blockchain games like Star Atlas, Ember Sword, Yield Guild Games and Merit Circle.



“Play-to-earn has barely penetrated the gaming market, but we expect this to change in the next few years with mobile leading the way,” Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, said in a message to Blockworks.&nbsp;



The P2E industry has flooded the crypto gaming scene in recent months as games like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/axie-infinity-program-lead-2022-will-be-all-about-gameplay/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Axie Infinity</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/could-big-tech-threaten-a-decentralized-metaverse-the-sandbox-co-founder-says-yes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Sandbox</a> gain popularity. As the name suggests, users can play games to earn rewards, which often are transferable to real-world monetary value or ownership and governance of the games.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The sky is definitely not the limit anymore; at least not in an open metaverse where players can now enjoy an unlimited digital canvas and truly express their creativity,” Cho said.&nbsp;</blockquote>



In general, funding for crypto-gaming companies hit $500 million in the first half of 2021 and some industry experts predict that 2022 will be the year that gaming will lead further crypto adoption across mainstream audiences, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/2022-prediction-gaming-will-lead-to-further-crypto-adoption/">reported</a>.



There has been an increase in investment firms&#8217; interest in the gaming space. Last month, Solana Ventures launched its second gaming-focused investment for a total of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-ventures-funds-150m-web3-initiative-with-forte-griffin-gaming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$250 million</a> across <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-solana-ventures-and-lightspeed-create-100m-web3-gaming-investment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two</a> funds. In November 2021, a blockchain-focused company, Forte, also closed a funding round for <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/forte-adds-725-million-in-funding-to-push-blockchain-gaming-forward/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$725 million</a> to help push blockchain gaming forward.



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Gaming

Mechanism Capital Launches $100M Fund Focused on P2E Gaming

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_617a84275ef6d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The funding round was led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from former Dallas Cowboys football player, Dez Bryant</li>
 <li>Nft42, Nameless’ parent company, secured $3.5 million in funding back in February</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Nameless, a non-fungible token (<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=nft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFT</a>) minting platform, raised $15 million in seed funding, the company announced on Thursday. The capital will go towards development resources, marketing and building out a partner program, founder Jimmy McNelis told Blockworks in an interview.



“NFTs are revolutionizing digital ownership on a global scale. Whether it’s a single NFT drop or the creation of an entire marketplace, our technology makes things easy, cost-effective and secure,” McNelis, who previously worked at Google, said.&nbsp;



According to McNelis, nameless’ platform allows users “to incorporate NFTs into existing web properties” and “enables [the crypto assets] to be adopted by existing developers and technology providers.”



The new investment boosts the project’s valuation up to approximately $75 million. Led by Mechanism Capital, other participants in the funding round include Delphi Digital, Velvet Sea Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Third Prime, Cultur3 Capital, Flamingo DAO, Michael Rubin, Spartan Group, D64 Ventures, The LAO and Wursta Ventures.



“[Nameless is] building out technology that identifies the need for creators’ enterprises, who are just getting up to speed on the space to have a technology stack that makes it easier for them to create NFTs,” Marc Weinstein, partner at Mechanism Capital, told Blockworks.



Nft42, nameless’ parent company, secured $3.5 million in funding back in February. Backers include Gary Vaynerchuck’s VaynerFund, Sound Ventures, Mark Cuban, Marc Benioff, Shaun Neff, Guy Oseary, Michael Rapino and Outlier Venture.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We expect the nascent NFT industry to grow into a multi-hundred billion dollar market that disrupts many others along the way including art, gaming, music, fashion and entertainment,” Weinstein added.</blockquote>



Nameless’ platform plans on publicly launching early next year. It is currently in beta at <a href="https://www.nameless.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nameless.io</a>.