By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 19th, 2024
As part of the deal, crypto exchange FTX gets lifetime naming rights to their Sponsor-a-Scholar accounts on Axie Infinity.
After raising a massive $900 million in the latest funding round last month, crypto exchange FTX is making bold moves. Recently, it has signed a sponsorship deal with decentralized gaming startup Yield Guild Games (YGG). Thus, players of the Ethereum game Axie Infinity, especially from developing countries, will start receiving scholarship funds from FTX. Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn model allows players a chance to earn their living by battling monsters using NFT characters.
The sponsorship from crypto exchange FTX will further boost it. The crypto exchange announced that it will provide 137 new Axie Infinity “scholars” in partnership with Yield Guild Games. Herein each sponsored Axie shall be represented by a unique NFT.
On the contrary, crypto exchange FTX gets lifetime naming rights to their Sponsor-a-Scholar accounts. As said, the Axie Infinity scholars hail from developing countries like Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Brazil, and Latin America.
To expand this play-to-earn business model, Yield Guild Games raised $4 million in Series A funding in June. Besides, it also conducted $12.5 million in token sales, all sold out in 31 seconds. Speaking of the development, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX said:
“As fans of both gaming and making a positive impact, we’re excited to partner with Yield Guild Games who have created a truly unique way for new audiences to gain exposure to crypto”.
Axie Infinity is one of the hottest destinations for massive NFT transactions. Just in the last 30 days, it has clocked transactions worth more than $900 million.
FTX and Axie: Offering Scholarships for NFT Crypto Games
The NFT-driven crypto gaming market is getting solid traction and scholarships are providing further fuel to it. In this case, the original owners of Axie Monster NFTs loan it to the scholars in a profit-sharing agreement.
During the battle, the players earn Small Love Potion (SLP) tokens later exchanged against the cryptocurrency. The scholars get to keep the majority of the income with small shares going to the NFT owners.
Axie Infinity NFTs are costly and thus three Axie monsters are required to play the game. These NFTs start at $200-$300 price points on the game’s official marketplace. Explaining the working, Yield Guild Games co-founder Gabby Dizon told Decrypt:
“The expectation is that the new player, or scholar as they are known, will earn enough from playing the game to be able to ‘graduate’ from the program and eventually buy their own NFTs. This is having a real economic impact on real people’s lives, and FTX gets the added advantage of gaining branding exposure to these new crypto users, who will always remember who gave them their start.”
Yield Guild Games that its scholars have collectively earned over $37 million worth of SLP tokens so far. Last week itself, FTX announced that it is making a big entry into NFT sports and entertainment industry.