Animoca Brands joins Celo ecosystem to accelerate Web3 adoption with sustainability and social impact

21 June 2023 - Animoca Brands, the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the metaverse, today announced that it has joined Celo, the carbon-negative, mobile-first, EVM-compatible blockchain ecosystem leading a new digital economy for all. Participation in the Celo ecosystem will allow Animoca Brands to scale up Web3 gaming on Celo’s mobile-first infrastructure and mission-driven ecosystem of more than 1,000 projects in over 150 countries that drive social impact and climate action by leveraging innovative Web3 tools.

The Celo platform provides mobile-first accessibility targeting over 6.4 billion mobile phone users around the world with easy-to-use native wallets and dapps for frictionless, mobile payments, fast syncing with the P2P network, and the ability to pay transaction fees using local stable assets. With over 240 million transactions and a market cap of $350M, Celo has already offset 4,104 tons of tCO2-eq at the protocol layer since its mainnet launched on Earth Day 2020.

Animoca Brands will participate in the Celo ecosystem as follows:

Joining Celo’s Alliance for Prosperity: Animoca Brands will be the first entertainment and gaming steward among Celo’s over 100 members committed to the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology via financial inclusion, innovative project development efforts, and local and regional blockchain education campaigns
Becoming a validator on the Celo network: Animoca Brands will run a validator on Celo to support the network’s security, joining Deutsche Telekom, Coinbase Ventures, a16z, and various other validators

In addition, Animoca Brands and the Celo Foundation are in discussion to partner on strategic initiatives and explore new deployments and integrations geared towards social impact and climate action.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said: “We are thrilled to participate in the Celo ecosystem, which has been deeply committed to last-mile solutions and real-world adoption of Web3 in a truly global manner. We also look forward to collaborating with the Celo Foundation on new ideas that can drive positive impact and change in the world in a collective effort to build trust in blockchain technology.”

“The Celo ecosystem, known for mobile and impact, welcomes Animoca Brands, which has done so much for onboarding people to Web3 as a respected industry leader known for its pioneering projects in digital entertainment and gaming. Animoca Brands’ mission to drive more equitable digital frameworks aligns well with Celo’s mission of creating the conditions for prosperity for all. With our combined communities, we hope to onboard the next billion users into Web3,” says Rene Reinsberg, Celo co-founder and president of the Celo Foundation.

About Celo

Celo is a carbon-negative, permissionless, layer-1 platform with a rich ecosystem of global partners building innovative Web3 applications within the DeFi, ReFi, and NFT sectors on Celo. Accessible to anyone with a mobile phone, the Celo ecosystem consists of a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain technology stack (the Celo Platform), the CELO native token, and several Mento stable assets (cUSD, cEUR, cREAL) that enable anyone to use digital assets. Launched on Earth Day in 2020, the open source Celo mainnet supports 1,000+ projects created by developers and artists located around the world.

About the Celo Foundation

The Celo Foundation was founded to support the growth and development of the decentralized, open source, mobile-first Celo platform to help build a carbon-negative financial system that creates the conditions of prosperity for all. The Foundation is guided by the Celo community tenets and contributes to education, technical research, environmental health, community engagement, and ecosystem outreach—activities that support and encourage an inclusive financial system. For more about Celo, visit https://celo.org.

About Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner, a Fortune Crypto 40 company, and one of the Financial Times’ High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2023, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including original games such as The Sandbox, Phantom Galaxies, Life Beyond, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes, and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Life Beyond Studios, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be., PIXELYNX, and WePlay Media. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of over 450 Web3 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.

Contacts:

Celo: press@celo.org

Animoca Brands: press@animocabrands.com