Cryptoys funds a16z funding to build NFTs for children – TechCrunch
The last few months have not been entirely kind to the NFT market – while the transaction volume has not staggered too much, the dollar amount invested in space has been in free fall as cryptocurrency prices have taken a historic dive. With that as a background, it may not seem like the best time to launch an NFT platform, let alone one aimed at children.
And yet, NFT startup Cryptoys is raising tens of millions of dollars with the goal of building a blockchain-based toy company that can expose younger users to the ideas of digital ownership and NFT mechanics. The platform, which will be launched widely over the next few months, has cute big-eyed animal figures with hats, sunglasses and cryptographically secured uniqueness.
Non-fungible token trading platforms have often proved difficult for even older users to navigate, so the prospect of building an onboarding for younger users seems quite daunting. Cryptoys will circumvent some of this friction by partnering with Dapper Labs and launching their platform on the startup Flow blockchain. Flow, which runs Dapper’s NBA Top Shot, offers a blockchain-little experience that lets users bypass some of the hallmarks of NFT land, including high gas taxes, complicated wallets and inability to trade with credit card payment methods.
Still, making a blockchain easy enough for kids to use is a bit of a problem at the moment, as users signing up for the platform must be 18 years or older, although CEO Will Weinraub says parental-controlled wallets are on the way that will allow younger users to interact more directly with the platform and learn about NFTs.
“You have to take a step back from all this web3 maximalism,” says Weinraub. “You have to take small steps to get millions and millions of people into these new paradigms.”
Cryptoys get some help on this journey. The startup tells TechCrunch that it has recently completed a $ 23 million Series A round led by a16z Crypto with the participation of a number of other partners, including Mattel, Dapper Labs, Draper & Associates, Acrew Capital, CoinFund, Animoca Brands and Sound Ventures. The startup announced a $ 7.5 million seed round – also led by a16z Crypto – in October.
Photo credit: OnChain Studios
The funding will give Cryptoys’ parent company OnChain Studios some capital to expand their vision, which includes a number of NFT-related opportunities including games where users have the chance to earn NFTs through gaming. Weinraub notes that the company also plans to build experiences that do not require users to interact with NFTs, which may prove useful as the startup seems to be approaching younger users on platforms such as iOS, which have not been very friendly towards crypto. industry – although Weinraub thinks that may change.
“Apple is constantly evolving how they think about these things,” he says.
Among the biggest questions raised by an NFT-for-kids platform is why kids care that their in-app purchases are blockchain-prescribed. Weinraub says that children who jump from platform to platform mean that a lot of value of digital assets is lost, and he thinks his own children will be interested in reselling items in the game they have bought and get tired of to finance new digital purchases. Weinraub believes that the phenomenon of parents spending large sums on NFTs for cartoon animals has provided a lot of space to connect with their children about investments and what digital ownership means.
For those parents who have been involved in the NFT area in recent months, it is fair to say that many investments have not proved as profitable as expected, even though many of the companies involved have seen large salaries. Asked if the startup missed a historic launch window of NFT razzmatazz, Weinraub rejects, “it’s a much better time to launch products, a lot of the hype has been driven out of the market.”
