What happens to FTX’s gaming and NFT Biz if the Binance deal goes through?

In the midst of today’s industry-shattering news that cryptocurrency is being exchanged Binance has agreed to buy FTX after the latter exchange faced a liquidity crisis, questions are flying about what it will mean for FTX’s many wider Web3 initiative – including around NFTs and gaming.

During the crypto bull market of 2021 and even early 2022, FTX made significant moves in both areas, launches its own NFT marketplacesplashing significant cash on esports sponsorship deals, establishing a gaming infrastructure division and launching a $2 billion investment arm of FTX Ventures.

But with FTX’s fortunes apparently fading in the middle ongoing decline in the crypto marketthe firm could soon come under new ownership if the Binance deal is completed. Decrypt contacted FTX representatives for clarification on these areas, but did not immediately hear back. Nevertheless, we can draw some conclusions based on how the businesses and agreements were structured.

The FTX NFTs marketplace – which included exclusive drops in collaboration with NBA star Stephen Curry and music festival Coachella– was established by FTX US, which is a separate company from FTX’s primary global business. FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said today that FTX US is not “currently affected” of the preliminary Binance Agreement.

What that means in the long term for FTX’s NFT ambitions is still unclear. Would FTX US continue under that name after the Binance acquisition of FTX.com? Could it rebrand and keep its existing product set independent of Binance? These questions remain unanswered for now, but the FTX NFTs marketplace will not be part of the Binance deal as it is currently brokered.

FTX’s gaming initiatives and deals are broader – and in some cases much more difficult to unravel at this point. When FTX acquired game studio Good Luck Games in March, that agreement was handled by FTX USso that the team would not be acquired by Binance.

However, FTXs staggering 10-year deal worth $210 million to sponsor the esports club Team SoloMid (TSM) in 2021 was a joint agreement between FTX Trading Limited (FTX.com) and FTX US. On the other side, FTX’s seven-year agreement sponsoring the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) was only attributed to FTX i original announcement-not FTX US.

FTX Ventures, the exchange’s $2 billion investment arm, invested in a number of NFT and Web3 game creators – including boring monkey yacht club creators Yuga Labsthe team behind the NFT project Doodlesand Mini Royale: Nations developer Faraway. The division was established under FTX’s parent company, so it can accompany the exchange to Binance.

But, Bloomberg reported in February that FTX Gaming division– which developed white-label infrastructure for Web3 games – was established under FTX US. FTX Ventures and FTX Gaming CEO Amy Wu did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment and clarification.

Because the deal between Binance and FTX emerged quickly and has yet to be finalized, there aren’t many clear answers right now about how the moves will affect FTX’s broader initiatives. However, there seems to be an end – and it is sure to affect many of the above endeavors in one way or another.