Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based developer of game software, is joining the Bitcoin BTC market by supporting the Opal Foundation, a fresh take on the Bitcoin ecosystem protocol.
On April 30, Animoca Brands announced on X that the company is "coming to Bitcoin" and revealed its lofty goals of creating the "largest Web3 ecosystem" for culture, education, and gaming based on Bitcoin.
The Opal Protocol and BLIF token, which will be the Opal Protocol Runes token, are involved in the company's migration into Bitcoin. Animoca and the metaverse technology platform Darewise are the initiators of this move.
In the statement, Animoca proclaimed that Bitcoin is prepared for Web3 and praised the impending BLIF as a token to enable a “true digital life” on the platform.
Yat Siu, the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca, stated: "With the introduction of Ordinals, Bitcoin made the enormous leap from merely being a way to store value to becoming a store of culture for the Web3 age."
"Our goal of an open metaverse where everyone can enjoy digital property rights and take advantage of network effects will be furthered by increasing our presence on the Bitcoin chain through the exciting work of the OPAL Protocol."
Six of Animoca Brands' portfolio firms have already signed up as Genesis members, according to the company's X thread. The release also states that Animoca Brands will collaborate with the Opal Foundation on all upcoming Bitcoin-based initiatives.
The Opal protocol was launched in 2024 and bills itself as a “decentralized ecosystem protocol on Bitcoin, powered by BLIF.” According to its “litepaper”:
"The OPAL protocol is a seamless integration of virtual and real-world experiences meant to be a digital extension of reality, where social interactions, banking, entertainment, and education coexist peacefully. It's more than just a digital playground."
Spokesmans for Opal from its official Telegram group claim that the Opal protocol and BLIF airdrop start date would be revealed later.
As of this writing, the Opal protocol has over 270,000 subscribers on its X profile, even though it hasn't debuted yet.
On its website, the business stated, "Animoca Brands is our first strategic launch partner, and we are proud to have the Opal Foundation help us bridge their vision to establish the open Opal protocol into Bitcoin and ordinals."
The news of Animoca's entry into the Bitcoin market coincides with the April 30 trading launch of spot Bitcoin and Ether ETH exchange-traded funds (ETF) in Hong Kong.
In contrast to spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US in January 2024, the ETFs saw relatively low trading on their first day of introduction.
April 2024, Cryptoniteuae