With the evolution of metaversal themes, the hot spots of related sectors have become decentralized, and the discussion of related subdivisions represented by virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) games, virtual characters, and visual non-homogeneous tokens (NFTs) has also risen, and the valuation of subdivisions in the capital market has also shown a continuous upward trend.
Since 2021, the concept of metacosmity and NFT has gradually been widely recognized by the public, and the average transaction price of NFT has risen from 43 US dollars / piece in 20Q4 to 718 US dollars / piece in 21Q3 single quarter. From January to November 2021, the cumulative sales volume of the NFT global market reached 37.7585 million pieces, and the cumulative sales reached 15.794 billion US dollars. Obviously, the NFT trading market is showing a momentum of rapid growth.
Recently, the author noted that Chuanglian Holdings (2371.HK) has made new moves on the basis of the previous drastic meta-universe ecological layout - on January 28, 2022, Chuanglian Holdings announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Artfluence Technology Limited to acquire about 55% to 60% of the latter's equity. Artfluence is the first visual non-homogeneous token (NFT) luxury platform to provide extended reality (XR) and NFT chain services for selected high-end partners, with the goal of helping luxury brands, celebrities (KOLs), celebrities and others to promote the exclusive NFT series with practicality and recognition to end customers in the form of XR technology. After the completion of the acquisition, Chuanglian Holdings will accelerate the construction of the NFT trading platform to further strengthen the company's strategic layout in the meta-universe industrial market, and in the long run, it is expected to create considerable upward space for the company's performance.
Chuanglian Holdings is very determined to seize the opportunity of this era, with the help of the innovative experience accumulated in the early stage, it is committed to finding potential blockchain industry companies to cooperate, in order to establish a solid foundation and establish a brand in the highly valued meta-universe market.
First, NFT pioneers, deepening the new exploration of the vertical field of the metaverse
The integration of digital identity and real identity, digital economy and real economy, digital assets and physical assets are the most widely discussed explicit characteristics of the metaverse. As the concept of "metaverse" is rapidly infiltrating into daily life, the business logic of virtual assets has gradually expanded from virtual currency transactions to providing proof of ownership for various types of digital assets. NFTs are the bridge between real-world assets and digital world assets, giving value to various components in the metaverse.
In simple terms, the core value of NFT lies in the assetization of digital content. On the basis of blockchain technology, with its immutable, traceable and other characteristics and decentralized storage technology, the NFT architecture can ensure the uniqueness, authenticity and permanence of digital assets (will not disappear due to the cessation of operation of the centralized platform), so it can effectively solve the problem of asset rights confirmation. From the current existing applications, NFTs will be pictures, audio and video, game props and other non-homogeneous digital content into digital assets, and provide them with property rights certificates, since then, in the decentralized metaverse system, NFT as a value carrier, its investment value will gradually be recognized by the market.
In March 2021, NFT, a digital painting by American digital artist Beeple, consisting of 5,000 smaller images, was sold at Christie's for more than $69 million, shocking the art and investment community. Since then, major giants and investment institutions have rushed to seize the NFT field.
Recently, the IOC officially authorized ice pier NFT digital blind box on the trading market nWayPlay, 99 US dollars each, limited to 5 per person, once again set off a wave of attention. nWay's parent company is AnimocaBrands, which is headquartered in Hong Kong. Private equity giant KKR and several other investment institutions are negotiating an investment operation in Animoca Brands, which has received a pre-investment valuation of more than $5 billion, bringing Animoca Brands' latest round of nearly $359 million in financing directly to $500 million. In January, Animoca Brands completed a $358 million funding round, led by Liberty City Ventures, and will also focus on the development of meta-universe openings and related NFT products in the future.
On the road of NFT exploration, Chuanglian Holdings is also active. Chuanglian Holdings' acquisition of Artfluence refers to the two major meta-universe application businesses of Augmented Reality (AR) and NFT.
Among them, Artfluence focuses on the NFT luxury platform, helping luxury brands, Internet celebrities (KOLs), celebrities, etc. to launch an exclusive NFT series with practicality and recognition to end customers in the form of extended reality (XR), which deeply integrates NFTs and real assets in a new form. In addition, Artfluence's NFT luxury platform will use virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) technologies to facilitate the further integration of reality and metaversics.
Chuanglian Holdings further improved the metacosmity layout by acquiring Artfluence. The company has not only taken a key step in expanding new NFT scenarios, but also explored ideas for the relevant sections of the company's metacosmonic strategy on building an NFT ecosystem.
Second, the heavy layout of the whole industrial chain of the meta-universe, digital asset business to open up room for growth
NFT projects have the value of "micro-innovation" in many mechanisms, because they are generally scarce in subdivided application scenarios, which also forms a source of investment value for NFT projects. It is worth noting that whether there is a dynamic ecosystem behind the NFT project is the direction that investors should focus on.
In 2021, Chuanglian Holdings completed the placement of shares and convertible bonds, raising a total of HK$87.55 million. Since then, Chuanglian Holdings has accelerated the layout of the meta-universe, becoming a leading meta-universe concept stock, and building a perfect meta-universe ecosystem, laying an important foundation for the company's NFT business.
The digital economy, digital assets and digital identities all need blockchain technology to ensure security, so as to achieve value exchange in the metacosm, which is also the basic logic of NFT. As early as June 2021, Chuanglian Holdings has partnered with the famous technology company Blockchain Pte. Ltd. has a long-term strategic partnership on blockchain technology and finance-related businesses.
Blockchain Pte. Ltd. is a leading blockchain technology company that is listed as an early investor in The Blockhouse Technology Limited alongside Oxford University College and has been involved in the development of the Oxford Blockchain Research Centre and the Oxford (Hainan) Blockchain Research Centre. Chuanglian Holdings with Blockchain Pte. Ltd.'s partnership includes bidding in Singapore for local licensed businesses in digital finance, and won the Blockchain Pte. Ltd. invited to participate in the research and application projects of the Blockchain Research Center of University College Oxford and the Blockchain Research Institute of Oxford (Hainan).
Subsequently, Chuanglian Fintech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chuanglian Holdings, completed the acquisition of Shengfu Global Group in August 2021. Survey Global Group has a leading edge in decentralized ledger technology, blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, with orders in hand amounting to RMB101 million in hand and a guaranteed profit of HK$160 million net for the relevant period.
On the basis of consolidating the underlying technology of the meta-universe, the company is continuing to deepen the vertical field. In addition to the NFT mentioned above, Chuanglian Holdings is exploring all aspects of the digital asset field, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Related Financial, has begun to provide asset management services to a fund that invests part of its funds in virtual assets. In addition, Chuanglian Holdings will continue to increase investment in the entire industrial chain of the meta-universe. According to market news, Chuanglian Holdings now intends to acquire a cryptocurrency mining farm located in Canada!
It can be seen that the layout of Chuanglian Holdings in the meta-universe market is far-reaching, and it has already possessed a leading technical level and application exploration. The business layout of digital assets such as NFTs is only the tip of the iceberg of its layout, and its broad prospects for the ecology of the meta-universe are unique, and it is believed that the future will also create unlimited imagination space for the market.