On July 18, Ripple announced it had invested in AI and metaverse technology and content company, Futureverse. The move has given a second wind to XRP prices which are outperforming the top 20 crypto assets at the moment.
The company has raised $54 million in a Series A round of funding in an effort to marry AI and the metaverse. The funding round was led by 10T Holdings and included participation from Ripple.
Futureverse offers AI content generation tools designed to enhance the music, objects, characters, and animations for metaverse platforms.
According to the announcement, Futureverse will use the proceeds from the funding round to continue developing comprehensive AI technologies.
These include a “blockchain and suite of protocols with ready-made runtimes for building next-generation metaverse apps, games, and experiences.”
Furthermore, Futureverse is already a technology partner with Ripple. Its “Root Network” blockchain is integrated with XRPL and supports the use of XRP as a GAS token as well as the XLS-20 NFT standard.
The investment move by Ripple follows a partial but key victory in its three-year battle against the SEC. Venturebeat commented that:
“That ruling will likely liberate crypto companies and blockchain game companies from regulations that have hampered revenue.”
Co-Founders of Futureverse, Aaron McDonald and Shara Senderoff, said:
“With the help of our tremendous partners 10T and Ripple, we are excited to take the metaverse from an abstract idea to a tangible, accessible, and interactive destination.”
Over the past year, the firm has formed global strategic partnerships with renowned organizations and personalities, including FIFA, Mastercard, Snoop Dogg, and Keanu Reeves.
Anything metaverse related has taken a hit in 2023 as AI takes the spotlight and the hype. As a result, metaverse-related tokens have been hammered hard in the second quarter.
A new report from CoinGecko detailed the extent of these losses. The top five metaverse and play-to-earn tokens by market cap, including Axie Infinity (AXS), Sandbox (SAND), and Decentraland (MANA), saw losses of up to 40% for the period.
Many of these metaverse tokens remain down 80-90% from their peaks despite a 45% increase in crypto market capitalization this year.
Ripple’s XRP had jumped as much as 10% on the day following the news as it topped out at $0.817 during Asian trading before pulling back slightly.