Animoca teams up with Ava Labs, Shrapnel on Steam: Web3 Gamer

Animoca Brands teams up with Ava Labs to bolster RWAs, digital identity

Gaming giant Animoca Brands has partnered with Ava Labs, the company behind the layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, in an effort to grow adoption of the network.

The partnership will see Animoca deploy capital and provide strategic support to projects building on Avalanche, according to a statement on Thursday.

Their initial focus will be to target the entertainment sector, real-world assets (RWAs) and digital identity.

Ava Labs chief business officer, John Nahas, said the deal will also help Avalanche’s plans to expand into Asia and the Middle East.

“Two regions seeing sustained growth in digital asset activity. We’re thrilled to collaborate on initiatives that improve user access and interoperability for applications building on Avalanche,” Nahas said.

Omar Elassar, Animoca Brands’ head of global strategic partnerships, said that while identity integrations and RWAs will be major focuses, the broader aim is to support builders on Avalanche and push wider adoption of the network.

It comes as Animoca Brands plans to go public on Nasdaq this year via a reverse merger with the AI-focused public fintech company Currenc Group.

Meanwhile, in September, reports emerged that the Avalanche Foundation, a nonprofit behind the cryptocurrency Avalanche, was raising $1 billion to launch digital asset treasury and accumulation projects.

Tokenized TCGs could “hit same brick wall” as Web3 gaming

The tokenized RWA market exploded in 2025 and currently has a distributed asset value (not including stablecoins) of $27.4 billion, according to rwa.xyz.

Most of this value currently lies in tokenized US treasurys, commodities and asset-backed credit, data shows.

However, there’s a growing interest in tokenizing certain physical collectibles, like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards — an industry expected to be worth about $8 billion in 2026 that has attracted tokenization companies and blockchain-based marketplaces.

On Wednesday, Shiny Labs CEO Brenden Hammond warned that these products could be headed in the same direction as Web3 gaming once did, with too many greedy founders who don’t understand the culture.

“That is why most of the games sucked, or simply weren’t fun. [Trading card games]/RWA has developed this same issue,” Hammond said.

“None of these founders are from the TCG space, they just saw prices go up and hopped on the train,” he added.

Hero Games CEO Dan Wu echoed a similar sentiment in September, saying he would “never invest” in those working in the Web3 gaming industry. “They don’t love games, so how can they make good games? It’s a very simple truth,” he said.

But perhaps that is a normal part of an up-and-coming industry.

The BGA 2024 State of the Industry report found that 52.5% of blockchain gaming professionals now come from traditional gaming backgrounds rather than Web3 or crypto, suggesting the tide is turning.

Shrapnel has launched early access on Steam

Shrapnel, a first-person shooter often dubbed the “Call of Duty of Web3,” has launched early access on the gaming platform Steam following a full revamp and a move to Gala Games.

“Players can now jump into the battlefield directly through Steam and experience the game as development continues toward full release,” according to a statement on Gala Games’ website.

Shrapnel, developed by Neon Machine, first launched early testing on the Avalanche blockchain through the Epic Games Store in February 2024. Just over a year later, in July 2025, the team announced it would migrate to Gala Games’ blockchain, GalaChain, calling it a “strategic move that enables our global launch and reflects our shared vision.”

While no crypto features are active in the Shrapnel early access on Steam due to the platform’s strict stance on crypto, there have been suggestions that the team may expand crypto elements down the line.

Steam banned crypto games in 2021, making Gunzilla Games’ Off The Grid Steam launch in June 2025 notable as the first crypto-related title to appear on the platform since the ban. That said, Off The Grid doesn’t actually include any crypto features on the anti-crypto gaming platform.

Ciaran Lyons

Ciaran Lyons is a Cointelegraph staff writer covering cryptocurrency markets and conducting interviews within the digital asset industry. He has a background in mainstream media and has previously worked in Australian broadcast journalism, including roles in national radio and television. Prior to joining Cointelegraph, Lyons was involved in media projects across news, documentary, and entertainment formats. He holds Solana, Ski Mask Dog, and AI Rig Complex above Cointelegraph’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.