Photo credit: Animoca Brands/X

Web3 giant Animoca Brands is considering a public listing, possibly in the Middle East or Hong Kong, in 2025, The Information reported on June 26.

The Hong Kong-headquartered company has held meetings with investment banks but has not finalized a location for a possible initial public offering (IPO) or hired an adviser, the report said, citing co-founder Yat Siu.

Founded in 2014, Animoca Brands is known for developing and publishing games and other products that utilize popular intellectual properties in sports and entertainment. The company also holds numerous subsidiaries, including metaverse platform The Sandbox and gamified learning TinyTap, and stands as a major Web3 investor, with over 400 investments in companies such as Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, blockchain game Axie Infinity, and non-fungible token (NFT) platform OpenSea.

The company was previously listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The shares were delisted from the platform in March 2020, citing concerns about the Web3 firm’s compliance with listing rules, particularly regarding its investments in crypto and blockchain-related businesses. These investments were deemed incompatible with the exchange’s existing financial and asset regulations.

In September 2022, it announced raising $110 million in a funding round led by Temasek, Boyu Capital, and GGV Capital, boosting its valuation at the time to $5.9 billion.

Animoca Brands’s executive chairman recently made headlines when he secured a multi-million dollar loan from Galaxy Digital, using a tokenized Stradivarius violin as collateral. The violin, once owned by Russian Empress Catherine the Great, was purchased by Siu for $9 million.

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