Animoca’s Yat Siu doubles down on Web3 while others pull back

For all its faults, the crypto industry never seems to suffer from a lack of faith. Despite the stomach-turning volatility, reports of large-scale fraud, and questionable economics, the belief in cryptocurrencies has risen almost to a level of religious fervor.

Perhaps no one exemplifies that confidence and belief in crypto more than Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based Web3 game developer.

“Despite the fact that the entire industry has been dragged through the mud, do you have the conviction to say you have faith and believe in what you’re doing? That’s what we did,” Siu tells Tech in Asia. “We see many of the other gaming companies – some of whom are still around – become a little ashamed.”

Since 2018, Animoca has been at the center of a subset of Web3 known as GameFi. Often called play-to-earn, GameFi rose to prominence in 2021, only to crash the year after due to poor game economics, massive volatility, and notoriously low-quality gameplay.

But while many game developers floundered in 2022, Animoca recorded growth, with bookings reaching US$573 million and total assets valued at around US$3 billion that year.

The firm also continued to raise capital. It has secured over US$500 million in total funding, including US$110 million from Temasek and GGV Capital.

​It wasn’t until 2023, when the entire crypto market languished following the FTX fiasco, that Animoca’s bookings fell. But a year later, its annual bookings were up by over 12%, and its total assets rose by 43%.

Building Amazon-like revenue streams

According to the company, Animoca’s digital asset advisory division generated US$165 million in 2024, a 116% year-on-year increase. This means that the company earned more from consulting services – which includes helping clients manage and execute their token launches – than it did from its traditional Web3 business, which earned US$110 million last year.

Of the revenue from its advisory unit, US$68 million came from Animoca advising on 21 Web3 projects, including Pixels and Pengu.

Siu says that despite the surge in revenue from the advisory business, it will not lead to changes in the company’s priorities. “We shouldn’t expect that necessarily the digital asset advisory business to grow at the same rate as it did, but it becomes just another avenue of growth,” he explains.

Diversifying itself in multiple Web3-related revenue streams is the one thing that Animoca has done well, he adds.

The company’s core Web3 business includes blockchain-based sales and in-app purchases. Meanwhile, the advisory division includes market-making, treasury management, blockchain node operations, and yield-generating trading strategies.

See also: Animoca’s meteoric rise from zombie to $5b Web3 empire

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