Play-to-earn to be one of biggest markets in crypto, says Balthazar CEO

Scholarship-driven NFT gaming platform Balthazar has announced it raised $3m in its first token sale valuing the DAO at $30m.

According to its CEO John Stefanidis, the company aims to be the largest decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) in the play-to-earn space.

He explained the project was a community-focused platform “removing the barrier to entry for gamers to access play-to-earn games through its scholarship program with no upfront costs”.

Crypto gaming is emerging as a new way to make money, and Stefanidis revealed to Coin Rivet he believes the play-to-earn sector will become one of the biggest markets in crypto this year.

“We’ve already seen incredible growth in this space and it will continue to grow and the biggest play-to-earn game, Axie Infinity, was the second-highest in revenue behind Ethereum in the past year, generating $1.3bn,” he said.

“Also, we’ve just seen Microsoft acquire Activision Blizzard going for $68.7bn and the fact is that many other gaming developers are investing in blockchain-based games.

“Millions of people all over the world, particularly in parts of South-East Asia and other developing countries, are joining the play-to-earn revolution and we’re seeing a redistribution of wealth to people who need it the most.”

Stefanidis explained Balthazar was an ecosystem inside the play-to-earn space.

“Our mission is to build an incredible platform that empowers the largest community of gamers, crypto holders, investors and gaming companies to play these games, earn rewards, earn yields, trade, learn and connect with people in the metaverse,” he said.

“We have over 70,000 people in our Discord community, 1500 people in our scholarship program and over 35,000 people on our waitlist.”

However, he stressed Balthazar was “more than just a guild” because it was “building an entire ecosystem that connects every side of the play-to-earn space, not just our Wizards in our scholarship program”.

“We want to make it easy for people to buy, sell and stake their NFTs, invest and earn yields in games, play games, and launch their games for our community to play,” he added.

“We’re taking a holistic approach to remove barriers and make it as simple as possible for more people to access this market.”

When talking about scholars and why it is good for them to play games, Stefanidis explains that the biggest barrier for people was the upfront cost of buying the NFTs needed to play that often can be very expensive.

“Balthazar removes the barrier to entry for many people who can’t afford the high costs,” he said.

“We also make it easier for people to play, as you don’t need to work out which NFTs to buy and how to acquire them, we have an onboarding team who help people connect and get started.”