Animoca Brands 2026 – Stablecoin & RWA: a turning point in repositioning the Web3 ecosystem

Imagine the 2020–2022 period as the “festival season” of Web3: NFTs exploded, blockchain games popped up everywhere, and retail money poured into narratives like play-to-earn, the metaverse, and meme coins.

But after the major market correction:

• The profitability of pure tokenomics-driven games dropped sharply.
• Institutional investors (funds, family offices, banks) were no longer attracted to highly volatile tokens, and instead cared more about stablecoins, bonds, money-market funds, and products with real yields.
• Regulators (U.S., EU, Hong Kong, Singapore…) began establishing legal frameworks for stablecoins and RWA to avoid repeating the “chaos” of Luna and FTX.

In that context, Animoca—originally known for games and NFTs—noticed several things:

• New capital no longer lies in “play-to-earn,” but in “yield-to-trust.”
• Real-yield assets + licensed stablecoins → attractive to institutional money.
• RWA (bonds, real estate, asset-management products) + stablecoins are becoming the “backbone” of a more serious, financially grounded Web3.

Hong Kong is rebuilding its image as a digital finance hub

• The HKMA launched a stablecoin sandbox in 2024, followed by the Stablecoin Ordinance in 2025, creating a structured licensing regime.
• With headquarters in Hong Kong, Animoca benefits from geography, networks, and supportive policies.

IPO / U.S. listing is approaching

• Animoca is preparing a reverse merger to list on Nasdaq; owning licensed stablecoin + RWA businesses makes its valuation story far more appealing than being “just a gaming company.”

Therefore, if the previous era established Animoca as “the digital-asset powerhouse in gaming,” then from 2026 onward, its ambition is to become “an infrastructure conglomerate connecting real-world finance with Web3” — a narrative that appeals to both retail and institutional investors alike.

1. Anchorpoint Stablecoin – Hong Kong’s pivot

1.1. Joint-venture structure

Participants:

• Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) – SCBHK: an international bank specializing in custody, compliance, and financial infrastructure.
• HKT: Hong Kong’s major telecommunications and digital-services conglomerate.
• Animoca Brands: a “Web3 ecosystem builder” with a large network of dApps, games, and metaverse platforms.

Objective:

• Establish Anchorpoint Financial Limited in Hong Kong.
• Apply for a stablecoin issuance license under Hong Kong’s new legal framework.

1.2. Regulatory context & opportunity

High-level timeline:

• 03/2024: HKMA announces a Sandbox for institutions wishing to test stablecoin models.
• 07/2024: Standard Chartered, Animoca, and HKT enter the Sandbox to test stablecoin designs in a “supervised but flexible” environment.
• 08/2025: The Stablecoin Ordinance takes effect, creating a formal, law-based licensing regime.
• 08/2025: Anchorpoint officially states its intention to apply for a stablecoin issuer license to the HKMA.

Key point: If Anchorpoint becomes one of the first-generation issuers to obtain a license, they gain:

• First-mover advantage in the HKD stablecoin market.
• The reputation of being “fully compliant, backed by a bank,” fundamentally different from offshore issuers.

1.3. Value model: what Anchorpoint does and what Animoca gains

Simplified value flow:

• Anchorpoint issues the stablecoin (possibly HKD-pegged or backed by a basket of assets).
• SCBHK manages the reserve, ensuring 100% backing and strict regulatory compliance.
• HKT leverages its merchant network, users, and Hong Kong payment infrastructure.
• Animoca integrates the stablecoin into:
  • games and metaverse platforms (The Sandbox, Anichess),
  • the NUVA RWA marketplace,
  • the DeFi/Web3 infrastructure they invest in.

Strategic benefits for Animoca:

• Gains partial control over the “currency” within its ecosystem → reduces dependence on USDT/USDC.
• Enables the narrative: “We’re not just a gaming company, but a licensed payments and financial infrastructure provider.”
• Uses Standard Chartered’s compliance credibility as a global regulatory “halo,” boosting trust with international regulators.

2. RWA ecosystem & NUVA – Animoca’s real-world asset layer

2.1. Who is participating in Animoca’s RWA stack?

2.2. NUVA – The on-chain vault marketplace

NUVA is described as an “on-chain vault marketplace” for RWA:

A platform where vaults containing real-world assets (bonds, real estate, asset-management products, etc.) are tokenized and distributed to global investors.

• Scheduled to launch Q4 2025, leveraging Provenance’s existing ~$15.7B RWA pool.

Typical workflow:

1. Fosun / Hang Feng identify an asset product (e.g., an investment-grade bond portfolio).
2. FinChain + legal partners structure the product:
   1. SPV / fund setup,
   2. terms & conditions,
   3. yield-distribution mechanism.
3. The asset is tokenized and placed into a vault on NUVA.
4. Investors buy vault tokens using stablecoins (in the future: Anchorpoint HKD stablecoin + other major stablecoins).
5. Yields are paid on-chain, potentially via automated distribution.

2.3. The strategic meaning of RWA for Animoca

• Builds a recurring revenue layer from platform and structuring fees, independent of the cyclical volatility of gaming/NFT.
• Enables cross-selling to existing user bases in Mocaverse, Moca ID, and partner ecosystems.
• Creates a dual-layer asset model:

1. Entertainment layer:

• In-game assets, NFTs → community-driven, narrative-driven.

2. Financial layer:

• RWA vaults → defensive, yield-bearing, attractive to large capital.

This gives Animoca a more balanced and scalable business stack: culture + capital, gaming + financial infrastructure.

3. Impact on The Sandbox, Moca ID, Anichess, and EDU Chain

* Case 1 – The Sandbox: a metaverse evolving into an “entertainment-finance city”

Current state: The Sandbox is primarily a gaming/social metaverse where users buy land, build experiences, and activate brand campaigns.

With stablecoins & RWA enabled:

Payments

• Users can buy land and items using a licensed stablecoin, reducing volatility and increasing suitability for enterprises and institutions.
• Large brands and traditional partners can account for transactions more easily, since payments use a regulated stablecoin instead of volatile tokens.

New product possibilities

• “RWA Galleries”: areas in The Sandbox where tokenized RWA products are showcased and transacted—combining financial products with gamified experiences.
• Virtual financial events (roadshows, product launches) with settlement happening on-chain through the stablecoin + NUVA vaults.

In simple terms: The Sandbox evolves from a game → into a front-end experiential layer for real-world assets.

* Case 2 – Moca ID / Mocaverse: on-chain identity for regulated assets

Moca ID is the identity layer Animoca is building for its ecosystem.

With RWA & regulated stablecoins, identity, KYC, and AML are no longer “optional”—they’re mandatory:

• RWA products must comply with each country’s securities/asset-management legislation.
• Investors must be categorized (retail, professional, accredited, etc.).

Moca ID can become:

• The Web3 identity stack for RWA users.
• A single Moca ID contains KYC clearance (represented through tokenized access rights).
• Users can access multiple Animoca protocols without repeating KYC.

=> This is a critical component for Animoca if it wants to operate in “real” RWA, not just crypto-native assets.

* Case 3 – EDU Chain: educational finance built on stablecoin rails

EDU Chain targets Web3 / on-chain education infrastructure.

With the stablecoin + RWA stack:

• Tuition, grants, and scholarships can be paid out or settled in stablecoin, removing token volatility risk.
• RWA-based “Education Funds” can emerge—investing in defensive assets (e.g., bonds), with yields used to fund scholarships or coursework.

This creates an impact-finance angle—highly appealing to regulators and ESG-oriented investors.

* Case 4 – Anichess and the broader gaming ecosystem

For games like Anichess:

Simplified cross-border payments Players worldwide can deposit/withdraw using a recognized stablecoin—no more reliance on CEX conversions or illiquid game tokens.

Game + real-world asset integration

• Tournaments prize pools paid in regulated stablecoins.
• Rewards can even be linked to RWA products (funds, vaults).

In essence: Games become distribution & experiential channels for financial assets, not just places to burn tokens.

4. Risks & Challenges – Viewed from a cautious investor’s perspective

“A stablecoin license in Hong Kong is a zero-tolerance game.”

Hong Kong’s framework for stablecoins is extremely strict: 100% reserves, risk management standards, audits, capital requirements, and governance procedures.

Implication:

• Anchorpoint must meet bank-level regulatory standards, not a “move fast, break things” startup mentality.
• Compliance, operations, and legal costs will be high—beyond what most gaming-native startups can handle.

“RWA is attractive, but the legal and operational burden is far heavier than crypto-native products.”

RWA requires navigating:

• Multi-jurisdictional legal frameworks: securities law, asset-management rules, taxation, and cross-border transfer restrictions.
• Valuation and auditing of real-world assets, off-chain custodianship, and bridging those assets on-chain.

If Animoca fails to manage this properly:

• They may become stuck between DeFi expectations (fast, open, composable) and TradFi constraints (slow, compliance-heavy).
• RWA products may end up being just “marketing wrappers”—without real liquidity or compelling yield.

“MoUs are not revenue, and they are not licenses.”

• The partnership with Hang Feng is currently only an MoU, not a full-scale implementation contract.
• Anchorpoint has only expressed intent to apply for a stablecoin license—none has been granted yet.

Meaning:

• The narrative is strong, but execution risk remains high.
• Investors must distinguish between “what the company says it will do” and “what the company has already done and monetized.”

“Stablecoin competition is intense, even in Asia.”

Beyond Anchorpoint, there are:

• Other bank-backed and fintech-backed stablecoin initiatives targeting Hong Kong and similar markets.
• Globally, Circle, Paxos, and Tether are also advancing aggressively.

Anchorpoint’s advantage lies in Web3 distribution + bank-grade compliance, but to succeed, they must deliver:

• Strong UX for both retail users and institutions,
• A real merchant / dApp / DeFi network that actively uses the stablecoin—not just a token that sits idle.

5. Conclusion – Is Animoca truly “changing its core”?

If we had to summarize Animoca’s 2026 strategy in a few lines:

Animoca is evolving from a “Web3 gaming and NFT publisher” into a “financial–content–digital asset infrastructure conglomerate”—a company that connects real-world assets with virtual economies, with Hong Kong positioned as its strategic hub.

Strategic pillars

Licensed stablecoin (Anchorpoint) → The payment and liquidity layer.

RWA & NUVA → The defensive, yield-bearing asset layer.

Gaming, metaverse, identity, EDU Chain → The application and experience layer—where assets, flows, and users interact.

What this architecture unlocks

• Animoca reduces dependence on the volatile boom-bust cycles of gaming and NFT narratives.
• It opens the door for institutional capital—banks, funds, family offices—to enter the ecosystem.
• It builds a compelling narrative for IPO positioning and long-term valuation, provided execution is strong.

But the transformation is far from guaranteed

The entire strategy depends heavily on:

• Successfully securing the stablecoin license—the foundation of every other component.
• Delivering real tokenization and real RWA distribution, not stopping at MoUs and press releases.
• Integrating its existing assets (The Sandbox, Mocaverse, Anichess, EDU Chain) as true application front-ends, rather than letting them float as isolated products outside the new financial stack.

Final thought

If Animoca executes well, it won’t just be a gaming empire or an NFT pioneer—it will become one of the first global companies to unify real finance + digital economies + cultural IP under a single Web3-native infrastructure.

Disclaimer:The information provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, legal, or professional advice. Always conduct your own research, consider your financial situation, and, if necessary, consult with a licensed professional before m