The Sandbox Plans to Raise $400M at $4 Billion Valuation

The Sandbox, an Animoca Brand Corp-owned blockchain-based online game, is looking to raise $400 million in a fresh funding round that would put its valuation at $4 billion.

• The metaverse platform is in talks with new and existing investors, people familiar with the matter said.

• The Sandbox is a platform built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to buy, sell, trade and own digital assets in a virtual world. Assets are bought and sold in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and can represent plots of land, cars, art and other property.

• Among its recent users was global bank HSBC, which last month bought a plot of land in Sandbox. The bank planned to develop that virtual parcel of land to engage with sports, e-sports and gaming fans on the platform.

• SAND, the platform’s native token, was priced at $2.82 at the time of writing and boasts a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, data shows.

• Last November, The Sandbox, which is majority-owned by blockchain gaming firm Animoca Brands, raised $93 million in a Series B funding round that was led by SoftBank.

• Aside from the potential funding round, Sebastien Borgen – co-founder and the chief operating officer of The Sandbox – recently refuted any assumptions that the company would conduct an IPO to go public.

• The platform did not immediately respond to a request for comment.