Solana invests $ 100 million in South Korean web3 startups, with a focus on games

The recent collapse of the Terra network prompted South Korean authorities to introduce measures to control cryptocurrency exchanges. Reports found that around 280.000 South Koreans were victims of the unexpected UST and LUNA crash.

However, users continue to hold out and investors aren't holding back. The cryptocurrency crash didn't leave them dismayed, and some have clung to the belief that the cryptocurrency is too big to be allowed to fail.

To add further hope, Solana (SOL) was the latest to bring funds into the cryptocurrency industry.

A $ 100 million fund to support NFT, gaming and DeFi projects

Solana blockchain key players, Solana Ventures and Solana Foundation, have jointly created a $ 100 million fund to support cryptocurrency projects in South Korea. The funds will specifically focus on gaming projects, non-fungible tokens (NFTs). ) and DeFi.

Johnny B. Lee, general manager of games for the Solana Foundation, told Bloomberg that the fund will also support Earth-based platforms, blocked by the collapse of the blockchain. He noted that:

"The developers didn't do anything really wrong, but they were left in the lurch."

According to Austin Federa, communications manager at Solana Labs, the fund is backed by money from the Solana community treasury, as well as the venture arm's capital pool.

Lee predicted that more "fun, high-quality games" on the Solana blockchain will be launched in the second half of 2022. He also noted that the industry will soon adopt web3 games as much as free-to-play games on mobile devices. He told TechCrunch:

"Much of the Korean gaming industry is moving to the web3, and we want to be flexible."

In addition to the capital inflow, Solana plans to offer South Korean developers some product and engineering help.

The cryptocurrency gaming industry in South Korea

According to data from Statista, the overall gaming market in South Korea is expected to be valued at $ 18,3 billion this year.

While this figure covers the entire gaming industry and not cryptocurrency-related games, the number has steadily increased. Andrew Campbell, head of the Esports program and content creator programs at Sky Mavis (the company that develops Axie Infinity), told Blockworks:

"There is a very strong gaming culture in South Korea and the distribution channels are much more centralized."

In what is the toughest video game market in the world, South Korean technology and gaming leaders like Nexon, Smilegate and Netmarble have pinned their hopes on blockchain technology to create new business models. For example, with a market cap of $ 21,43 billion, Nexon made headlines in 2021 for buying 1.171 bitcoins (quotation BTC).

Solana price analysis

Solana's price has been bullish after falling 0,30% in the past 24 hours. The altcoin has faced resistance at the $ 44,44 level, while solid support is seen at the $ 38,44 level. As of press time, the digital asset is currently trading at $ 39,56.

On June 1, the Solana network was down for more than six hours and the transactions could not be processed. This led to a 12% drop in the value of SOL.

This sharp one-day drop came less than a month after the token suffered a 24% drop, due to market instability due to the collapse of Terra's flagship UST stablecoin.