NFT companies were a big M&A target during first half of the year

Quick Take

  • 20 of the 53 NFT and GameFi M&A deals since 2013 occurred in the first two quarters of 2022.
  • A record high number of 12 deals in these spaces took place in 2022’s second quarter, despite the NFT market cool down. 

Companies operating in the non-fungible token market are seeing their presence in crypto deal-making increase, according to data compiled by The Block. 

Around 38% of merger and acquisitions among non-fungible token (NFT) and so-called game finance (GameFi) companies occurred over the past two quarters. 

Fifty-three M&A deals in NFT and GameFi occurred since 2013, a July 13 report published by John Dantoni from The Block Research found. The first and second quarters of 2022 saw eight and twelve deals respectively. These 20 deals making it the largest uptick in M&A deals in these industries ever. 

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The record twelve deals in the second quarter of 2022 occurred during an NFT market cool down, in which floor prices and market volume fell considerably. 

At the beginning of the year, NFTs were largely thought to be insulated from market conditions since they provide more functionality, such as access to an exclusive community or in-game usage, than other types of crypto tokens. These assets—like art or release estate—are also more illiquid, meaning more difficult to sell. This insulation did not last, but it seems that NFT companies are still an M&A target in the bear market. 

In fact, the highest M&A deal of the 2022’s second quarter involved NFTs and GameFi, specifically OpenSea’s acquisition of Gem for $238 million.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.