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Futureverse has acquired Candy Digital, the NFT platform previously backed by the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Galaxy Digital and Consensys. The deal comes 18 months after Candy Digital and Palm NFT Studio announced a merger, and just over 2 years after Fanatics and Michael Rubin divested a 60% share in the business, reportedly at a big loss.

At the time, Rubin said:

“Over the past year, it has become clear that NFTs are unlikely to be sustainable or profitable as a standalone business”

Following the divestment, Candy Digital raised over $38m, adding to the $100m Series A the business raised in October 2021, which would value them at a whopping $1.5bn.

Regarding the Futurverse acquisition, Matt Novogratz, Co-Founder & SVP of Candy Digital, said:

Candy Digital still boast deals with MLB, DC Comics, amongst other big name IP.

[Pssst. Reminder we had their CEO Scott Lawin on the podcast last year!]

Futureverse has established itself as a prominent tech company in digital assets, gaming, metaverse and AI.

In July 2023, they secured a $54m Series A raise, making it one of the most well-funded and highest valuation tech startups to come out of New Zealand.

The company has built an extensive portfolio of IP deals with entertainment companies, including Warner Music Group.

Their focus has been on developing platform services and infrastructure rather than simply selling NFTs, which is where Futureverse began, as a merger of 11 different NFT projects.

They have a range of products, services and networks such as:

This acquisition of Candy Digital means they are doubling down on utilising IP, and for Candy Digital, they are finally able to become part of a business with much more mature, cutting-edge technology stack where that IP can be utilised in a bigger variety of ways.

The NFT market has undergone a significant correction since its 2021-2022 peak.

Total NFT trading volumes across major marketplaces have declined substantially, with the speculative frenzy giving way to maturity in specific use cases and verticals.

Over the last 12 months, trading volumes have mostly consolidated around $100m per week, with specific periods seeing heightened activity.

This downturn has forced companies to reevaluate their business models. Those who raised capital at peak valuations, like Candy Digital, faced particular pressure to justify those valuations in a cooling market. That then shifted from emphasis on pure speculation to utility, infrastructure, and integration with broader digital experiences, for many NFT based businesses.

Indeed, Candy Digital have built out features that look more akin to a digital loyalty product with gamified challenges, exclusive and unlockable experiences, commemorative tickets and more — but the core focus of the business has always been, and still is, leveraging IP and selling digital collectibles.

Within the sports vertical, the picture is more nuanced.

Some sports NFT-based businesses, like Candy Digital, have consolidated, such as NBA Top Shot — hovering between $1.5-2.5m in monthly sales over the last month. A far cry from their lofty numbers at the beginning of 2021 to mid-2022.

NFT Fantasy game Sorare have also seen a drop off in monthly sales, although the Paris-based unicorn have still racked up ~$150m in sales over the last 12 months.

Whilst many of the darlings of yesteryear have consolidated, others have found success.

Panini Blockchain saw their best-ever month in March 2025.

The model is no different to Panini’s physical business, but this time on a blockchain. With that in mind, it’s safe to directly compare them in terms of model, at least, to NBA Top Shot.

Another business thriving in this market is Courtyard.io, recently posting back-to-back $50m monthly sales. They are currently the fastest-growing company in crypto, per their CEO.

Their model takes physical trading cards on the back end, and gives users an NFT on the front end as a receipt of ownership, which is then freely tradeable.

When divesting from Candy Digital, Rubin said:

“Aside from physical collectibles (trading cards) driving 99% of the business, we believe digital products will have more value and utility when connected to physical collectibles to create the best experience for collectors.”

Rubin was seemingly right, but it was not fanatics who built out that model.

If you looked at both these companies in early 2022, and concluded that Futureverse would acquire Candy Digital, it would seem quite ludicrous. But their trajectories since then have reflected where most NFT businesses went wrong; making ‘selling’ NFTs the core competency of the business.

Whilst Futureverse started as an NFT-based entity, they have quickly built out a suite of products, services, platforms and games that they can not only monetise, but also test with their own NFT products, in turn offering an amalgamation of these products and services to IP when going to the negotiating table.

Candy Digital have tried to do this via M&A rather than R&D, with their merger with Palm 18 months ago, at the time feeling like a move to a full stack approach, with underlying infrastructure. But the offering since the merger has not changed, and in retrospect, it feels more like a merger to create a bigger IP content library.

But on the second time of asking, Candy Digital are now part of a full-stack tech business with an abundance of offerings, but likely as a much smaller component than they would have hoped for when seeking out a deal like this.

Rubin’s claim that NFTs could not be a standalone business was correct in broad strokes. And the businesses that have developed from simply selling them or creating new models (Courtyard) have thrived.

Acquisitions of this size are only just beginning, in my opinion.

In our 2025 predictions, I wrote:

When raising at a $1.5bn valuation in 2021, Candy Digital were likely projecting against an exuberant NFT market, which eventually and understandably slowed down.

They are not the only ones, and I think many businesses like this are considering their options, which are few and far between; slowly die, close up shop and return remaining funds to investors, sell by PE or get acquired by someone that values your business. That’s not to say Candy Digital were failing, but many companies raising at lofty valuations in that era are struggling.

The business model of simply acquiring sports IP and selling it as NFTs is one of the past, as is the era of high minimum guarantees being paid to rights holders, except for perhaps crypto exchanges, who have slightly different objectives with their marketing spend.

This acquisition positions the Futureverse with:

Owning the full technology stack and being able to create digital experiences for teams, leagues, and other IP holders that genuinely engage fans represents the future direction of this market, and therefore positions Futureverse well.

Simultaneously, Candy Digital’s deal-making and relationships with major IP are valuable and enable Futureverse to multiply their content library in one fell swoop.

And as per press releases, that content library migrates to Futureverse’s tech stack, allowing the IP protection to be directly embedded on chain:

“Candy’s premium IP and expansive content library will be integrated into The Root Network, Futureverse’s layer 1 blockchain, which will address brand concerns around AI, creative rights, and ownership. No longer relying on outdated legal frameworks, Futureverse embeds IP protection directly into its technology—giving these brands the power to unlock new revenue and allow their protected assets to be safely used across gaming and new digital experiences in this next phase of the internet.“

It will be fascinating to see how much more expansive the product offering becomes for Candy’s partners and how quickly Futureverse will cross-pollinate their ecosystem with these huge brands.

This resembles the largest merger in this intersection since Nike x RTFKT in late 2021, and I don’t think it’ll be the last of this year.

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