GameSquare spent $5 million on NFT from CryptoPunks

Public media company GameSquare has acquired the CryptoPunk #5577 non-interchangeable token for $5.15 million from its previous owner, Compound and Superstate founder Robert Leshner. The deal was not in dollars, but in the form of GameSquare preferred stock – about 3.4 million securities in all, convertible at $1.5 apiece.

Leshner became the owner of CryptoPunk #5577 in February 2022, paying 2501 ETH for NFT, which was then worth $7.7 million. After the deal, he joined GameSquare as an external digital asset advisor.

GameSquare CEO Justin Kenna said that this purchase is not just an investment, but a declaration of the company’s values. According to him, GameSquare is building a next-generation media platform in which cryptocurrency will play a key role.

In addition to the NFT purchase, GameSquare announced a $10 million acquisition of ETH. According to the company, its total Ethereum reserve has already reached $52 million, and this portfolio will eventually grow to $250 million.

Amid the announcement of investments in NFT and cryptocurrencies, GameSquare’s shares under the ticker GAME did not show any noticeable dynamics and are trading at $1.3. However, earlier in July, the company’s securities rose by 60% after the first news about the strategy with ETH.

According to analysts, the growth of institutional players’ interest in NFT is connected with the market revival. Earlier in June, a rare token from the CryptoPunks collection was sold for $7.8 million, after which the total capitalization of the NFT sector exceeded $6 billion.