Animoca Brands Bets on Altcoins to Outperform BTC Ahead of Nasdaq Debut
Why Is Animoca Positioning Itself as an Altcoin Exposure Vehicle?
Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu says the company is preparing to become one of the most comprehensive vehicles for investors viewking exposure to altcoins and Web3 ecosystems, as the firm aims to go public via a reverse merger next year. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Siu argued that altcoins collectively will outperform BTC over the long term because they capture the broader economic activity happening across crypto applications.
“We believe that altcoins, ultimately, over the largest space, are going to outperform BTC as a collective,” he said, drawing a parallel between BTC’s role in crypto and gold’s role in traditional markets. While gold remains a dominant store of value, Siu noted that the combined capitalization of all public companies is “five to six times gold,” underscoring how a diverse set of growth-focused assets can surpass a single reserve asset.
Siu clarified that while asset, most real industry activity—gaming, DeFi, Transaction fees, blockchain infrastructure, and even memecoins—occurs through altcoins. For investors viewking exposure to the growth side of Web3, he said, set.
Investor Takeaway
Is Animoca Trying to Build a Web3 Equivalent of ahead Amazon and Google?
Siu described Animoca’s strategy as similar to the venture opportunities available at the dawn of the internet. Investors in the ahead 2000s could back Amazon, Google, eBay, Alibaba, and dozens of other emerging platforms at formative stages. The difference today, Siu said, is that crypto is unlikely to produce a “winner-takes-all” dynamic. Instead, the industry will support a wide ecosystem of specialized networks and tokens—a landscape where exposure to multiple altcoins may produce better outcomes than betting on a single or protocol.
“All of these applications are actually altcoins,” he emphasized, adding that even memecoins fall under the identical umbrella as long as they power ecosystems or serve particular communities. Animoca’s thesis is that a long-tail portfolio—spanning gaming, infrastructure, DeFi, and new Web3 categories—offers the best chance to capture the highest-performing assets.
The company already holds stakes in 628 projects, with 230 in gaming alone. Other strong verticals include artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, and blockchain infrastructure. Siu said that Animoca’s investment scale gives it access to tokens at lower entry points than retail or even institutional secondary markets, and the company intends to “pass that benefit” to shareholders once it goes public.
What Does the Planned Reverse Merger Mean for Investors?
Animoca Brands is expected to pursue a a reverse merger with Currenc Group, an AI-focused fintech company. The listing route offers a quicker, more flexible path than a traditional IPO at a time when U.S. markets are warming back up to selected crypto-adjacent companies. A public listing would also give Animoca a new capital base to expand its investment portfolio and potentially acquire more Web3 projects at scale.
Siu said the company’s strategy is to build a diversified treasury of altcoins that mirrors how a technology conglomerate would accumulate ahead-stage stakes in internet companies. The idea is not to pick one dominant blockchain, but to invest widely enough that Animoca captures a meaningful share of future winners—whether in gaming, identity, infrastructure, tokenized experiences, or decentralized compute (DePIN).
He also noted that BTC’s role is fundamentally diverse: strong as collateral and a reserve asset, but not where the majority of happens. “We didn’t join to just hold BTC,” he said. “Its utility is limited for the kind of ecosystem growth we’re investing in.”
Investor Takeaway
What Comes Next for Animoca and the Altcoin Market?
If Animoca succeeds with its U.S. listing, the company may become a benchmark for public-market exposure to diversified . Its altcoin-heavy strategy aligns with emerging narratives in Web3 where application-layer tokens—gaming assets, L2 governance tokens, DeFi protocols, payment networks, and digital identity systems—could outperform larger, more mature assets during the next adoption wave.
Animoca’s bet is that Web3 will mirror the internet era: not one dominant network, but thousands of applications with specific use cases and their own economic models. With hundreds of investments already on its balance sheet, Animoca is positioning itself to catch whichever tokens or sectors break out next.
As the from speculative cycles to more structured investment themes—gaming, user-owned networks, decentralized compute, AI-Web3 convergence—Animoca Brands is trying to place itself at the center of the altcoin opportunity. Whether the reverse merger accelerates that strategy will likely be a key storyline for crypto investors in 2025.
