Animoca Brands Suspends Currenc Merger, Delays IPO Timeline

Animoca Brands and Currenc Group have suspended their merger talks, the companies announced Monday, shelving what would have been the gaming and blockchain firm's fastest route to a public listing.

Both companies said the closing timeline no longer matched their short and medium-term plans. Neither party disclosed whether valuation disagreements, regulatory friction, or shifting business priorities drove the decision, leaving open the possibility that this is a tactical pause rather than a clean break.

The proposed deal was structured as a reverse merger, a mechanism that allows a private company to go public by merging with an already-listed shell or operating entity, bypassing the traditional IPO roadshow process. For Animoca, it represented a shortcut to public markets that the company has been chasing for several years.

Animoca confirmed it remains committed to a public listing on a major exchange, keeping the door open for a conventional IPO or a separate reverse merger arrangement down the line. That commitment signals continuity of intent to investors watching the company's public market ambitions closely, though it does not come with a revised timeline or a named target exchange.

Reverse mergers have faced growing skepticism from regulators and institutional investors over the past two years. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has tightened disclosure requirements for shell company transactions and scrutinized the quality of companies using that route. Animoca's choice to pursue a reverse merger reflected the difficulty of navigating a traditional IPO process for a crypto-adjacent firm with a complex portfolio of gaming assets, tokens, and minority stakes across hundreds of projects.

Animoca Brands, founded in Hong Kong and backed by investors including Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Liberty City Ventures, is one of the most prominent names in blockchain gaming and Web3 infrastructure. The company holds stakes in projects spanning nonfungible tokens, play-to-earn games, and metaverse platforms. Its valuation has fluctuated significantly with broader crypto market cycles, complicating any fixed-price public offering.

The suspension resets the clock on a process that has already stretched across multiple market cycles. Whether the company pursues a direct listing, a fresh reverse merger target, or a conventional IPO will depend heavily on market conditions in the months ahead and on whether institutional appetite for crypto-native companies has stabilized enough to support a credible offering.