The Sandbox, an Ethereum metaverse game platform, announced Wednesday that it has raised $20 million in convertible promissory notes at a $1 billion valuation. That makes the long-running project the latest crypto “unicorn,” based on the billion-dollar valuation.

The latest funding round was led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands; Animoca, a prominent metaverse investment firm, is also the parent of The Sandbox’s operating company, Bacasable Global Limited. LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures also participated in the round.

"We are deeply honored by the continuing commitment to the vision of The Sandbox, and we're incredibly excited about the future of composable user-generated content games," said Animoca co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu, in a statement.

With the new funding in tow, The Sandbox’s development team said that its key priorities include improving creator tools, adding new social and gameplay features, and developing a mobile version scheduled for 2025.

The Sandbox is one of the most prominent blockchain games, thanks to partnerships with over 400 celebrities and brands—including Snoop Dogg, Gucci, and Paris Hilton—and previously immense demand for in-game land plots sold via NFTs. In fact, someone paid $450,000 worth of crypto for a land plot near Snoop Dogg’s metaverse mansion in 2021.

The game’s SAND token on Ethereum remains one of the 100 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world based on market cap, per data from CoinGecko. However, the price of its NFT land plots has fallen sharply since metaverse hype peaked in early 2022—from 3.9 ETH ($11,700) to 0.08 ETH ($300) today.

"Our mission at The Sandbox is to develop creative tools and technologies that bring fairness and new opportunities for all types of creators in the open metaverse," said The Sandbox co-founder and CEO Arthur Madrid, in a release.

Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Andrew Hayward.