CryptoKitties, the Ethereum-based virtual collectible game developed by Blockchain startup Axiom Zen, has raised $12 mln in funding from a group of investors, led by two top venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, as reported by CryptoKitties’ Medium account on March 21.

CryptoKitties has raised $12M to make the blockchain purr. https://t.co/1NQKSdVJNV — CryptoKitties (谜恋猫) (@CryptoKitties) March 21, 2018

Both venture capital firms also invested in cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase. Andreessen Horowitz was also one of the early Facebook believers, and Union Square was an early Twitter investor, according to Fortune.

Other investors in CryptoKitties include such big names as AngelList founder Naval Ravikant, former Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, BitFury Head Of Strategy Committee Bill Tai, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus.

Launched on Nov. 28, 2017, CryptoKitties game became the largest decentralized application (DApp) based on Ethereum on Dec. 4, when the DApp’s smart contracts amount reached as high as 13.94 percent of Ethereum’s transaction volume over 1,500 blocks, even causing network congestion.

CryptoKitties lets users create and breed virtual cats, storing the digital genetic material on the Blockchain. Then, users can buy and sell the cats using the ETH cryptocurrency, which means users have to buy Ethereum in order to play. Two months after the game was released to the public, the ETH increased by over 152 percent, from $469 on Nov. 28 to $1185 on Jan. 28. ETH is currently trading at $556, according to the Cointelegraph Ethereum price index.

Blockchain technology is changing the gaming industry, bringing more Blockchain-backed games based on different networks, such as card game Spells of Genesis based on the Bitcoin (BTC) Blockchain, and Beyond the Void, based on Nexium (NXC), the token of gaming ecosystem Nexarium. Reddit user BlockchainGame created a list of released and upcoming Blockchain-based games that is already 62 games long.