Animoca — the mobile game maker that more than doubled last week on strong sales of its latest battle game — has signed a deal to publish cryptocurrency game CryptoKitties in China.

Anomica shares (ASX:AB1) jumped 60 per cent on the news — and cooled slightly to 10.5c at 11.30am AEDT Wednesday — still up 50 per cent.

The company has reached 10-bagger status in just the past month since trading at 1c on December 29.

Much-hyped CryptoKitties — which lets users breed and trade virtual kittens using cryptocurrency ethereum — flourished in the western world at the height of cryptocurrency hype. But China was left out due to local regulations.

Chinese developers came up with clones the likes of Beckoning Cat and Cloud Petstore but they didn’t match the original.

Shares in AB1 over the past week.
Animoca (ASX:AB1) shares over the past week.

CryptoKitties is the first major blockchain game, built by Vancouver-based developers Axiom Zen.

In the first month alone, the total value of transactions of CryptoKitties was about $US20 million ($25 million).

Animoca told the company it was a move into the blockchain gaming sector.

“CryptoKitties allows players to adopt, raise, and trade virtual cats, and it represents one of the earliest attempts to deploy blockchain technology for recreational and leisurely purposes,” the company told investors on Thursday.

In December 2017, one CryptoKitties virtual cat sold for a record ETH 250 (approximately A$330,000 at present value).

Alongside CryptoKitties, the company also announced acquisition of a controlling stake in gaming tech Fuel Powered – giving it exposure to AI capabilities as well.

“The acquisition of a controlling stake in Fuel Powered represents the Company’s strategic advances into the lucrative AI and blockchain gaming sectors, leading to opportunities for the development of new products utilising Animoca Brands’ existing intellectual properties, brand relationships, licensed IPs and the strategic partnership with Mattel,” they told the market.

Animoca will pay $750,000 for a 60 per cent stake in Fuel Powered, the remaining 40 per cent of which is held by the Fuel Powered founding management team.

And that still leaves Animoca with plenty of cash in the bank – the company completing a $3.25 million placement at a 6c issue price.