The Blockchain Legal Institute (BLI) spotlighted a major milestone for education finance on-chain, featuring an exclusive interview with Mohamed Ezeldin, president of Open Campus, conducted by Jacqueline Cooper, founder of the Blockchain Legal Institute and partner at Cogent Law Group.
The conversation explored the recently announced strategic partnership among Open Campus, Animoca Brands, and Rich Sparkle Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: ANPA), under which ANPA will purchase up to US$50 million in EDU tokens over 24 months via open‑market and OTC transactions. As part of the collaboration, Animoca Brands will contribute US$3 million in EDU tokens, marking one of the most significant institutional moves into the emerging Education Finance (EduFi) sector.
Bridging TradFi, EduFi, and Web3
In the interview, Ezeldin and Cooper discussed how ANPA’s entry into EduFi—leveraging its corporate client network of more than 190 publicly listed companies across Hong Kong and the United States—creates a new bridge between traditional capital markets and tokenized education finance. The EDU token serves as both the governance token for the Open Campus DAO and the native gas token for EDU Chain, a Layer 3 chain built on Arbitrum Orbit specifically for on‑chain education use cases.
Ezeldin emphasized that the partnership is a “defining moment” for bringing education into the same orbit of innovation that has transformed other sectors, aligning incentives between learners, educators, and institutions via a blockchain‑powered financial layer for education. Cooper highlighted how the deal illustrates the legal and regulatory questions that BLI helps stakeholders navigate—ranging from token governance and staking to securities, ESG, and cross‑border compliance.
Institutional conviction in blockchain for education
Under the agreement, ANPA’s EDU token purchases will be used primarily for staking, governance, and its EduFi market‑entry strategy, signaling growing institutional conviction that blockchain can make education finance more accessible, transparent, and impact‑driven. As a provider of ESG reporting and compliance services, ANPA will also work with Open Campus to design sustainable financing frameworks in emerging markets, directing capital toward education, inclusion, and socially beneficial initiatives.
During the interview, Cooper and Ezeldin explored how:
- EduFi can offer alternative models to traditional student lending and funding, particularly in markets facing high tuition and heavy debt burdens.
- Tokenization infrastructure can support scholarship pools, revenue‑sharing arrangements, and outcome‑based financing, governed transparently on‑chain.
- SRO‑style standards and best practices—such as those promoted by DARA and BLI’s ecosystem partners—can help protect learners and institutions while enabling responsible innovation.
Elevating education as a Web3 priority
“Education has sat in the shadows of innovation for too long,” Ezeldin noted, underscoring that EDU Chain and the partnership with ANPA and Animoca Brands are designed to move education to the forefront of Web3 impact. Cooper connected this theme to BLI’s mission of building a decentralized legal and educational library that equips lawyers, policymakers, and builders to understand and implement compliant digital‑asset solutions in domains like education, consumer protection, and real‑world assets.
The interview forms part of the Blockchain Legal Institute’s ongoing Global Summit and education series, which brings together regulators, builders, and institutions to examine how blockchain, stablecoins, and tokenization can serve public‑interest outcomes, including educational access and financial literacy.
About Blockchain Legal Institute
The Blockchain Legal Institute (BLI) is a global education and research initiative dedicated to building an informed, ethical professional community around blockchain, digital assets, and Web3 law. BLI curates a decentralized library of resources, hosts global summits and hackathons, and collaborates with regulators, industry, and academia to promote legal clarity, consumer protection, and responsible innovation in the digital‑asset ecosystem.
About Open Campus
Open Campus is a community‑led DAO building the blockchain‑powered financial layer for education, with core contributors including Animoca Brands, TinyTap, NewCampus, RiseIn, and HackQuest. It launched EDU Chain, a Layer 3 chain on Arbitrum Orbit for on‑chain EduFi, powered by the EDU token.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is a global digital‑assets leader focused on blockchain and tokenized assets, known for building platforms such as the Moca Network, Open Campus, and The Sandbox, and for investing in over 600 Web3 companies and altcoin projects. More information is available at