99% of the spending in crypto is driven by...
GC ALPHA 52
Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets mentioned in this newsletter.
The 4v4 MOBA brawler, Sparkball, migrated to Somnia.
During the game’s Steam Next Fest game you can play matchmaking (until June 16th). You can download and play Sparkball on Steam.
P2A & P2E EVENTS + SOCIALFI
Tokyo Beast Trails has officially been released (now accessible to everyone)
Post-migration, Sparkball will host multiple game nights + a reward campaign
Pirate Nation’s Infinite Tides PvE event is now live for everybody
Zeeverse’s P2A campaign with 150M in TREE token rewards is now live
My Neighbour Alice’s Adventure Airdrop is a new 4-month-long campaign
MARKET TALK
WHAT IS CT’S VERSION OF FUN?
Last week, I published a Tweet about CT’s version of fun and what this audience spends their money on…
And in my opinion, it’s pretty safe to say that the pursuit of more drives 99% of all spending in crypto
CT’s fun isn’t necessarily in the products, but in the competition to make the most money. And products that don't embed (significant) upside potential struggle to retain attention in this industry
Cambria’s investor update, as shown above (shared in The Value Thesis #5: Cambria), came to mind after writing the Tweet
In this update, they asked their Alpha participants what the most fun they had had in crypto was. The answer was a combination of social dynamics and massive onchain stakes
And important to add was: “It didn’t seem to matter whether money was lost or won, the collective thrill was still the same”
The payout of your stake (spend) is never guaranteed. But the fun is not about the payout itself, but the thrill of being able to secure that massive payout (the pursuit of) by risking your capital
Gaming just happens to be the most entertaining wrapper to deliver that kind of fun
Some of this fun is fairly instant, like minting an NFT and seeing what the price on secondary ends up being. The other side is the incentive programs:
Think: “How can I spend as efficiently as possible to maximize my Abstract XP, so I can maximize my airdrop at TGE, at the lowest dollar cost basis?”
Lastly, this conversation pulls us back to the discussion of what’s been the source of the lack of success in crypto gaming: is it the games, the audience, or both?.
The past months only solidified that you build games for natives or non-natives, but not both
FIFA RIVALS TRADING IS LIVE
Today, FIFA Rivals’ (FR) NFTs went live on the Mythical Market, just 3 days before the game’s launch
204 items are available on the market, ranging from players and gear. Blockchaingamer.biz mentions how it’s unclear for now the items have been generated, and believes the items were earned during the game’s soft launch
Note: it’s also mentioned that the supply will likely exponentially increase post-full game launch, and it isn’t recommended to trade these items
Just last week, they announced a partnership with Adidas to release a series of NFTs. Following the recent collab with Xociety, the apparel brand may be signaling a renewed interest in the NFT space
FR is a joint venture between Mythical Games (MG) and FIFA. MG is the maker of one of the successful crypto games to date: NFL Rivals
In this interview from March, John Linden, the founder and CEO of Mythical Games, mentions how the game has done $20M in sales volume to date
Furthermore, he adds that in the first year, 80% of their revenue came from primary sales (pack sales, battle passes, etc.) and 20% from trading royalties. In year two, these numbers shifted to 35% primary and 65% secondary
Items in NFT Rivals are traded using the Mythical Chain (or Mythos). By visiting Cryptoslam, you can track the NFT sales data:
DMarket, the in-game item marketplace, did ~$295M in all-time sales volume
With a 2.5% transaction fee, that’s $7.38M in revenue. Mythical Games acquired the marketplace in January 2023
NFL Rivals did ~$12.7M in total volume (I assume the remaining $7.3M includes off-chain, in-game trading)
Lastly, Blankos did $150K in total volume
FR will be an officially FIFA-launched mobile game. Hereby, it’s taking on EA’s FC Mobile, the most established mobile football game in the space. Even yesterday, they were advertising FC Mobile during the UEFA Nations League Finals
Back in November, when the game was first announced, we did a larger piece on FIFA Rivals
It will be interesting to see what share of the pie Mythical Games can take with FR through the FIFA license, its learnings from NFL Rivals, and a more player-owned economy
ON THE RISE
Angelic Kingdom introduces Archangels: a 500-piece NFT collection
Twitter becomes Polymarket’s official prediction market partner