Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets mentioned in this newsletter.
PRODUCT REVIEW:
Crypto Fantasy League: portfolio performance wrapped in a simple fantasy sports format.
Next week, we will explore… (shill me a cool app)
MARKET TALK
DISSAPOINTMENT IN MSU?
A few days ago, Yellow Panther (YP), one of the top voices of MSU, came out and shared his disappointment with how things were handled: “I can’t help a game that doesn’t want to be helped”
In June, Dominic Jang, the former VP and CBO of Nexpace, left the company to work on something new. One of the key figures of the company, and also one of the main representatives of MSU
YP’s post led to a couple of other players and voices sharing their concerns:
Apple said the team needs more transparency regarding NXPC withdrawals and that many players feel exhausted lately
Furthermore, he mentions other problems: confusion around the pool of enhancement fees, an imbalance in hard boss rewards, boss hacks, losses caused by in-game errors, and roadmap delays
In June, Apple reported how players were cheating to solo one of the end-game bosses
1mpal shares how the Korean community is also disappointed about MSU
He questions whether the team failed to listen, and says that MSU doesn’t move quickly enough, as it operates as a corporation
Additionally, he adds that most of the feedback is regarding system tweaks, reward tables, and update plans
He shared his own post in his TG and summarized the reactions of his community in DMs:
They say there’s a huge communication problem, and the director lacks an understanding of the game
One “industry insider” suggested they might be understaffed
The difference between messaging pre- and post-TGE is too stark
Lastly, he added how the community is at a “standstill”
I can imagine the frustration for players who have felt neglected. It’s also important to add here that to complete end-game boss content, players have to “invest” mid- to high 5 figures in the game
Many of these items and characters have rapidly devalued over time + with the ongoing downtrend of the NXPC chart (now down 72%), it becomes easy to see why people aren’t happy
I won’t say it’s over for the team yet, as DAUWs are still growing (or bots?), and there's still a larger ecosystem play, including mini-games and web apps
However, the question is whether Nexpace will be incentivized enough to allocate more resources to this game and ship at a faster pace
GAMING TOKENS UPDATE (END OF AUGUST)
On the 28th of August, I shared another gaming token sentiment update (previous update). Here are the numbers, trends, and any other thoughts added:
Total launches 70+ (tracking 62)
With 12 (tracked) launches, July has been the largest month so far in terms of new TGEs
Average 24h volume: $15.2M
Previously $26M, although 24h volume might be too small of a data point to make accurate conclusions
When excluding the top 3 tokens by volume, this number becomes only $3.1M, so it’s very top-heavy
Average decrease of market cap of 69% compared to ATH
This number continues to average between 67 - 69% for some reason
Average market cap is ~$12.6M
Previously $16.7M, which is a decrease in market cap of 24%
When excluding the top 3, the average market cap becomes $7.2M
Largest token by market cap and FDV continues to be NXPC $145.6M / $734.3M
Compared to mid-July, that’s a decrease of 27% in market cap and 31% in FDV
The market cap of all gaming tokens (according to CMC) is $19.4B
$23.93B on January 1st, 2025 / $22.6B on July 21s,t 2025
So, despite ETH trading at $3,758 on July 21st, 2025, and ETH trading at $4,582 on August 28th, gaming lost $3.2B in market cap
Even though CMC’s total gaming market cap isn’t super reliable, as it includes tokens such as VIRTUAL and FLOKI, it’s still the most accurate source I can think of in terms of measuring the total market
So, despite ETH’s upcoming “renaissance”, it hasn’t been able to pull the gaming market out of its slump yet
Overall, the 2025 TGE landscape continues to be pretty gloomy, with the same story of too many tokens and token sellers, while at the same time having too few token buyers
One outlier to this list is PLAY (great analysis by Haitzu), and SOMI is doing pretty well so far, but it launched after I made this analysis
ON THE RISE
Memento Research (not me lol) published The State of Pokemon RWA TCG