Blockchain Gaming World

Featuring Apptokens, bAXS, Fableborne, POWER, in-game ads in Off The Grid and Wildcard Premier League

• [0:43] Bitkraft has invested $3 million into POWER Protocol, the token used by Fableborne.
• [3:20] Fableborne is a mobile action RPG that has managed to stay alive through the P2E era.
• [6:21] POWER is now also being used by online gambling outfit High Roller.
• [10:08] Over the past month, POWER's price jumped 786% due to speculative activity.
• [17:45] What are Apptokens?
• [19:05] How Apptokens fix blockchain games by restricting speculators from dumping tokens.
• [20:56] Sky Mavis has launched bAXS, the Apptoken version of AXS, which is locked into the game.
• [23:05] You have to pay an exchange tax ranging from 17.5% to 85% to swap bAXS into AXS.
• [26:23] Limit Break is also launching its LBAMM code to support cross-chain Apptoken swaps.
• [30:40] Who are Limit Break and why is it building such foundational technology?
• [36:04] You can now run in-game ads in Off The Grid.
• [42:33] Explaining how the first web3 elements of Wildcard Premier League work.

The Sandbox Season 7 is going live, Gigaverse announces GIGABIT and Portal is rebooting.

• [0:38] The Sandbox Season 7 is going live on 25th February 2026.
• [2:22] For the first time, this isn't an Alpha Season. It's just called "Season 7".
• [5:26] There's a focus on community UGC, not the big brands, which will continue through 2026.
• [6:45] It looks like these UGC experiences will be more varied and interesting.
• [8:30] Some experiences will be available via web browser without logging into an account.
• [8:52] These changes show The Sandbox is trying to become more accessible and viral.
• [12:35] Animoca and Alibaba have announced genAI game-making platform AliBAE.
• [22:25] Portal is relaunching on 26th February, including the ability to trade web2 game accounts.
• [29:10] Gigaverse has announced its cleverly-designed fixed-value GIGABIT currency.
• [38:30] What's interesting how boring GIGABIT is as the risk element is baked into the
• [38:48] GIGABIT feels like it's been influenced by the Apptoken standard.

EVE Frontier's $80,000 hackathon, Alek Larsen leaves Sky Mavis, and AI agent fun with Shaw Walters and Animoca Minds.

• [0:23] EVE Frontier and Sui are launching an $80,000 hackathon starting on 11th March.
• [4:50] It will be interesting to see how AI expands the number of people who get involved.
• [6:19] While web2 games struggle with AI, web3 games are well ahead of the curve.
• [10:20] The situation will become people complaining that games have banned their AI agent.
• [10:57] Jon's been experimenting with Animoca Minds. Talk to his agent - The Lantern.
• [12:15] Animoca's Yat Siu is already running his life via a number of these agents.
• [15:10] Jon has also been talking to Eliza Labs' Shaw about AI agents building blockchain games.
• [22:33] What happens when games are unbundled wrt development and business model?
• [25:53] Sky Mavis co-founder Aleksander Larsen has left to spend time not travelling, and with his young family.

Jon talks to Eliza Labs Shaw Walters about his work on AI agent frameworks, and why blockchain games are a focus.

• [1:00] An introduction to Shaw Walters, the creator of AI agent framework ElizaOS.
• [3:10] "I see myself as a comedian and performance artist. I love the joke that becomes true."
• [4:48] "What I'm focused on is agents that get you your time back and agents that can play games."
• [6:06] "Attention is an important part of capitalism. If you're not spicy, pmarca doesn't read your tweet."
• [7:25] "We're one generation away from ... I don't need better. I need cheaper."
• [9:25] "I still have skill arbitrage on the average person. But in a year, it won't matter."
• [11:56] "We're making AI RuneScape. It's going to cost us $80,000 and take 4 months."
• [13:08] "Now we have dream tech - you can build the uncompromising, exactly what you want."
• [16:26] Can copyright be enforced in this new world of online, onchain abundance?
• [18:43] Is P(doom) a scalar or a dynamic multi-dimensional vector?
• [21:18] "I'm here to build the world I want to see."
• [22:10] "I've always felt the most important things to do came from the silliest things."
• [23:35] Explaining AI agent social prediction trading platform Babylon.
• [26:23] Does Shaw enjoy being a high-profile commentator?
• [28:40] "I made a Chrome extension that blocks haters. But it also blocked a lot of my friends."
• [33:35] AI means software companies will have to build their most generous, growth-oriented version.
• [34:07] Help Shaw build "AI Runescape", an open source project called Hyperscape AI.

Animoca Minds, MapleStory integrates Verse8 AI game-making tools, GOAT Gaming shuts down and Forkast esports prediction market.

• [1:11] This week has seen an explosion in interest about AI agents, notably Clawbot and Moltbook.
• [3:10] With ClawBot, you can create an AI assistant with access to your entire computer.
• [5:14] It was also a massive security issue.
• [6:20] Other people criticized it for just being Stochastic Parrots, not real intelligence.
• [9:50] Animoca Brands has announced Animoca Minds, based on CryptoSlam's Ethoswarm tech.
• [11:53] A key issue for this technology is its cost, particularly who will pay for the tokens.
• [13:00] Animoca Minds is focused on onchain activity, such as token trading.
• [15:36] What are the synergies between AI agents and blockchain?
• [18:00] Likely Animoca Minds will be fairly limited in functionality at launch.
• [20:54] AI agents will need crypto to operate online and pay for their activity.
• [23:13] Also, humans will need to prove they are humans, which is easy to do onchain.
• [25:40] Will we see more cozy games and human-centric activities like jigsaws and coloring?
• [27:40] Nexpace is integrating genAI game-making tech Verse8 into MapleStory Universe.
• [33:52] GOAT Gaming is shutting down as Wearemighty shifts to making games using AI tools.
• [38:18] BCGW 206 was about esports and emerging markets-centric prediction market Forkast.
• [44:36] Ubisoft's Might & Magic Fates is live on mobile/PC on Immutable.

Jon Jordan talks to Forkast CEO Chris Gonsalves and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures Ethan Sy.

• [1:12] Ethan's history. He was previously at Play Ventures, investing in web2/3 gaming.
• [3:05] Chris started at Bitcoin Center. Moved to Consensys, then co-founded Community Gaming.
• [4:26] Esports prediction markets launched within Community Gaming, which became Forkast.
• [4:56] Chris believes prediction markets will take market share from all trading apps.
• [9:15] The worst time to invest in blockchain gaming was when everyone was investing.
• [12:07] Arbitrum is the solo LP in AGV, but the fund is returns-focused, not just ecosystem-focused.
• [15:06] How does Forkast compete with Polymarket and Kalshi etc?
• [16:19] Forkast is a prediction market for gamers and esports fans, focused on emerging markets.
• [17:55] "We think esports predictions are a huge, untapped global market."
• [23:25] Forkast includes rewarded quests and gamified features to encourage engagement.
• [24:50] Trading on the metrics of individual companies such as Apple and Tesla will be huge.
• [27:17] Allowing users to create their own prediction markets is tricky due to how they are resolved.
• [28:45] Is the 'financialization of everything' a good thing for society?
• [35:27] What do esports teams think about prediction markets like Forkast?

In this episode, we look at the rise of Animoca, and the rise and fall of its metaverse project The Sandbox.

• [0:24] This week's show focuses on the details arising from Animoca's 2022 financials.
• [1:11] 2022 was a long time ago, but the report also discloses more recent financial details.
• [4:00] Animoca's business is particularly complex, even without worrying about crypto.
• [6:58] The most interesting details are about The Sandbox.
• [8:45] Around 50% of Animoca's balance sheet is illiquid tokens such as SAND, MOCA, and EDU.
• [9:40] Animoca bought The Sandbox dev Pixowl for $5 million in 2018.
• [11:10] At one point in 2021, The Sandbox was Animoca's main financial asset.
• [13:35] In 2022, Animoca spent over $100 million buying game devs, which it's since written off.
• [20:28] Animoca bought 30% of The Sandbox's holding company from its co-founders for $125 million.
• [25:20] The Sandbox first launched its alpha season in 2021. It's still in alpha.
• [28:25] Could genAI and AI agents help resurrect The Sandbox?
• [31:20] Now the valuation of The Sandbox is marginal for Animoca as a whole; less than 10%.
• [32:29] Animoca listing on Nasdaq will be good for the whole crypto sector.

Jon Jordan talks to Skale Labs CEO Jack O’Holleran about how the Ethereum-centric L1 blockchain network is expanding to Base, helping launch mobile game PGA Tour Rise, and preparing for the explosion of onchain AI agents.

• [1:30] The background to mobile game PGA Tour Rise, which is launching on Skale and Base.
• [2:55] The game mixes golf course building tycoon strategy with golfing mini-gameplay.
• [5:20] Blockchain gaming is gaming with much better economic rails.
• [7:13] Skale is expanding to Base via its SKALE Expand v1 program
• [10:35] This expansion is seamless for users; they just get faster, cheaper transactions.
• [12:08] If this works well, Skale will expand to other EVM chains, and perhaps even Solana.
• [13:58] This allows users being able to deploy their liquidity across multiple chains without bridging.
• [17:08] "Games will be a major place for agentic commerce." The two are complementary.
• [20:22] a16z reckons AI agents will be a $30 trillion market. That's the potential.
• [22:16] Skale is also rolling out a new privacy L1 called FAIR, which will be important for agents.
• [26:14] "The AI movement will drive a lot of attention back into blockchain gaming."

Read the full article at https://www.blockchaingamer.biz/features/41347/top-50-blockchain-game-companies-2026/

• [6:55] One of the trends is the rise of games with degen mechanics, notably YGG at #3.
• [8:35] YGG's positioning of LOL Land as a "Casual Degen" game - a casual game with degen rewards.
• [10:30] These games have been a (relative) success. Mass-market web3 games haven't been.
• [12:55] Also in the Top 50, Cambria, Gigaverse and Fishing Frenzy use this degen mechanic.
• [15:37] Even Mythical Games is moving towards this with its Pulse Arena platform.
• [19:35] Sky Mavis' Ronin blockchain has a lot of these degen games running on it.
• [27:02] Dacoco's Alien Worlds is an underappreciated web3 game for its DAO focus.
• [35:00] CCP's EVE Frontier is the prime example of a bottom-up, fully onchain MMORPG.
• [41:18] Roblox-with-blockchain Hytopia launched in 2025 with 2.5 million mobile downloads.
• [44:27] The #1 company is MapleStory Universe dev Nexpace (Nexon).
• [52:04] Also ... Bitcoin game payment company ZBD announced a $40 million Series C funding round.

Polygon buys Sequence, Animoca buys SOMO, Cartridge buys Playmint. Consolidation?

• [0:28] Today's theme is consolidation.
• [1:15] Is this the trend for blockchain games companies in 2026 or something more nuanced?
• [2:00] Why didn't we see more consolidation in 2025?
• [3:46] Playmint has been bought by Cartridge. This is likely more of an R&D rollup or acquihire deal.
• [5:53] Playmint worked on fully decentralized games and Cartridge has an onchain game engine.
• [7:05] Both companies also have a shared investor Bitkraft to enable the deal.
• [8:40] Sequence has been acquired by Polygon Labs. It's more of a classic consolidation deal.
• [10:50] Polygon is repositioning itself as a payments and stablecoin infrastructure.
• [12:13] Sequence's focus has always been cross-chain dev tools for blockchain games.
• [14:59] Investors like tools. Sequence raised around $50 million.
• [18:50] Polygon is buying Sequence because it's a proper business with real tech and users.
• [22:20] Will Sequence focus less on games in future?
• [23:06] Animoca Brands has acquired web3 gameco SOMO. It's unclear why.
• [29:31] Delabs Games is shutting down idle RPG Ragnarok Libre.
• [35:15] Delabs Games is now an AI-first game developer so it's looking to the future.