Reaching a new stage of blockchain game funding

What comes after an initial dex offering (IDO) process is an obvious concern for many investors and project developers in the field of decentralised finance, with projects often suffering from a devaluation of tokens, a conflict of interest, or changes in leadership and direction.

This is something being heeded by the leaders of blockchain game Fight of the Ages (FOTA). More than two weeks after launching an IDO crowdfunding platform, investors and developers of the project are still full of joy. “This has been a really big surprise for us,” said CEO Trinh Ngoc Duc.

FOTA is a GameFi project built on the Microsoft Mesh technology platform. The project was one of the winners at the Metaverse Alliance 2021 Global Metathon event, in the Most Popular Project category. The blockchain project received huge attention from investors with it being valued at up to $100 million and successfully raising $8.3 million from the triple-A round.

On June 16, FOTA continued to break through when it distributed successful crypto launchpads across nine platforms only five minutes after officially launching the IDO crowdfunder. Now, FOTA is listed tier-1 on the Huobi Global trading platform and reached a value 52 times higher than the listed IDO price of 17 US cents. Later that day, it was also mentioned among the top trending cryptocurrencies in India, the UK, and the US.

According to Duc, the success of FOTA does not come from aggressive marketing campaigns, but from the intrinsic values of the business. The CEO is proud of the entire core team of Vietnamese engineers and developers, which has been together since the very beginning of the project. Although they have experienced difficulties from fundraising rounds, they will continue to accompany the next imprints of FOTA because of common goals. Duc admits that the cohesion of project members is the factor that makes investors feel confident in FOTA.

“The question I often receive from many foreign investment funds is whether the team has worked together for a long time in order to solve problems. The core team is the primary concern, followed by the products and marketing strategies,” he said.

As an investor who has accompanied FOTA since the early days, CEO of Hobbit Investment William Do agreed that capital-raising strategies should be carefully calculated based on the founder’s vision and mission.

“To convince investors, the founders must identify the core values of the project, the target community, and then find the right investment funds – also strategic partners who can advise and plan their long-term development strategy to drive growth, instead of just investing capital,” Do said.

“When deciding to invest in a blockchain project, I must also carefully evaluate the human factor and efficiency.”

In order for a project to call for investment capital effectively, the founder must solve the security problem of the project, and the product in particular, added Do.

“There are still venture capital funds that are willing to provide security solutions for the projects they choose to invest in. In out network of strategic partners, this field is also one of the top priorities for cooperation and expansion,” he added.

Transparency and security are considered challenges for blockchain projects, including GameFi. Many Vietnamese blockchain projects have been repeatedly targeted by hackers in recent times, such as the attack that took away 26 million tokens from DragonSB in April, which caused its value to drop nearly 1,000 times.

A month earlier, the crypto market was staggered after the hack of more than $600 million from Axie Infinity, a GameFi title from the Vietnamese blockchain field with a market capitalisation of more than $ 4.2 billion. The continuous introduction of low-quality projects, virtual projects, or ventures that are copied from foreign issuers for the purpose of quickly raising capital, also makes many investors feel discouraged and lose confidence in the market.

Taking advantage of the novelty of the blockchain field with unclear legal regulations, many projects after the IDO process have immediately disappeared, or the token value has dropped significantly compared to the time of issuance, leaving investors to bear the full risk.

“With a completely new market and many attractive opportunities like blockchain, risk is inevitable. Investors themselves must prepare with project appraisal measures and collect sufficient data to make investment decisions with a high probability of success,” shared Do.

Meanwhile, Jennie Hoang Phuong, CEO of D.lion Media & Solutions, a unit specialising in providing communication solutions for blockchain projects, explained that with the ability to raise capital up to millions of dollars per day, the durability and credibility of blockchain projects can only be accurately assessed after an IDO.

The acceptance of the market can make the project’s value increase greatly, causing many developers to become greedy compared to the original commitment, or leading to disputes that affect the progress and value of the project.

“Therefore, when choosing a partner, although it can take time, we choose not to sign long-term commitments, but instead divide into two stages: from initialisation to IDO, and after IDO from a week to a month, to evaluate the project comprehensively,” she said.

All projects developed by D.lion must go through a rigorous appraisal process by the group’s media solution provider. A team of six members examines the project in terms of marketing strategy, ability to raise capital, and long-term development quality, among other factors. “It is also a way for us to reflect on ourselves and prepare more carefully for a sustainable game,” emphasised Phuong.