After the Bitcoin halving, the crypto market entered a new critical cycle. Looking back at the previous major trend, the explosive growth of game-related sectors such as GameFi and the Metaverse was impressive. It not only gave rise to chain games with millions of users and the popularity of P2E (Play-to-Earn) but also led to the emergence of numerous “gold farming” game guilds and platforms, leaving a lasting impression.

So, in this new major trend, what form will the next phase of benefits in the Web3 gaming sector take, and where might they appear?

The Ducks Are the First to Know When the River Warms in Spring

1) Background of the Emergence of Chain Game Guilds and Related Platforms

In 2021, chain games, exemplified by Axie Infinity, rose rapidly, introducing the Play to Earn (P2E) gaming model to the crypto world. According to TokenTerminal, Axie Infinity’s highest daily revenue reached $17.5 million, with 3 million daily active users (DAU), and monthly revenue surpassing Honor of Kings to rank first globally. The P2E games also provided players with substantial earnings, typically hundreds of dollars within 1-2 weeks, fueling a surge in chain game users due to the successive wealth effects.

The rapid rise and explosive growth of chain games attracted high-net-worth players, making them highly sought after in the gaming industry. However, the crypto industry’s high operational barriers, costs, and generally low awareness among newcomers deterred many potential users. This gap led to the natural emergence of gold farming studios and related industries. Among them, traditional game guilds, highly popular in the conventional gaming sector, entered the scene. By adopting similar organizational forms in Web3 games, these guilds helped players overcome high entry barriers and complexity while increasing overall earnings.

The well-known chain game guild YGG secured over $21 million in venture capital within just over a year. This success was followed by innovative platforms like GuildFi, which evolved from the concept of game guilds into a guild platform connecting games, NFTs, and communities through infrastructure development. GuildFi attracted significant interest from top-tier investors, completing a $6 million seed funding round at the end of 2021, co-led by DeFiance Capital and Hashed, with participation from prominent institutions such as Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and Animoca Brands.

2) Why Focus on Chain Game Guilds and Related Platforms

Despite the severe impact of the crypto bear market, which curtailed the high points of chain games, the impressive peak of the GameFi sector remains vivid in the minds of gamers. With the current improvement in the crypto market and the support of enhanced underlying infrastructure, chain games could potentially make a strong comeback at any moment, and capital institutions are eagerly waiting for this opportunity.

As the saying goes, “The ducks are the first to know when the river warms in spring.” Chain game guilds, deeply embedded in the Web3 gaming core, are the best indicators of the sector’s trends. It is well-known that guilds and related platforms at the forefront of the sector possess the highest awareness and sensitivity to new opportunities in chain games. To capture the benefits of the Web3 sector, it is crucial to closely monitor the activities of game guilds and related platforms.

Evolutionary Iterations of the Big Three-Chain Game Guilds

During the tumultuous years in the crypto market, many chain game guilds and related projects disappeared, leaving only teams with strength and strong backgrounds to continue exploring more possibilities. Among them, the so-called Big Three Chain Game Guilds — YGG, Merit Circle, and GuildFi — have been continuously evolving and iterating. So, how are they doing now? Let’s take a look together…

1) YGG: Transitioning to Fund-based Investment Cooperation to Expand Community Scale

Initially, YGG was a decentralized gaming guild built on ETH and Polygon, pioneering the scholarship model and driving the rise of blockchain gaming guilds. Subsequently, it gradually transitioned to expand its territory through investment in gaming ecosystem assets and other means. By establishing SubDAOs, it found suitable dissemination and marketing channels in different countries to increase its influence, thereby establishing exclusive communities in different countries and further developing its ecosystem community scale.

2) Merit Circle: Transitioning from a single-game DAO to a gaming platform and infrastructure.

Merit Circle, like YGG, started as a scholarship guild DAO. However, due to YGG’s strong competitiveness, Merit Circle gradually transitioned and explored new directions over time, such as investing in high-quality gaming assets, incubating gold farming studios, and developing gaming infrastructure blockchains and distribution platforms.

In August 2023, Merit Circle collaborated with Avalanche to launch the Beam gaming infrastructure chain. Subsequently, various game tools, an NFT marketplace, and new games were introduced based on this chain.

Merit Circle’s transformation gained market recognition, with its token MC soaring since the launch of Beam, peaking with over a 1000% increase in March 2024.

3) GuildFi: From Chain Game Guild 2.0 to the Brand-New Zentry Platform

GuildFi’s project funding exceeds $100 million, making it one of the largest Web3 projects in the gaming sector. While GuildFi, YGG, and MC are all part of the “Big Three Chain Game Guilds,” their paths are not identical.

GuildFi was initially positioned as the “Chain Game Guild 2.0” infrastructure and platform, providing entry, connection, and value-added services for players, guilds, games, and investors, thereby elevating guilds to a new level. By embracing the concept of guilds as infrastructure, GuildFi created an all-in-one solution for gaming/Metaverse experiences, consisting of GuildFi ID, Proof-of-Play Rewards, game distribution and scholarship platforms, NFTs, and gaming tools.

In terms of infrastructure and platform development, GuildFi actually led ahead of Merit Circle because it began polishing its platform and various infrastructure services as early as 2021, while Merit Circle only started transitioning to a platform approach at the end of 2023.

In recent news, GuildFi officially announced its rebranding as Zentry, aiming to integrate digital and physical gaming worlds and create the Zentry Super Layer to unify the Play economy for 3 billion players. Currently, Zentry is positioned as a super layer that integrates loyalty systems, player identities, and cross-game activities to provide players with a unified gaming experience. It will serve as the foundation of the new gaming economy, driving the integration of player networks, artificial intelligence, and Web3, leading the new era of gaming, entertainment, and lifestyle.

In summary, Merit Circle received a 1000% market response during its platformization transformation, while GuildFi, which led the way in platformization, is currently undergoing iterative upgrades, possibly entering a period of dividends with the introduction of the new Zentry platform.

Seeking the Breakthrough Dividends of Zentry’s Brand Upgrade

From Chain Game Guild 2.0 to the brand-new Zentry platform, what changes and dividends brought by Zentry, which is relatively ahead, are worth paying attention to?

1) What Iterations has Zentry Made?

According to official information, Zentry has further deepened the concept of the “Super Layer,” bringing a grand vision of a unified Play economy for 3 billion players across all games. It seamlessly integrates loyalty systems, player identities, and cross-world activities from countless games and platforms into a single, layered experience.

Zentry has brought about four vertically integrated core components:

a. Underlying blockchain infrastructure bridging Web2 and Web3 data, including identity, assets, and activities;

b. Targeted consumer applications aimed at attracting various player segments;

c. A diverse world of intellectual property deepening engagement through compelling narratives and IP partnerships;

d. Over $100 million in incentive funds dedicated to strategic expansion and ecosystem incentive measures.

In fact, during the GuildFi era, Zentry had already accumulated a considerable amount of resources:

A. High-quality projects invested and incubated by Zentry in the chain game industry chain upstream and downstream will be integrated into the Super Layer.

These projects, such as Xai, Memeland, Ronin, Mavia, Sipher, Aperion, Shrapnel, Avalon, Fnatic, Pixelmon, Ultiverse, Jambo, Tatsumekoo, Nyan, Talon, XSET, and Aethir, will all be integrated into the Super Layer.

B. Substantial cash flow

Reportedly, Zentry’s activities such as cooperation, investment, staking, and node operations generate over $10 million in revenue annually. This income will be invested in community incentives and ecosystem support, yielding exponential returns.

C. Experienced publishing platform

After years of refinement, Zentry has built a network of experienced content creators and a publishing platform with extensive experience collaborating with companies like Riot Games, Hoyoverse, and EA, providing user acquisition support for gaming/entertainment partners.

Meanwhile, Zentry has introduced a new token, bringing with it a new token economic model. The original GuildFi Token (GF) will be converted to the new Zentry Token (ZENT) at a ratio of 1:10.

In essence, Zentry, through its upgraded GuildFi ID (player identity), Proof-of-Play Rewards (loyalty system), and cross-platform distribution of all types of games, directly connects all games’ independent systems, targeting 3 billion gamers. It aims to become the largest distributor of games/entertainment/lifestyle, massively adopting them into the Web3 world, transforming various chains/infrastructures and games into thriving ecosystems.

2) What Dividends Does the Upgraded Zentry Bring?

A. Brand upgrade, project may undergo market reassessment

As mentioned earlier, Zentry restructures its advantageous resources and deepens the concept of the “Super Layer,” bringing the project into a grander vision. Therefore, it cannot be considered as a new platform starting from scratch. With a treasury of $100 million (mainly stablecoins and Ethereum), plus a steady stream of income, it means real investment in community construction and ecosystem development.

If we consider the market reassessment after the platformization transformation of Merit Circle, Zentry’s upgrade may also trigger a market reassessment, entering a more appropriate market valuation range.

B. Token split

In the past, there have been many cases where a token split resulted in favorable outcomes, such as the earlier example of DOT and the MC, which is also one of the Big Three Chain Game Guilds. Taking MC as an example, its token split led to a rapid market response, with a 200-300% increase in price.

In fact, the logic behind the benefits of token splits is simple: one is the significant attention brought by the split event, guiding market value discovery; the other is that the split often accompanies the adoption and empowerment of the upgraded token economic model. Perhaps the new upgraded Zentry Token can also garner positive expectations.

Summary

The widespread adoption of Web3 applications in the crypto industry is undoubtedly reliant on the allure of GameFi to the world’s 3 billion gamers. Game guilds are not just player communities but also serve as infrastructure bridging the upstream and downstream of the Web3 gaming industry chain.

Platforms like Zentry, originating from game guilds and committed to creating richer and grander gaming solutions, are poised to bring the next wave of tens of millions of users to Web3. In this process, they will also bring platform development dividends and promote the prosperity of the gaming ecosystem to users.

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