Company Updates:
Firstly, I want to address the recent period of quiet in terms of announcements. In the last couple of months, we have executed a significant company re-structure, built a new leadership team, and revised our business plan based on a SWOT analysis of the studio with valuable input from industry-leading advisors.
Some of the key conclusions from this are: Aradena studio has huge near-term potential and strengths around its high-quality, innovative products, and a flagship game in Aradena Battlegrounds that is 90% complete and is one of the most promising games in the Web3 space with great initial traction and metrics. We have a significant opportunity to launch Battlegrounds on mobile shortly after PC, thanks to taking the time to ensure we built with mobile-friendly architecture since day one of development. We previously had difficulty with a poorly timed token launch, a lack of market making, and challenges with fundraising during the bear market. We’ve learned from this, doubled-down on our strengths and opportunities, and worked to solve challenges.
Building a top-tier leadership team in key areas has been a big focus. I am proud to announce the following people having officially joined Aradena:
Rich Robinson — Board Advisor and Chief Business Officer: 30+ years experience in internet tech and gaming. 8x founder, including a $40 million game studio exit. Entrepreneur-in-residence at Animoca Brands.
Devin De Vries — Board Advisor and Fundraising Lead: Previous founder and CEO of technology company WhereIsMyTransport, raising $30 million over multiple rounds, including investors such as Google, Softbank, Samsung, and Naspers.
Alexis Sirkia — Board Advisor and Market Making Lead: Founder of GSR, and founder of Yellow Capital. 10+ years experience as an industry-leading market maker.
$AG De-Listing and New Aradena Ecosystem Token:
An important part of this updated strategy, is that we will be de-listing the $AG token, and launching a new ecosystem token with larger governance and utilities in the near future, once we have hit key product milestones.
There are multiple reasons for this decision:
- We have heard the community’s voice on chain and gas issues for micro game transactions. We will be launching the new ecosystem token on a different chain. Likely Polygon, but we are in discussions with multiple teams.
- Market sentiment, especially on gaming, has improved drastically since June 2023. Launching a new token launch later this year, immediately following Battlegrounds full game launch with a large userbase and further traction, is a huge opportunity for our project and our community to benefit from.
- We have a new market maker, we have new marketing partners that have successfully launched other tokens recently, and we are working on listing with multiple, high-tier exchanges upon launch.
- Changes in market conditions also mean hot private capital markets, with lots of new funds and deployments. This offers a great opportunity for Aradena to raise more capital to support the launch of Aradena Battlegrounds, a stronger launch of a new ecosystem token, and even to raise additional capital for future product launches.
Token Swap and Technical Information:
We believe it is very important to recognise all previous support and investments into the Aradena ecosystem. So, put very clearly, all $AG token holders will receive a 1:1 swap of the new ecosystem token, based on the number of tokens. All previous seed investors will also receive the same allocation.
We have been working hard in the background to make this process as seamless as possible for our community. Here is what you need to know:
- A base snapshot of token holdings was taken on the 29th of February
- All in-game $AG tokens, where users have connected their crypto wallet, have been added to this snapshot
- All staked $AG tokens, and the rewards earned so-far, have been added to this snapshot
- All vested, but unclaimed tokens from Magna, have been added to this snapshot
- Outstanding game rewards have not yet been added to the snapshot, but will be added and recognised in the swap
- Gate.IO are de-listing the token as per our request. For any $AG tokens held on Gate.IO, users must withdraw the tokens to the same wallet that they deposited tokens with, by March 29th. These will then be reconciled and added to the snapshot for the swap.
It is important to note, that as of now, no other new token movements or trades will be recognised in the snapshot or swap. So please make sure to stop trading or moving $AG on any platform. If you are interested in making any further investments into Aradena’s ecosystem, you can do so through an early seed investment into the new ecosystem token. We expect to fill the new round from private and institutional investors, but are happy to accommodate community investors alongside. If interested, please make contact in our Discord.
Finally, to make this process as seamless as possible, we have created a new web page where you can insert your wallet address to verify the number of tokens you had at the time of our last snapshot which will be eligible for a swap -> https://aradena.io/token-swap/
Note, this verification only includes vested, held tokens. Any unvested tokens from the seed sale will be allocated, but are not part of this snapshot mechanic.
If, after checking the verification page, you have any questions, please complete this form and the team will get back to you -> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MUU0n3SWG0K7nx2SAUnKMPntPnAUHAK9HBDPp8Kd3R0/edit
Final Remarks:
Finally, a large note of gratitude to everyone in the Aradena community who has supported us so far. And a call-to-action.
The journey ahead is exciting, and we will continue as ever, with our commitment to you, to this project, to transparency and to hard work to deliver on our mission. As we embark on a new chapter in 2024 and work to seize the huge opportunities that lie ahead, your support is an instrumental part of the path forward for the Aradena Studio. Consistently engaging with the project across our community and social channels will be incredibly helpful. It’s been a difficult ride for many in the Web3 space during the past couple of years, but things are changing, and fast. As the entire space starts to brighten back up, what we have continued building behind the scenes over the last 3 years now has its time to shine.
Stay tuned for more regular updates, and again, thank you for being a key part of our journey towards making Aradena a landmark in the Web3 gaming industry. None of this would be possible without you.
Cheers everyone,
The Aradena Team
