#34 - Treasury report October 2023
Breakdown of the current Merit Circle ecosystem treasury including any outstanding investments
This report contains a breakdown of the Merit Circle ecosystem treasury as of the 30th of September 2023 (herein referred to as the "Treasury").
We are delighted to share Merit Circle’s first quarterly treasury report. Where we previously shared our treasury reports every month, we have now switched to quarterly updates.
As always, this report is intended to provide an exact overview of Merit Circle’s current financial status. We share a breakdown of the current treasury including any outstanding investments, buybacks and other financial activities.
This treasury report is based on the status of the treasury on the 30th of September 2023.
Summary
In the past quarter the treasury increased from $94,108,348 in June to $94,845,219 at the end of September, a 0.78% increase from the previous quarter.
The past quarter has been relatively quiet both for the Merit Circle portfolio and the entire market. The cryptocurrency markets are down across the board by roughly 10% on average. Bitcoin and Ethereum followed this pattern, whereas some altcoins slightly outperformed the markets.
When looking at Merit Circle’s portfolio, it has mainly remained stable. Most of our positions do not move directly with the market considering that a large part of our portfolio consists of illiquid positions and USD equivalent positions. Nevertheless, we have managed to slightly increase our treasury balance.
In terms of deal volume numbers, Merit Circle has participated in fewer deals than in previous quarters. This comes down to a few factors including, but not limited to the following:
There is more time to do extensive due diligence and room for negotiation in a cooled-off market.
Merit Circle continues to focus on more concentrated bets including larger positions, more comprehensive deal structures and attractive terms for the DAO.
A higher level of support to portfolio projects, increasing the chance of success and synergies while reducing operational risks in a turbulent market.
Lastly, with the addition of Beam, a sovereign gaming network, the Merit Circle ecosystem purpose trust has started to offer grant deals to builders on the network.
Portfolio update
We firmly believe that providing thorough and meaningful treasury reports is paramount to our mission of transparency and accountability. It is with this commitment in mind that we're excited to present a more comprehensive overview of the state of our portfolio.
In this update, we provide insights into the specifics of some of our largest or most exciting positions. This includes new investments or important updates to our current portfolio projects. As always, we welcome your questions, feedback, and engagement in this ongoing narrative.
DeLabs
We are excited to share Delabs Games as one of our latest investments. This ambitious studio has recently raised $4.7 million raised in seed funding with a $100,000 contribution of Merit Circle to kickstart the development of a wide range of games.
Notably, those working on Delabs right now have accumulated over 300 million downloads across various titles over the years.
Delabs has an ambitious roadmap, with at least three titles already announced. Space Frontier, a space-themed survival crafting MORPG, and Metabolts, a Japanese anime-themed character collection action RPG, are on their way, but only after Delabs’ first release: Rumble Racing Star.
Read all about the collaboration between Merit Circle and Delabs here.
Aethir
In early August, Merit Circle has invested $1,500,000 in Decentralized Cloud Infrastructure (DCI) provider, Aethir. Their decentralized network helps gaming and AI companies deliver products to users worldwide, overcoming hardware limitations. By distributing real-time rendering and computing power, Aethir enables mega-computer performance on cheap devices.
With sights set on reaching 20 million monthly users in 2023, Aethir is ramping up expansion into key markets like Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North America. Merit Circle looks forward to connecting Aethir's infrastructure solutions to other gaming partners.
This strategic investment cements Merit Circle's commitment to leveling up the tech stacks of the creators they support. Together with Aethir's ambitious roadmap, the future looks bright for decentralized cloud infrastructure ushering in the next generation of gaming and AI.
Read all about the collaboration between Merit Circle and Aethir here.
Amino
We’re thrilled to announce that Merit Circle has collaborated with Amino Rewards to support healthy lifestyles across the globe, and thereby bring a ton of activity to the Beam network. As part of our collaboration, we have invested $400,000.
The Amino Move app rewards users for walking, running, and other activities. This application has amassed hundreds of thousands of users globally over the few months that it has been live so far. Housing parts of these applications on the Beam network is nothing short of an honor.
In the future, Amino is launching a shopping feature that allows anyone to purchase with their favorite brands and simultaneously receive a portion of cashback. Thereafter, it’s all about expanding into more ventures and overall promoting a healthier lifestyle.
Notably, Amino has recently launched a multi-year partnership with NFL team San Francisco 49ers.
Castle of Blackwater
We’ve been supporting Castle of Blackwater for an extended period of time already. Whereas the current market conditions cause some parties to kneel down and embrace their faith, others become creative and put in everything they can to turn things around. That’s a perfect summary for Castle of Blackwater.
Operating in the highly competitive genre of social deduction with giants such as Among Us, the game has most recently launched the Alpha version of their game. Set in a medieval castle brimming with magic and intrigue, players are cast as researchers divided into factions with opposing goals.
The feedback received from these playtests during the alpha stage have been helpful, and overwhelmingly positive – The perfect ingredients for continuous development and a bright future. As one of games building on Beam, we’re excited to see in what ways they are utilizing the BeamSDK.
Heroes of Mavia
Heroes of Mavia has been actively teasing everyone with their game ever since they first announced the development of the game. Without a clear timeline on when people could actually get their hands on the game, more than 300,000 people signed up for the waitlist. After a long wait, the first players got early beta-access, including the Merit Gamers.
https://x.com/marco_merit/status/1704821009277141057
After playing the beta, we must say that we’re impressed with the current state of the game. With its biggest competitor being Clash of Clans, it’s a giant they are battling. However, the game is engaging and invites the player to continue playing. With simple gameplay, it’s inviting to stay present and continue upgrading your base.
Interestingly, Mavia has been analyzing the play-to-earn models vigorously and put their all into battling its unsustainability. As a countermeasure, they revealed their innovative Mass Ownership model – A twist to current models in games that is supposed to bring a more sustainable future to games such as Heroes of Mavia.
Shrapnel
Shrapnel is one of those games that simply continues to push the boundaries of anticipation. With every small release of gameplay, more people get excited and join the line of eager fans waiting to get their hands on the game. To facilitate this, Shrapnel has officially launched on the EpicGames store – Where you can add Shrapnel to your wishlist.
Besides that, Shrapnel launched their highly customizable INSIGNIA creator tool beta. Players can now easily design unique insignias and skins to personalize their in-game operator and gear. While not yet on-chain, INSIGNIA offers a glimpse into Shrapnel’s vision for true digital asset ownership and creative expression in gaming.
Other than that – Shrapnel has launched their extraction packs, the keys to the early access of the game. These packs are purchasable on their website, or won through giveaways and campaigns.
We recently did an interview with one of the founders of Shrapnel that dives deep into his journey to creating Shrapnel, and where they are now!
Raini
Raini Studios has been hard at work for years to shake up the trading card game world. Through their game they are combining memes, exciting gameplay and captivating game loops all in one unified experience. To celebrate their first launch, they are currently in the middle of their 2023 Rainiverse World Championships with a $20,000 prize pool.
Besides the game being actively played by thousands of players, Raini has been embracing the Beam network with open arms. The $RST token has officially been migrated to the Beam network as the first ERC-20 token to live on this new network besides the native gas token MC.
To enable this transition on Beam, Raini launched bridges allowing $RAINI holders to swap for $RST on a 1:1 basis. To read more about the migration, you can view this article.
Pixion Games
Pixion Games is the mastermind behind the captivating game called Fableborne. In the past few months, the game hosted two more successful playtests and launched the hotly anticipated Fableborne Primordials NFT collection.
In September, Pixion held the Primordials Tournament, with spots for the Primordial mint as rewards. After overwhelming demand, they decided to extend the pre-sale. Concludingly, the 2023 Primordial PFP collection finally went live in October. Holders gain access to exclusive lore and assets like the powerful Fableborne Artifacts.
Playtest IV in July brought valuable feedback on strategic hero swapping, island progression, and competitive rankings. This informed crucial improvements like the Primordial Essence currency and upgraded matchmaking.
Sipher
It’s been a long time coming but Sipher Odyssey gears up for the long-awaited closed alpha launch. This exclusive early access marks a major milestone for the team after a long ride building their community and showing everyone what they are all about. This closed alpha will concentrate on core gameplay feedback to refine abilities, progression, and exploration.
To enable smooth onboarding, Sipher rebuilt the tutorial and focused on first-time user experience. Their data analytics infrastructure will drive ongoing improvements.
With support from over 30 partner organizations, Sipher looks to deliver an immersive casual fighting and dungeon crawling experience.
An extensive update about the upcoming alpha has been released here.
Azuro
Azuro has been gaining serious traction in the decentralized betting space as the betting layer empowering betting platforms all across the board. They recently amassed over $15 million in all-time betting volume, made possible through several bookmakers using their protocols such as BookmakerXYZ, Bookiebot and plenty others – Azuro ecosystem.
The gambling layer also launched Season 2 of their meta-game Azuro Score, rewarding players for betting and providing liquidity. This sets the stage for their upcoming DAO and $AZUR token distribution. With the volume of wagers increasing and more momentum in the decentralized betting space in general, it’s enticing to follow Azuro so closely.
Oh Baby Games
Oh Baby Games is simply a powerhouse in the making. With a variety of games in the works, their racing game What the Kart is taking the industry by storm. Through ongoing alpha tests the game is slowly being improved in anticipation of a future release.
What the Kart's third alpha wave marked their biggest test yet, with over 12,000 races completed. Concluding this testing period, the September patch brought map revamps, new gameplay modes, and expanded stickers to collect. As of right now, the final Alpha testing is ongoing, with the Merit Gamers participating.
Oh Baby continues revealing WIP content like new maps, powerups, and characters on social media. As such, they have announced the upcoming alpha of yet another game.
https://x.com/OhBabyGames/status/1709689863073939522?s=20
Trial Xtreme
Trial Xtreme blew away half of the industry in terms of quality with their first playtest that happened several months ago. Showcasing their talent and experience as a team building games for millions of people globally, their new game crushed all records and reached numbers only reached by hit-games. It’s safe to say that we are eager for Trial Xtreme to launch.
With a playtest planned for the end of October, Trial Xtreme is determined to perfect their competitive racing ecosystem. As a close partner, we are able to provide our loyal community members with some test spots – Say the word ‘Trial Xtreme’ in our Telegram channel to capture your spot.
We would like to note once again that Trial Xtreme intends to build on Beam, utilizing the BeamSDK to bring seamless gameplay to their large player base. On our end, we will do everything to support their efforts and ensure their on-chain activities happen in the best way possible.
Forgotten Playland
The Forgotten Playland remains a world of mystery and cute chaos. In strong collaboration with an experienced team of developers, the game is making strong progress. With a lot of moving parts behind the scenes, we may proudly say that a trailer displaying all of the game’s progress and its current state is currently in development.
Forgotten Playland will become a social playground and is the home of highly customizable fluffy toy characters that compete in a wide range of twisted minigames that will be rolled out in due course. Stay tuned for more, as the trailer will be the starting point for further releases.
Snackclub
Merit Circle has been in a friendly partnership with the Latin-American organization Snackclub. Specializing in user acquisition, influencer marketing and Esports, the DAO is able to support its current portfolio games, and create a strategic offerings towards future partners.
As of late, discussions have been held to negotiate further collaboration. Further details will be made public in the following weeks.
Treasury overview
The treasury balance as of the 30th of September 2023 is $94,845,219.
Since MC tokens will not be utilized for investment purposes, they will not be included in our balance sheet. Those interested can view the current balance in the main wallet to be viewed in the wallet overview beneath. In that sense, we have not included negligible balances marked as working capital instead of additional treasury funds.
We will break down our treasury in three categories; liquid crypto assets, NFTs and venture investments
Liquid assets
NFTs
Tokens & equity
*Other
The recent version of our Treasury dashboard includes a section for Other Investments, split across our three categories of liquid crypto tokens, NFTs and venture investments. As discussed above, since the start of the year and during the last quarter, some of our portfolio projects have been underperforming and have seen significant loss of value.
The Other Investments line item aggregates the costs and current realizable value of our projects that have underperformed and thus will usually reflect a significant loss relative to the cost amount.
We feel it is important to be transparent with the community while maintaining the quality of our reports, thus positions which have negligible value or are written off can be tracked as “Others”, removing the need to provide each one with its own line.
Notable changes this quarter
Ascenders
Merit Circle has made the decision to write off our investment in Ascenders and end the partnership. Despite the team's vision for an innovative MMORPG, the recent mint of Ascenders' Land NFTs failed to gain traction, prompting the studio to cease operations.
While disappointing, we respect the studio's judgment to discontinue development. This outcome will directly affect Ascenders' value on our treasury report, as we will be marking the investment down to zero.
We will apply learnings about thoroughly vetting early-stage partners. Our priority remains supporting gaming projects with realistic roadmaps aligned with our values. Though isolated losses are inevitable, our diversified portfolio allows absorbing them.
Merit Circle remains committed to revolutionizing gaming through prudent investments in trusted partners.
Live treasury dashboard
We have updated our dashboard with the most recent data as at 30th of September 2023.
The treasury dashboard is under continuous development to meet the requirements of Merit Circle and to honor our ambitions for both transparency and accountability. It’s important to share correct information and allow anyone contributing to the DAO a clear overview of our current status. This is all accomplished through this dashboard.
With its development continuing and always changing, we are more than happy to receive feedback through any of the social channels. Without further ado, we invite you to dive in and see the current treasury status on our dashboard.
Visit the dashboard here - treasury.meritcircle.io
This dashboard has been developed by contributor CryptoCarl.
Wallet overview
To operate completely transparent, we would like to provide a full list of wallet addresses Merit Circle currently utilizes.
Ethereum
Binance smart chain
Solana
Ronin
Looking forward
We’re excited to witness the progress Merit Circle has made over the past couple of months. A lot has happened, especially on a technical front for the DAO with the release of Beam. The success and population of this network will be the main focus of Merit Circle in the near future.
The next update will be released in January as the report for the last quarter of 2023. Throughout this period we will also reflect on the past year and review all of our positions accordingly.
Notes
All of the balances and prices are based on calculations made on the 30th of September 2023.
All of the investments made after the 30th of September 2023 are not included in the treasury report unless specifically mentioned.