#37 - Treasury report January 2024
This report contains a breakdown of the Merit Circle ecosystem treasury as of the 31st of December 2023 (herein referred to as the "Treasury").
We are delighted to share Merit Circle’s first quarterly treasury report of 2024.
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 31st of December 2023.
Summary
During the past quarter, the treasury increased from $94,845,219 in September to $118,132,538 at the end of December 2023. This represents an increase of 25.71% compared to the previous quarter.
In Q4 2023, Merit Circle bought a total of 514,216,432 BEAM tokens at a USD value of $3,274,377. All BEAM tokens bought during the quarter have been burned.
Q4 doesn’t only mark the end of a quarter, but also the end of a very eventful year! Hence, in this report we will look back not only on the quarter, but also the year as a whole. The previous year started bumpy and with the lowest of expectations from most market participants.
However, as the year proceeded, the treasury increased and so did the market. The market increased even more this quarter, as BTC, ETH and altcoins had a great quarter. Naturally, Merit Circle’s portfolio will trail a quarter like this somewhat, due to the high amount of illiquid positions and our healthy cash position that is not yielding anything for the most part, nor has any market beta. The illiquid positions have no live tickers and thus we rely on last-round valuations. However, the projects that did have liquid tokens and the liquid crypto in our portfolio performed incredibly well.
In terms of deal volume numbers, Merit Circle has participated in slightly more deals than past quarters, while still staying relatively selective. The same can be said for grants or grant + investment combinations. The venture market is slowly heating up again, but the pockets are still rather concentrated. So we see mania around certain projects again and absolute cool sentiment still around others.
Of course, the biggest event that needs mentioning in this quarter, and by extension for all of 2023, is the launch of the BEAM network and our subsequent migration from MC to the BEAM token. This was accompanied by a significant price rise in the token, likely fueled by the many exciting developments that have been introduced, new high-potential collaborations and rapidly growing activity on the Beam network. While a rise in the BEAM token does not directly affect our treasury balance, it does so indirectly, as Merit Circle still holds a significant amount of BEAM. Firstly, due to the BEAM tokens that can still be utilized by the treasury rising in value, thus providing more resources, and secondly because it raises the profile and the legitimacy of Merit Circle. It validates our direction and our achievements. Projects with larger marketcaps are simply being taken more seriously. Sometimes justly, sometimes unjustly.
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.
SnackClub
In last quarter's treasury report, we highlighted exploratory discussions with SNACKCLUB, based in Brazil seeking to bridge the gap between creators and brands. This quarter, those talks have led to something more.
Merit Circle has now acquired a stake in SNACKCLUB, securing alignment with the leading LatAm influencer program and esports activation platform for games. This investment formalizes an active collaboration that leverages SNACKCLUB's proficiencies in user acquisition and community building to accelerate traction for our portfolio games.
Their expertise and network offer meaningful growth opportunities that we can extend to studio partners building on Beam.
OhBaby! Games
OhBaby! Games kicked into high gear last quarter. Its popular Mario Kart-esque racing game, Oh Baby Kart, sped through a successful alpha test and is now gearing up for a much-anticipated beta mode.
However, the real showstopper was OhBaby!'s landmark partnership with entertainment behemoth, Paramount. While full details on the collaboration remain under wraps, OhBaby! shows much promise following the Spongebob Squarepants-themed skins featured in its game store. Tapping into iconic, culture-defining IP is sure to supercharge mainstream adoption for the studio. More crossover delights surely await.
Mixmob
MixMob took a community-powered approach to their token launch by allowing early Gen 0 NFT holders access to exclusive presales for playable MixBot characters and multiplier token bonuses. This proved successful as the assets quickly sold out, compelling the team to expand access to drive further demand.
Since then, MixMob’s focus has been on their public sale that has been fully sold out! The TGE is scheduled to happen anytime soon.
Raini Studios
The largest development for Raini Studios was its acquisition this quarter by a joint venture between infrastructure firm Ceden and NFT studio Kanpai Pandas. This surprise consolidation brought an influx of gaming veterans, including ex-EA executive Michael Haller who will lead development on an unnamed combat title utilizing a world famous IP.
As regulatory winds shift, Raini aims to lead the way proving freemium playability and true ownership can coexist within regulations across both crypto native and traditional gaming markets.
Amino
Over the past quarter, our investment continued powering Amino’s mission to incentivize healthier living through web3 rewards systems. Their multi-app ecosystem demonstrates formidable traction, amassing 1.3 million members in their rewards program and over 100,000 daily users on the app.
Strategic alignments, such as their 3-year partnership with the San Francisco 49ers and Chainlink CCIP integration, are also noteworthy updates. The launch of an affiliate shop unlocks embedded commerce, multiplying monetization.
For our community-backing sustainable adoption models, Amino hits the bullseye. With owners earning from real-world actions, their ecosystem design thinks beyond speculation. We’re proud to fuel innovation at the intersection of fitness and ownership. With impressive growth across users, partners, and platform expansion, Amino’s metafit movement shows no signs of slowing down.
Inspect
As the premier Chrome extension unlocking crypto's potential, Inspect has expanded its web3 tools to empower over 300,000 users. Real-time token analytics now span over 20,000 assets across multiple blockchains to deliver unified insights.
In two months, strategic alliances and 40% user growth set the stage for Merit Circle to back Inspect's success with a $100,000 investment, which is partially unvested. With staking, premium features, and on-chain agility, Inspect is positioned to pioneer the SocialFi era through an engaged decentralized community.
Farcana
Merit Circle is thrilled to participate alongside premiere gaming investors like Animoca Brands and Polygon Ventures to back competitive sci-fi shooter Farcana with $250,000 in their latest $10 million funding round. Living up to the expectations, the shooter has a wildly ambitious roadmap to complete in the near future.
By smartly playing into the market’s trends, Farcana has integrated tournaments where you can pay with Bitcoin, and has features like free Ordinal mints on the horizon. Most notably, Farcana has their token launching on the 23rd of January.
Tribo Games
We’re thrilled to announce that Merit Circle has invested €350,000 in Tribo Games, the incoming leading multiplayer game studio, which will be building its titles on Beam. Our custom blockchain infrastructure empowers their vision for community-connected competitive gaming.
Their first title, Rumble Arcade, delivers an immersive PvP experience around collecting upgradable characters to battle opponents in tournaments. By integrating Beam’s infrastructure, Rumble Arcade pioneers gameplay innovations in ownership and open economies.
With decades of experience in hits such as Plants vs Zombies, Candy Crush, and Angry Birds, Tribo Games is perfectly positioned to propel the next generation of multiplayer titles into the
mainstream web3 gaming landscape. We look forward to close collaboration as Rumble Arcade launches on Beam.
Forgotten Playland
In a strong collaboration with Duckland Games, Forgotten Playland is a studio project of Merit Circle. As such, we’re very close to the fire and see everything that’s happening behind closed doors. As an investor, we usually see more than the public eye before the game’s officially launched, but in this case it’s even more special.
Forgotten Playland is shaping up to become an incredibly fun game with initial minigames like Bump-A-Ball and Jungle Rumble. There are however more games confirmed to be worked on, and scheduled to release soon after the launch, that is happening in this quarter.
More about the funding round, the $FP token and its TGE is being released very soon.
Azuro
Azuro's on-chain gambling layer closed out 2023 with major momentum, exceeding $1,000,000 in protocol revenue and $25,000,000 in all-time volume. As adoption continues cascading, Azuro now sets its sights on cracking top 10 DeFi status in 2024.
One key driver on the horizon is the upcoming launch of live on-chain betting functionality, now in final testnet stages. Azuro has been laying robust foundations for interoperable and scalable betting primitives with partners like BookmakerXYZ. So as decentralized sportsbooks prepare to unlock instantly updated odds, Azuro’s positioned to ride the surging Web3 gambling wave they’ve nurtured over recent quarters.
Big Time
Big Time is one of those games that’s been in the spotlight for quite some time now. Fresh off winning top honors at the GAM3 Awards for Best Adventure, RPG, and Multiplayer Game, the buzz around this breakout startup continues to grow.
Under the hood, Big Time's leadership recently implemented thoughtful economic changes to ensure sustainability, balance gameplay, and reward crafters. These savvy tweaks promise to strengthen Big Time's virtual economy while avoiding overcorrection.
We’ve been experimenting with the in-game strategies and have been enjoying the game so far.
Treasury overview
The treasury balance as of the 31st of December 2023 is $118,132,538.
When calculating our treasury’s balance, we only include non-native assets. This means we do not count the balance of BEAM tokens towards the total balance of our treasury since it might paint a diluted picture of the reality.
Since BEAM 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, please refer to the wallet overview below. For practical reasons, 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
Write-offs
Blockstars, Fancybirds and Wonderhero have been written off due to the residual value being deemed less than 5% of the initial starting position. Generally, written-off projects are projects that have wound down or are looking like they will. In certain cases, however, they are still building, or making re-starts. In that event, the position will reappear on the treasury report when the project equity/token is getting above the 5%> value threshold again.
Devaluations
A devaluation in illiquid assets occurs if a project is raised at a lower valuation or when the valuation is otherwise decreased, either by lowering our staking directly, or indirectly through restructuring or dilution.
Live treasury dashboard
We have updated our dashboard with the most recent data as at 31 December 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 Merit Circle 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 transparently, we would like to provide a full list of wallet addresses Merit Circle currently utilizes.
Ethereum
Binance smart chain
Solana
Ronin
Looking forward
As we kick off another year for Merit Circle, it’s exciting to do so with such an uptick in our treasury’s value. It’s motivating to say the least, and even more stimulating given the numerous launches on the horizon. It’s a reminder once again to continue grinding and realize that we simply have just started.
Notes
All balances and prices are based on calculations made on the 31st of December 2023.
All investments made after the 31st of December 2023 are not included in the treasury report unless specifically mentioned.