Of course, this begs the question: Does launch timing matter? We’ll get into that later….
As part of the announcement, a couple of key changes were made to OS’s airdrop campaign:
There will be no more waves (reward cycles)
For context, as part of the airdrop campaign, users completed Voyages (quests) by trading, buying, and selling NFTs and tokens on OS. In turn, they gained XP, which leveled up their Treasure Chests (rewards), which were fueled by a reward pool
Users can claim an optional fee refund for wave 3-6
On NFT sales, OS had a 1% platform fee (raised from 0.5% in September) and 0.85% fee on token swaps. 50% of all platform fees fueled the reward pool. The other 50% went to OS
This also wasn’t the first time people were disappointed about the campaign. Back in October, after Wave 1 ended, users showed their disappointment on the TL as the Treasury Rewards were underwhelming. The rewards didn’t match the fees they paid
But, of course, the future SEA airdrop could compensate for that
Existing Treasures are honored:
The announcement says: “they will be meaningfully considered by the Foundation at TGE”
0% fees for 60 days:
OS wants to reel in people with a 0% fee incentive to try out their new platform and trading products, including perps. After this period, there will be a fee in place that’s “significantly more competitive” for traders
Naturally, the delay and these changes weren’t received well by many, because of a couple of reasons:
The first one is the same as what we talked about with Abstract: it feels like there’s no end in sight (Voyages launched in May 2025). Initially, the team gave a soft TGE period of around Q1, but as we know now, this has been pushed
Waiting for market conditions to turn around for TGE is ambiguous and creates uncertainty
Secondly, people have been using OS for years, as it launched in December 2017. During these years, and especially during NFT mania, the platform generated significant amounts of fees and revenue
Thirdly, the timing of the Vanity Fair piece, “Crypto’s True Believers Demand to Be Taken Seriously”, featuring Finzer, was just the cherry on top. The article features a quote describing his elitist lifestyle, with private suites, a personal team of assistants, security, designer clothing, etc.
In February 2024, OS also posted an image called “Parisian dinner vibes”, featuring a dinner hall as if OS leadership were part of the bourgeoisie
Finzer responded to the criticisms, but seemed “tone deaf” in terms of how users actually feel, one commenter pointed out: “At a moment when so many of your users are down bad, what everyone wants to hear from you is "we're going to win, and I'm not going to rest until we all win together”
Lastly, before this gets too long, does launch timing matter? According to Haseeb (managing partner at Dragonfly), it doesn’t. His conclusion was based on an analysis of ~200 tokens that launched on Binance. Do note that we can question the methodology here and the incentives of pushing this narrative, as it’s coming from a VC
I’d say launching in low vs. high market sentiment, both have its up- and downsides. In low sentiment, it’s easier to dominate mindshare and launch at a lower FDV to allow more organic price discovery. During high sentiment, there’s more liquidity available, and launch valuations are higher
It ultimately depends on what you’re optimizing for…
That’s not to say that you can’t launch at a (relatively) high FDV ($1B+) in a bear market. It seems OS is just aiming for something higher. However, I don’t believe it’s just about timing the market, because OS’s revenue in 2026 so far is telling me it’s not there yet to support the SEA TGE
ATON ACQUIRES MAJORITY STAKE IN GAMEE
Just yesterday, AlphaTON Capital announced it is acquiring 60% of GAMEE, the mobile and Telegram gaming ecosystem owned by Animoca Brands. Outside of the “controlling interest”, AlphaTON is acquiring 51% of the treasury holdings of both GMEE and WAT + will acquire an additional $2M of GMEE on the market
Earlier, in September 2025, AlphaTON showed intent to acquire GAMEE
GMEE is GAMEE’s ecosystem token, while WAT is the native token of the “Watbird Universe”, a casual game that was incubated and launched on the GAMEE platform
Sidenote: there was a larger KOL campaign to amplify the news, including names such as Wale, StarPlatinum, Jampzey, moritz, Sanjay, Elisa, Loki, etc. An attempt to revitalize GAMEE?
The funny thing is that there’s a good chance you would’ve missed this news altogether if you’re using an adblocker or Brave
Animoca became the owner of GAMEE through a full acquisition in July 2020. Originally a Web2 social/casual game platform, Animoca made the company pivot to crypto post acquisition
They changed the name of the company, the ticker, and the strategic focus from biotech to building a TON token treasury and scaling the Telegram ecosystem. Additionally, they raised $71-$100M through private placement and custody deals to buy TON, run validators, and invest in TON projects
What AlphaTON did is called a “public vehicle” strategy, essentially a fast-track ot get publicly listed without having to go through the whole process of getting listed and doing an IPO
It reminds me of Animoca’s plans to list on the NASDAQ this year through a reverse merger with Currenc Group Inc. (CURR). We talked about it in Sidelined News 144
Notably, since the leadership change of last year, ATON stock has lost significant value. Today, ATON is trading around -92% YoY, at an $8M market cap. In 1999, it was trading at $15K a stock. Today, it’s a penny stock at $0.34
GAMEE claims to be one of the “most established Web3 gaming platforms” with 119M+ registered users, of which 61M+ (51%) are on Telegram. Of course, the real question is how many of these are real users. Discounting these numbers by at least 90% isn’t too outrageous. So, what’s the actual value of that distribution?
Over a year ago, I interviewed someone in the Telegram games world, just out of curiosity. This person confirmed to me that UA on TG is largely a pyramid scheme, as apps (games) were continuously “reselling” their audience to the next app through the ad network. The “player numbers” were astronomical, but the LTV of this audience was often close to 0 (post-airdrop)
There were millions of “real” users coming for the rewards, but over 90% of this audience were probably bots, too
So, where’s the value for AlphaTON in this acquisition? Well…outside of being a gaming platform, GAMEE is one of these ad networks I just mentioned
GAMEE’s “Attention Network” works as follows: games act as a delivery channel (largely in TG) → advertisers buy campaigns by paying in GMEE tokens → payments are performance-based, on user actions/engagement → users get rewarded in GMEE or points
Overall, I believe this acquisition is mostly about the adtech, data, and maybe about the distribution. AlphaTON will likely leverage this tech for growing its own ecosystem of apps on TON
Unlike most TCGs in crypto, which are either only digital or phygital, GA is only a physical card game. There are digital elements to the overall experience, with a mobile companion app and commemorative NFTs. However, the game itself is completely physical
The game seems largely like an IP-extension to reach the TCG player/consumer, instead of the crypto crowd. The TAM of (physical) TCG players is small. However, the TAM of TCG collectors is large
Azuki is also making an anime called Bucketman, which will come with collectible figurines
GA lends systems from familiar TCGs such as One Piece TCG and Final Fantasy, while adding a unique twist through the Gate Portal (moves units and scales card effects), a strict IKZ-cap (mana-cap), and a two-row battlefield. Matches are also relatively fast, with around 20-minute games
From The Team Behind The Azuki Trading Card Game post: “The gameplay had to be deep enough for competitive players and intuitive enough that someone picking up cards for the first time could learn it in a few minutes.”
The same post details that former talent from Blizzard, Riot, Ubisoft, Pokémon TCG, and more are working on this game
As part of its GTM strategy, Azuki has focused on hosting tournaments. In January, it held an invitational with a $10K prize pool. This March, it held an NYC Tournament, and for S1 (the next 18 months), it allocated a $100K prize pool
With the announcement trailer, GA also launched its first official set of cards, a limited presale of cards (starter decks and cases), and collectibles (posters, uncut sheets, and playmats) that come in 6 Tiers, ranging from $80 to $35,000
Within the first hour, it sold out its Tier 6 (8 supply at $35,000). In the first 2 hours, over 300 orders were placed. And within ~5 hours, 25% of the supply was sold out. After the first milestone was hit, a new promo card was unlocked and included in every order
Among Azuki NFT holders, the sale received some pushback due to the lack of perks, like priority access or discounts
One user said: “Honestly this can't be the way. ~70M raised directly from mints, 100M+ in Revenues including royalties. And then a pivot to the model of 'If we become big brand, surely our NFTs will be worth something as a collectible”
It highlights an important shift and tension we’ve seen with other NFT brands, moving away from community-first to brand-first
Holders want the companies they hold NFTs of to be successful, but for any consumer brand that’s paired with expanding beyond CT. In that process, choices have to be made to favor mass-market and monetization over the “eternal pleasing” of holders
The dynamics are difficult, because on the one hand, these people brought you were today, but on the other hand community is not a scalable marketing and monetization solution
The TCG market is a competitive space with huge IPs and cemented player bases (switching costs are high). So, whether Azuki can succeed here with their gameplay innovation and anime art-style is something I’d remain sceptical of
