PD Letter : Regarding the end of service
Hello Derby family,
This is PD Ham Seon-woo.
It has been a while since I last reached out to you. I wish I could bring you good news after such a long time, but unfortunately, I have to deliver some somber news, which deeply pains me. Today, I must inform you about the termination of services for Derby Stars and Derby Race. Many of you held onto hope until the very end and waited patiently, and I am filled with regret that I have to bring this announcement. However, I believe many of you may be curious about the process that led to this decision, and with the thought that this will be my last communication, I would like to explain everything in detail.
Hypedream was founded in July 2021 and successfully completed its Seed Round IR at the end of February 2022, embarking on an ambitious journey. However, just two months later, in early May, we faced the Terra crisis, which resulted in losing 100% of our NFT sales revenue and one-third of our Seed investment overnight — a devastating blow.
At the time, it was difficult to disclose the exact financial damage, but in truth, it was utterly disheartening. As a startup with limited capital that had suffered irreparable losses just two months after completing IR, we had to reconsider everything from scratch, including whether continuing operations was even viable. Nonetheless, we believed it was our duty to repay the trust placed in us by our community and investors despite the challenges. We resolved to push forward with determination.
Since continuing on Terra was no longer an option, we spent nearly two months deliberating on which blockchain network to migrate to. Ultimately, we chose Polygon due to the favorable conditions offered and launched Derby Stars in August 2023. However, this version was far less complete than originally planned. Initially, we intended to launch with features like land ownership and buildings as part of SNG elements, but due to the unavoidable financial damage mentioned earlier, it was impossible to deliver everything we had envisioned at launch.
To draw an analogy with RPG games: we should have launched with fields, dungeons, and raid bosses fully developed but ended up releasing only the fields — a far from complete product. As a result, it fell short of expectations and received considerable criticism while failing to achieve satisfactory results. I sincerely apologize to those who waited patiently with high hopes and spent much time blaming myself during this period. Above all, the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 were particularly painful for me as we had no choice but to let go of three-quarters of our development team following poor post-launch performance.
Personally, during this time of immense stress and hardship, I suffered facial paralysis in March 2024 that left me unable to move the entire right side of my face. For 6 months, I couldn’t even close my mouth properly and had to drink soup through a straw while wearing an eye patch because my right eye couldn’t close — working all day with only my left eye open. Despite these physical and emotional struggles, I am deeply grateful for the unwavering support from the Derby community during this period; your belief in us helped me endure these difficult times. Once again, thank you sincerely for your support.
Even though Derby Stars did not achieve strong financial results as our first web3 game project, we continued searching for breakthroughs. With just ten team members remaining — including myself — we worked on updates for Derby Stars while experimenting with other ideas such as Twitter-based games inspired by xPet or betting services developed alongside Fanplay. We also explored collaborations with Warpcast and researched Oracle contracts so everyone could freely use our racing engine. Unfortunately, none of these efforts yielded significant results or led to new opportunities for investment during additional IR attempts in early 2024.
Under these circumstances, our remaining team of 10 members came together and decided on 2 final strategies: first, migrating Derby Stars once again to a blockchain more favorable for attracting new users (the Immutable migration news you may already know), and second, entering the Telegram dApp market — which led us to develop Derby Race within just four months. Thanks to active support from Immutable and dedicated assistance from Soneium, both projects were successfully completed: Derby Stars migration proceeded quickly while Derby Race launched smoothly despite having no paid marketing efforts yet exceeding expectations in terms of user engagement — thank you all once again for your enthusiasm!
However, despite its promising performance,Derby Race failed to secure additional investment due to declining interest among investors in GameFi projects and fading enthusiasm around AI agents shortly after their initial boom. Additionally, Derby Stars migration did not garner significant attention either despite numerous meetings with potential partners — it was truly challenging.
Despite the tremendous losses caused by the Terra crisis, Hypedream persevered, operating for an impressive three years and nine months using only two-thirds of its Seed funding. During this time, we successfully launched two projects. However, our financial performance fell short of expectations. In the final year, we relied on additional funding from our shareholders to sustain operations while attempting second and third rounds of IR. Unfortunately, these efforts to secure further investment were unsuccessful, leaving us with no choice but to announce the termination of our services.
I am now stepping down as CEO of Hypedream and PD of Derby Stars and Derby Race. I am deeply sorry that I could not deliver better results to those who placed their trust and expectations in us until the very end. I hold immense respect for my colleagues at Derby Stars and Derby Race, who remained united and dedicated despite the company’s severe challenges following a large-scale restructuring last year that affected three-quarters of our team. Not a single member left, and together, they gave their all until the very end. I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Derby community for believing in our projects, playing them passionately, and offering invaluable advice throughout this journey — you have my deepest appreciation.
Over the years, we have received immense love, attention, and high expectations from the community, but I am fully aware that we have fallen short of meeting your trust and hopes. I feel deeply devastated and take full responsibility for this outcome. I humbly accept any criticism or disappointment stemming from the termination of our services. Please know that none of this is the fault of my dedicated team members who gave their all; the responsibility lies solely with me. Once again, I offer my sincerest apologies.
Lastly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has supported Derby Stars and Derby Race over the years. It was because of your unwavering support that I was able to endure such a long and difficult journey. While it is with great regret that we must part ways due to unavoidable financial challenges, I sincerely wish for your future to be filled with light and happiness. Thank you.
