YGG Invests In NFT Racehorses in ZED RUN for Play-to-Earn Opportunity
Yield Guild Games (YGG) is proud to announce it has invested in NFTs in ZED RUN, a futuristic horse racing game built on the blockchain allowing users to own, trade, breed and race 24/7.
Created by Virtually Human Studio, ZED RUN has a community of more than 100,000 stable owners where 1,200 live races are broadcasted daily. Each digital horse has its own DNA and some are stronger, faster or rarer than others, making them highly valuable.
YGG has identified ZED RUN as an entertaining, data-driven NFT game with a compelling play-to-earn component and NFTs that demonstrate strong utility in response to the actions of users. For example, a racehorse that consistently wins races will likely increase in value, with prices determined by the community on the secondary market.
As such, YGG saw an opportunity for its guild to deliver value to the ZED RUN ecosystem and earn a return by racing and breeding its own horses.
The guild is currently building a team of players that will own a stable of racehorses in ZED RUN to race and breed. Over the longer term, YGG plans to set up a “subDAO” dedicated to ZED RUN, beneath the main YGG DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organization).
This would fractionalize YGG’s community-owned NFTs so that more guild members can own a stake specific to ZED RUN, and also participate in governance decisions, to decide collectively how YGG should participate in the game.
Leading YGG’s stable is community member alohaTim, who is bringing his experience as a long time stable owner and influential ZED RUN community member. Aligned with this community-led initiative, alohaTim will be responsible for driving ecosystem engagement and growing YGG’s presence, boosting accessibility for YGG members to play ZED RUN.
“Now, with YGG, there is a way to syndicate ownership of ZED RUN’s horses. YGG is that bridge to provide greater inclusion.”
Launched in 2018, ZED RUN has seen incredible growth throughout 2021 along with the exponential rise of the NFT market, which topped sales of over $2 billion in Q1 this year. Recently, the startup has received extensive media coverage across major news publications including the New York Times, Singapore’s Straits Times and Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald.
However, the rising price of ZED RUN’s horses has made the game difficult to access. Currently, ZED RUN racehorses range in value from USD $120 to upwards of $45,000 for the most rare and prized horses.
Last month, the TERA DROP generated $20 million in revenue with more than 7,200 NFT racehorses selling out in four hours. On the secondary market, those horses are selling for up to 50% more than their original sale price via the ZED RUN sales platform.
“The demand for our NFTs is so high now that they rival the prices of real race horses. While this is a level of success beyond our wildest dreams, the downside is that it might have become really difficult for some people to get their hands on a horse. So for us, it’s about: How do we get more people into the game? How do we make it easier to access? Now, with YGG, there is a way to syndicate ownership of ZED RUN’s horses. YGG is that bridge to provide greater inclusion,” said Chris Laurent, CEO and Co-Founder of Virtually Human Studio, creators of ZED RUN.
With 58,000 users in the ZED RUN Discord and 100,000 stable owners — only around 7,500 have actually purchased their own horses. This user pipeline demonstrates the barriers faced by players who want to participate but cannot afford the high price of the NFTs required to play.
YGG’s business model, where the guild invests in NFTs to be rented to its players at no upfront cost, has helped solve similar onboarding problems for other play-to-earn games experiencing exponential growth, such as Axie Infinity.
“YGG will allow the tokenization of NFT racehorses in ZED RUN, meaning members of the YGG community can be part-owners in these increasingly valuable assets. This will make ZED RUN more accessible and more affordable for more people,” said Beryl Li, co-founder of YGG.
For each game that YGG participates in, YGG is committed to investing in the economy of that game, and sharing its assets with guild members for them to play and earn with. Earnings and rewards are distributed to the guild, so YGG’s main selection criteria is that the game has clear monetization design and lucrative play-to-earn tokenomics.
To date, YGG has invested in a total 10 NFT games including Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, F1 Delta Time, League of Kingdoms, Illuvium, Star Atlas, Ember Sword, Guild of Guardians, Splinterlands, and now, ZED RUN.
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