两年半，烧掉幻想：一个SocialFi项目的失败自白

Original author: kipit

Original translation: Luffy, Foresight News

TL;DR

• All angel and seed round investors will receive a full refund of principal and interest, with their investment funds returned in full via the original channel.
• Fantasy has been entirely self-sufficient through its revenue for two and a half years, returning approximately $20 million to the community cumulatively.
• The core lesson learned over this period: If a product prioritizes financial incentives above all else, it primarily attracts speculators, not users. This principle applies not only to card-based blockchain games but is also the fundamental reason why most social tokens and early-stage token projects struggle.

The decision to shut down Fantasy was not impulsive. We spent months exploring all possible directions, consulting with people we trust, and seriously discussing pivots. Ultimately, we reached a consensus: we lacked the conviction to continue. Therefore, we chose to end this responsibly, allowing it to close with dignity.

This article serves as a post-mortem: what we built, why it failed, and what new understandings we gained about social products, cryptocurrencies, and tokens along the way. We are not the first team to venture into this track, and we certainly won't be the last. If these experiences can help future builders avoid the pitfalls we encountered, then this entrepreneurial exploration holds its value.

What We Built

For two and a half years, Fantasy was entirely self-funded through its operational revenue. Although the project completed a $5.6 million funding round led by Dragonfly, the team operated without touching any of those investment funds. Few crypto projects can claim this, and we are deeply proud of it.

The project's core contribution data is clear:

• Distributed 2,665 ETH (approx. $8 million) to regular players
• Distributed 1,078 ETH (approx. $3.2 million) to top creators/influencers
• Leveraged the Blast ecosystem to distribute a total of $12.2 million in ecological incentives to all players and creators.
• With Blast rewards, 86% of players ended up profitable.

Overall, Fantasy returned significantly more capital to the community than it extracted, making this the project's most valuable achievement.

We created one of the most viral and engaging products in the social crypto space. We introduced novel mechanisms: industry mindshare influence scores, social graph prediction markets, and lightweight free-to-play modes.

We consistently maintained a rapid iteration and efficient launch pace. Yet, even so, we couldn't break through the growth bottleneck.

The Core Reason for Fantasy's Failure

There is one primary reason for our failure: We tried to place cryptocurrency on a foundation that was not originally built for it.

Trading card games (TCGs) have a well-established business logic. Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! are globally popular, enduring top-tier entertainment IPs. Players are passionate about collecting, trading, and battling with cards. The audience base is massive.

But all crypto-based card games have ultimately failed, from TopShot and Sorare to us now. This is not a coincidence but a structural flaw inherent to this track.

The core logic of traditional top-tier TCGs is to build the game first, then consider peripheral products. Players acquire cards initially for the gameplay experience. The financial premium attached to cards is a natural byproduct that emerges after the game mechanics are mature and the community ecosystem flourishes. It is not the primary reason users join.

Crypto-based card games completely reverse this logic: the cards first become financial speculation targets, and the fun of the game becomes secondary. What they attract are not players who love the game, but speculators hoping to profit from card trading. The motivations of these two groups are entirely different.

Once a project becomes financialized from its inception, all subsequent operational decisions are constrained: you cannot freely optimize gameplay because any rule change directly affects card prices; you dare not easily launch new game modes for fear of triggering a redistribution of community interests. Ultimately, the team stops polishing the game content and is forced to become a manager of a financial scheme. This is the industry trap we fell into.

We recognized this problem early and made every effort to break out. We introduced the Arena mode to lower the barrier to asset ownership, built lightweight traffic channels, opened free-to-play access, and even dismantled the NFT asset system to pivot entirely to a social prediction market. Each adjustment was meant to return to the "game-first" principle, but we could never reverse the overall decline.

The ebbing of the Blast ecosystem further exacerbated the development challenges. Back then, Blast's hype was unprecedented, attracting a flood of users to Fantasy hoping for the rumored massive ecosystem airdrop. In the first month of our mainnet launch, revenue hit its all-time high, accounting for 70% of the project's total lifetime revenue.

This peak-at-launch trajectory left all subsequent operations in a state of decline. The team couldn't steadily plan for long-term growth but was only reacting to the inevitable downturn in traffic and hype.

Financialization Fundamentally Changes the User Base

This industry-wide issue is prevalent throughout the crypto space. Social tokens were originally envisioned to reshape the connection between creators and their fans. Yet, almost all related attempts have failed. The reason is the same: real fans follow creators because they resonate with their work, ideas, and community atmosphere, not purely for profit.

Once you embed token price fluctuations between fans and the content they love, the pure emotional connection becomes distorted. The most active participants in the community will transform from loyal fans into short-term traders.

This is not a minor, insignificant problem. It is the core bottleneck restricting the development of this track.

The crypto industry excels at designing incentive mechanisms and aligning participants' consensus. This is its core strength. However, a common misconception exists: that simply grafting financial attributes onto traditional internet products, games, or social communities will upgrade the business model.

The opposite is true. Adding financial attributes fundamentally changes the product's nature. In most cases, it severely undermines the product's original core value.

Trying to replicate crypto products on top of traditional internet ecosystems and scaling them effectively doesn't work. Financial attributes are never the foundation; they are an add-on that directly reshapes the user group structure and their initial motivations for joining.

Deep Thoughts on Track Tokens

This logic applies not only to end-user products but also to crypto startups themselves.

Our team never issued a project-native token. Although the idea crossed our minds multiple times, we ultimately chose against it. The reason is simple: issuing a token before achieving substantial developmental milestones is inherently irresponsible. 95% of tokens on the market decline in price after their launch. We firmly resist the behavior of launching tokens knowing this outcome, just to 'farm' the community.

Observing various token launch projects throughout this market cycle, I am increasingly convinced that the issuance mechanism of most projects is fundamentally flawed.

It is a mistake to casually issue a token when a project lacks a mature product and stable market demand. I used to think traditional financial regulation was too strict, but now I fully understand its underlying logic: strict regulation protects ordinary investors from immature startups without proven commercial viability. The crypto industry skips this risk-filtering layer entirely, and the entire track is paying the price for it.

Rushing to launch a token before proving product-market fit is detrimental to the project. After the token launch, the team's attention fixates on the token price, and regular users also just stare at price charts. Everyone stops focusing on product development, and the project stalls completely.

Even a high-quality project with real revenue and steady development like Across Protocol has publicly stated that the negative impact of issuing a token outweighs its practical value. This conclusion deserves deep consideration by the entire industry.

The robust token projects in this cycle, such as Hyperliquid, Pump, and Jupiter, are exceptions, not the norm. These projects first built a mature business system, achieved stable revenue, and used platform profits for token buybacks and value accrual. They launched their tokens only after achieving substantial strength and having a genuine reason to do so.

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) might be one of the few structural exceptions. However, many early DePIN projects launched with inflated valuations that wouldn't survive in today's market, and the track still lacks a universally recognized, long-term successful benchmark case.

Similar to financialized card games, launching a token too early creates a vicious cycle. Binding the token to high market expectations severely restricts a startup's flexibility to experiment, make mistakes, and find the right development path.

Full Refund to Investors

All angel and seed round investors of Fantasy will receive a 100% full refund. The exact amount invested will be returned via the original channel.

We are able to do this because the project was entirely self-sufficient throughout its operation and never utilized external investment funds. The initial investment was made based on the belief that the project could grow into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Since the project can no longer achieve that goal, and we lack the conviction to use these funds for a pivot we are not confident about, returning the capital is the responsible choice.

We deeply value the trust our investors placed in us and will not waste it on blind attempts we don't believe in ourselves.

To the Platform Creators

A heartfelt thank you! When the project's business model was still unproven, you chose to join based on your reputation and influence. You earned over $3.2 million on the platform. We hope this reward lives up to the trust you initially placed in us.

To All Community Users

Every community user made Fantasy what it was. All the impressive data mentioned above is a direct result of your invaluable support. We strived to build the most fun social game in the crypto space, and for a time, we succeeded. Thank you for your daily companionship, for actively building decks and participating in competitions.

It's regrettable that we couldn't ultimately meet your expectations. We deeply understand everyone's disappointment and accept this outcome.

If anyone still believes a billion-dollar idea lies behind Fantasy, feel free to try. The track is open and has no barriers to entry. We are willing to openly share all our practical experience and lessons learned.

We encountered many seemingly insurmountable industry barriers. Future builders don't need to repeat our mistakes or learn them through trial and error. We encourage you to adopt a completely new development approach, avoid our missteps, and build an even better product than ours.

This post-mortem is not intended as a formal goodbye, but as a practical reference for future entrepreneurs.

Currently, crypto-based card games have a natural ceiling. Social products that prioritize financial attributes are destined to attract speculators, not build a core user base. Launching a token prematurely, detached from actual product needs and market demand, often only hinders a project's development.

These are not challenges unique to our project, but common pain points throughout the crypto industry. These problems are not unsolvable, but they cannot be fixed by merely replicating outdated models.

We were not the first to try, and we certainly won't be the last. The most valuable trait of the crypto industry is its boldness to explore and experiment. Entrepreneurial ventures inherently involve uncertainty in success or failure, but every attempt holds unique value.

Finally, thank you once again to everyone who trusted and supported us.