Buzz
According to data from PooCoin Chart, a series of prominent Vietnamese GameFi projects belonging to the click-to-earn category (click to receive tokens) similar to CryptoBike are witnessing a strong selling wave from investors in recent days.
Since Axie Infinity exploded worldwide in the summer of 2021, the GameFi (or NFT game) fever has never been so intense in Vietnam. From long-standing game studios to inexperienced teams, all are bustling with fundraising and recruitment efforts to launch 'made in Vietnam' GameFi projects in the second half of 2021.
'Although there is no comprehensive statistical figure, the number of GameFi projects launched monthly by game developers in Vietnam often outweighs the number of projects undertaken by foreign game developers. Not to mention the foreign projects initiated by Vietnamese individuals. It can be said that doing GameFi will definitely be profitable, even immensely profitable if it attracts many users and investors. Therefore, more and more Vietnamese GameFi projects are emerging', Nguyen Hoang L, an experienced GameFi investor in Hanoi shared.
In addition to Axie Infinity, Vietnam can be considered a 'hotspot' for developing GameFi projects in 2021
Notably, alongside highly successful projects, there are still a considerable number of Vietnamese GameFi projects encountering a series of scandals in operation. These include tactics such as secretly 'dumping' a large amount of tokens into the market in a short period, significantly reducing the value of the token. More seriously, some development groups even show signs of fraud by performing rug pulls and fleeing with funds, causing heavy losses to investors.
This not only tarnishes the image of Vietnamese GameFi projects in the eyes of domestic investors but also has the potential to impact foreign investors from countries like China, South Korea, or South American nations.
Are foreign investors fleeing from many Vietnamese GameFi projects?
According to data from PooCoin Chart, a series of prominent Vietnamese GameFi projects belonging to the click-to-earn category (similar to CryptoBike) are experiencing a strong selling wave from investors in recent days.
For instance, the value of CGAR (the token of the CryptoGuards project) is currently plummeting, decreasing by as much as 5.3 times compared to its ATH (All-Time High) set on December 27th. Like CryptoGuards, the other two projects, CryptoCars and CryptoPlanes (both part of a larger project called CryptoCity Metaverse), have seen their token values drop by 15 times and 14 times respectively compared to their ATH. Some seasoned investors believe that these projects may have been affected by the influence of CryptoBike, which was supposedly riding on the reputation of these three projects despite having no developer relations among them.
The price chart of CGAR (the token of the CryptoGuards project) is currently plunging, decreasing by as much as 5.3 times compared to its ATH (All-Time High) set on December 27th (Screenshot)
Similarly, CryptoShip, another click-to-earn GameFi project with a similar name, is also facing a steep decline in token value (CSHIP). From its ATH of 1.3 USD on December 22nd, 2021, the CSHIP token is currently trading at 0.16 USD as of January 4th, 2022 – a decrease of up to 8 times in value within 2 weeks.
According to observations from some experienced investors, the cascading downfall of various Vietnamese click-to-earn games resembles a domino effect, possibly stemming from the CryptoBike incident.
'The incident where the CryptoBike development team embezzled 1.4 million USD then disappeared is creating a FUD (Fear – Uncertainty – Doubt) psychological effect on many investors when investing in similar projects developed in Vietnam. Among these investors, there are many from foreign countries', an anonymous personnel from a GameFi project in Hanoi shared.
Of course, this speculation only remains at the conjectural level, as there is no clear evidence or data regarding whether foreign investors are actually withdrawing capital from Vietnamese GameFi projects. In fact, apart from some click-to-earn games, several top GameFi projects meticulously invested in gameplay and mechanics are not heavily influenced by the CryptoBike incident.
However, such incidents are invisibly affecting some 'doing real business' blockchain projects in Vietnam in terms of public opinion.
'The loss of trust in some GameFi projects from Vietnam is significantly impacting the communication campaigns of some blockchain projects developed by Vietnamese individuals, which have been invested in very seriously. Although these upcoming projects all aim to provide the greatest value to users and do not chase short-term profits, existing prejudices may make the international community hesitant even before making investment decisions', Mr. Canh Ho, a Vietnamese co-founder of VerseHub, a company developing the 3.0 social network project named NextVerse in the direction of Metaverse, commented.
GameFi (short for Game + Finance) is a term referring to blockchain games combining financial elements. Information about cryptocurrencies, often referred to as 'virtual currency', is not legally recognized in Vietnam. The information in this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.
