[Event Recap] Mid-Winter Fireside Chat Second Panel: Crypto PH Builders in the Bear Market

While the country and the rest of the world are experiencing a crypto winter, Draper Startup House Manila in Makati City was all warm as Filipino crypto enthusiasts attended the Mid-Winter Fireside Chat last August 16, 2022. Panels in the meetup discussed the bear cycle and how it affected the local market in the Philippines. The event was organized by the BitPinas and Yield Guild Games (YGG) and sponsored by RFOX Games.

Check out our recap articles:

The second panel discussed what it was like to build and create after the bull market and hype cycle in the Philippines.

The guest speakers for this talk are; Phil Cahiwat, RFOX Head of Business Development;  Ash Mandhyan, MetaverseGo CEO; and James Chua, Anito Legends CEO. Jen Bilango, BlockchainSpace Corporate Strategy and Growth Lead, moderated the panel.

RFOX Games is a game developer and venture builder, one of its most recent play-to-earn game is KOGS: Slam!, a POG-inspired game. MetaverseGo is a decentralized blockchain platform that aims to provide, both newbie and old players, easy access to play-and-earn games, participate in guilds, collect non-fungible tokens (NFT), and access to other web3 applications through only the user’s mobile number. Anito Legends is a homegrown Filipino folklore-inspired play-to-earn game. Lastly, BlockchainSpace is a guild hub for play-to-earn communities.

“In spite of the bear market, think that if you are building the right product, if you’re building a real business and real value, (and) if you have the right investors that believe in you, then you can build even during the crypto winter.”

Ash Mandhyan, CEO of MetaverseGo

The speakers all shared their experiences building during the current crypto winter. Each of them confirmed they started building at the peak of the play-to-earn hype or right before it started to decline.

Chua shared what they saw during the bull market—when they started building Anito Legends–is that everyone (players, investors and builders) were so happy and excited with the popularity of play-to-earn games. But players and investors started to leave and be skeptical when the bear market arrived. 

Anito Legends is set to launch an early access version of the game later this month. (Read more: Filipino-developed NFT Game Anito Legends to Open Early Access)

“There was really a comparison (with the products during the bull market), there are other products that you want to create that might be relatively similar (to others) but still (try to) be different. And I think that’s where we are actually able to hold something together because if you ask me; is there a platform? Yes. But is there a game to start the platform that builds your community that integrates skills? Maybe not. Now, is there a game that’s probably a platform that has guilds, allows you to spend, and earn all in one. I don’t think there is anyone else. So, that’s how we were able to stand up and that is where the economy is,” explained Mandhyan. MetaverseGo is a new startup that just started recently. (Read more: MetaverseGo Plans Give Non-Crypto Gamers Access To NFT Games)

On the other hand, while Anito Legends was born during the bull and is currently being developed in the crypto winter and MetaverseGo was launched during the bear market; the circumstance around RFOX was also a bit different as they built, as Bilango called it, “leaning against a wall”.

Recently, RFOX’s NFT game KOGS: Slam! collaborated with Luis Buenaventura’s CryptoPop Art Guild to create 200 NFTs to be featured with the game’s tokens KOG.

The panel also shared tips and advice on how to raise funds for those that are creating new projects and startups. 

Mandhyan stressed that they must first build their team and make sure that they share the same idea because ”regardless of the fluctuation, externally, you have to think that things we’re going to build the biggest immense best thing out there and I’m going to change the world.”

“Having the right community, great advisers, partners, I feel like I’m very fortunate that despite the bear market, us building is receiving rapid reactions over the past few months, 3 months,” he stated.

Chua stated that newbies must remember that they must still learn and they should not be afraid to ask.

“Find a good incubator, find a good mentor to help those things go along, especially the things that you don’t understand (on the) economic side,” he said.

Bilango then emphasizes the importance of communities in the web3.

“Communities in essence are like the building blocks which help each other out,” she stated.

This article is published on BitPinas: [Event Recap] Mid-Winter Fireside Chat Second Panel: Crypto PH Builders in the Bear Market

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