Tether Drops $1M Into Crypto Game Infinite Fleet’s Security Token Sale

Game publisher Exordium, the company behind the upcoming blockchain-driven massively multiplayer online (MMO) strategy game Infinite Fleet, has launched a public security token offering that seeks to raise as much as $8 million for further development of the title.

The fundraising drive takes place on the STOKR platform and allows public investors to purchase EXOeu security tokens at a price of $0.50 each, with a minimum total purchase of $100 required. Each security token offers a small chunk of equity of the company and a share of its future profits.

Tether International Limited, part of the company behind stablecoin Tether, helped launch the security token offering with a $1 million purchase of the EXOeu tokens.

As of this writing, the STOKR page reports a total of $2.57 million raised in the sale to date, with a minimum funding amount set at $3 million. The sale will continue for another 55 days, with the EXOeu token issued by Blockstream AMP on Bitcoin’s Liquid sidechain.

“As a former MMORPG game developer myself, I see great potential in the application of crypto assets to multiplayer online games,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether International Limited, in a release. “It is a perfect match of two rapidly growing digital sectors with tremendous upside. [Blockstream CSO] Samson Mow and his team are veterans with proven track records in both fields, with a clear vision of what they want to achieve.”

Infinite Drive allows players to customize their spaceships before joining up to take on enemy alien forces. The game takes inspiration from genre greats like Homeworld and EVE Online and will feature anime-inspired visuals and narrative elements, along with a crypto-driven peer-to-peer economy.

In August, developer Pixelmatic announced that it had raised $3.1 million in a private token offering, with $2.75 million of that coming via simple agreements for future tokens (SAFTs). Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Blockstream CEO Adam Back, and Heisenberg Capital founder Max Keiser helped lead that round. The remainder was raised via funding platform BnkToTheFuture.

A closed alpha version of Infinite Fleet is expected to launch in the near future. Pixelmatic’s development team includes game industry veterans who worked on hit franchises such as Homeworld, Age of Empires, and Company of Heroes.

Tether is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency in terms of volume, with the stablecoin topping even Bitcoin on that front despite a much lower market cap. However, Tether remains a controversial player in the crypto industry.

The stablecoin is pegged to the US dollar and was originally said to be backed by it one-to-one, but the company admitted in 2019 court documents that it is actually only 74% backed by cash and cash equivalents.

Additionally, Tether remains the subject of an active investigation by the New York Attorney General about the activities of its sister company Bitfinex, which is alleged to have plugged a nearly $1 billion dollar hole with Tether loans. According to the Attorney General, Tether’s cash reserves were used as a “corporate slush fund,” and that they were “being used to hide Bitfinex’s massive, undisclosed losses and inability to handle customer withdrawals.”