Meta, a USD 3 Million Seed Round, and the Unanswered Chain Question

Background: Ex Populus is still a game studio that has issued no token. Since spring, it has been seeking funding while assessing whether blockchain can meet a game’s needs for gas fees, confirmation speed, and wallet access. The industry news that Facebook is renaming itself Meta brings these two pressures together on the same day.

Today: Facebook changed its name to Meta and bet its full resources on the metaverse; valuations across the blockchain gaming sector surged, and the studio’s inbox filled again. Hours later, Ex Populus announced it had completed a USD 3 million seed round, heavily oversubscribed and led by Animoca Brands. The financing journey ran from the first letter of intent in spring, through one deal falling apart on May 19, to summer due diligence and negotiations, and finally closed in autumn. Bull-market-top money entered the account of a game studio that had not issued any token. There was no celebration party: lunch was still pizza, and the afternoon stand-up proceeded as usual; the only replacement was the coffee machine that had burned out in April while preparing for the Tyson demonstration. The use of funds had already been set: 70% for the full release of Final Form, the Iron Pigeon series, and LAMOverse; 30% locked in reserves for winter under a “two-year bear market” assumption. The line written on the whiteboard in May—“In a bull market, money is the least scarce thing; don’t change shape for it”—was left untouched. On the community call that morning, the team also announced that the planned Halloween sale was canceled and replaced by a free airdrop on the 30th to existing LAMO holders, one-for-one by character and rarity. At the evening review, someone asked whether the chain problem could be solved by throwing money at it now. A-Zhen shook her head and said they had tried every available option; gas fees, confirmation speed, and wallet access could not be fixed simply by spending. The industry had not built the needed solution yet; this was not a budget shortfall. The room went quiet, and someone circled “Should we build our own chain?” in red on the whiteboard. There was still no decision.

Impact and next: The seed round gives the studio time to keep building and sets a clear boundary for the funds: most go to products, while reserves are sized for a two-year bear market. Pizza and the coffee machine show that daily routines did not turn into a celebration. Halloween shifted toward giving back to existing holders, while the chain problem remains unresolved. The narrator records that the money brought time to keep looking for an answer, not the answer itself; as the meeting ended, whether to build a chain of their own remained open.