Analysis of Uniswaps Latest Acquisition Crypto The Game a Blockchain Version of The Hunger Games

Original | Odaily Planet Daily
Author | Azuma


On the evening of June 10th Beijing time, Uniswap Labs officially announced the acquisition of the interactive encrypted survival game Crypto: The Game (CTG) based on the Base blockchain. The specific amount was not disclosed, and CTG’s three co-founders Dylan Abruscato, Tyler Cagle, and Bryan Lee will all join Uniswap to jointly promote the development of the third season of CTG.


From a positioning perspective, CTG is a blockchain-based “real-life battle royale” type of game. You can simply think of it as an online version of “The Hunger Games” or “Squid Game.”
In CTG, players need to purchase tickets to obtain limited game participation qualifications (410 people in the first season, 800 people in the second season, and the third season is undecided). The tickets are in the form of NFTs, with an initial sale price of 0.1 ETH, and are also allowed for free trading – meaning that players can indirectly obtain participation qualifications through the secondary market, including players who have been eliminated and hope to “make a comeback.”
After the game starts, players holding NFT tickets will be randomly assigned to 10 different tribes, and then the battle royale officially begins.
During the game (with a maximum duration of 10 days to ensure timely completion), all players will compete in daily “immunity challenges” as tribes. The challenges come in various forms (such as arcade games or treasure hunts), and the tribe with the highest daily challenge score will have a “safe night” (meaning all members are safe), while other tribes must vote to eliminate one player.
When discussing the selection criteria for voting, a player who has participated in the game told UnChained: “When deciding to vote someone out, we consider multiple factors, such as whether the player’s X account looks like a bot or how active the player is in team chat, or even whether the player’s chosen NFT avatar is likeable – in my tribe, a Moonbird NFT holder was voted out as soon as they joined.”
When eliminated, players’ NFT entry tickets also change from player status to jury status, to vote for the final winner on the last day of the game with the longest duration, with the winner ultimately enjoying all the prize pool money alone.


In the past few months, CTG has successfully held two seasons of games. In the first season, a total of 410 players participated, with a total prize pool of 41 ETH, and ultimately an anonymous player named MFL emerged victorious; in the second season, a total of 800 players participated, with a total prize pool of 80 ETH, and player number 733 emerged victorious.
When discussing his winning experience, MFL told Decrypt that he believed most other players were smarter than him. Since he did not form alliances privately, he initially expected to be eliminated early, so his attitude towards the game was to “enjoy the competition”, such as making interesting emojis for other players or writing poems to express his views on the game.


However, the reality was that MFL never received an elimination vote from start to finish and eventually won the grand prize. CTG co-founder Dylan Abruscato stated that MFL’s behavior won favor with other players in the game, proving that it was a successful strategy.
In conclusion, the fun of CTG lies in its successful combination of competitiveness and human interaction. Another crucial point is that CTG will provide daily real-time match commentary in the form of official podcasts to fully engage external audiences, increase social media discussion, and hype up the matches.


As for Uniswap, as the absolute leader in the DeFi field, Uniswap has expanded its business into non-DeFi areas in the past, such as acquiring the NFT aggregation trading platform Genie and developing mobile wallet services. However, directly entering the gaming field is a first for Uniswap (there have been some indirect cooperation cases before).
Regarding this transaction, Uniswap described it as follows: “This year has been very busy for Uniswap. We released UniswapX, submitted v4, launched Uniswap Wallet, added support for more chains, and we have more plans. Uniswap’s goal has always been simple – to create products that provide the best on-chain experience for users. That’s why we are very happy to welcome CTG.”
As for whether Uniswap’s entry will affect CTG’s game mechanics, Uniswap also explained that fans need not worry, as there will be no changes to the game mechanics, but there will be some new designs. Specific details cannot be disclosed too much, but it is believed that the third season will be the best season yet.