Ultiverse: An AI + Gaming Project Backed by Top-Tier Institutions
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Ultiverse: An AI + Gaming Project Backed by Top-Tier Institutions
Ultiverse is a blockchain-based metaverse world deeply integrated with AI.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Mint Ventures
Introduction
Web3 gaming has long been a key focus area for Mint Ventures. Although the Play-to-Earn (P2E) concept from the previous bull market has largely faded—projects like Axie Infinity and StepN collapsed as Ponzi schemes—their peak periods demonstrated hundreds of thousands of highly engaged daily active users. This marked the first time the crypto industry came close to achieving "massive adoption." Compared to social products, which are another category with potential for mass adoption, games naturally possess richer and more complex economic ecosystems. Development teams also have greater flexibility to implement various forms of taxation across multiple dimensions, combined with immersive user experiences and psychologically driven irrational spending based on sophisticated design—making it more feasible to maintain relative ecosystem balance over extended periods. Furthermore, web3 games can more effectively leverage the asset tokenization capabilities offered by crypto, leading investors to generally hold optimistic views about the future of web3 gaming.
Since the rise and fall of Axie and StepN, web3 gaming has gained additional favorable conditions:
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Further maturation of infrastructure. As of 2024, game developers now have a wide range of choices when selecting blockchains: they can build directly on existing L1s (e.g., Solana) or L2s (e.g., Arbitrum), use one-click chain deployment services provided by L1s or L2s (such as Avalanche subnets or OP Stack), or freely compose modular solutions. These options offer high performance at low cost. On the wallet front, MPC and Account Abstraction (AA) wallets have become commercially viable, resolving private key management issues that previously plagued mainstream users.
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Gradual improvement in market sentiment. The recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs has sparked a strong rebound in the crypto market, drawing renewed attention from the general public and expanding the potential user base for web3 games.
Compared to traditional Web2 games, web3 games still hold clear advantages:
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In the typical web3 game lifecycle of "NFT sale → FT issuance → game launch," revenue streams such as NFT royalties and FT trading fees begin generating income even before the game officially launches. This allows development teams to earn revenue from day one, helping offset lengthy R&D cycles and substantial development costs. After launch, monetization mechanisms remain far more flexible than those in web2 games. Earlier and more diverse commercialization options are key factors attracting game teams to enter the web3 space.
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The absence of dominant distribution channels in web3 gaming means the exorbitant customer acquisition costs common in web2 games do not exist here. In other words, competition is lower—web3 gaming remains an untapped frontier awaiting capable teams to pioneer.
We are also seeing many experienced game development teams entering the web3 gaming space, building a new wave of narrative-rich, well-designed, and highly playable games. This significant growth on the supply side constitutes the “human” factor in the favorable environment for web3 gaming.
For these reasons, Mint Ventures continues to closely monitor the gaming sector. Ultiverse is a gaming project we have followed since the previous bear market. Throughout the downturn, they consistently built their product suite, expanded their narrative scope, maintained strong investor backing, and recently launched several airdrop campaigns aimed at attracting new users—all making them worthy of continued attention.
Disclosure: Mint Ventures participated in the Builder Round minting of Ultiverse’s ElectricSheep NFT and continues to hold ElectricSheep NFTs.
Overview of Ultiverse
Ultiverse is a blockchain-based metaverse world deeply integrated with AI. Its architecture consists of four layers:
Protocol Layer: Ultiverse uses the Bodhi Protocol as the foundation of its ecosystem. According to official documentation, Bodhi Protocol leverages large language models and Stable Diffusion models to generate various in-game content, using AI to assist different stakeholders within the ecosystem—for example, creating smarter NPCs or generating rich background narratives.
Infrastructure: Ultiverse abstracts essential gaming infrastructure into SDKs available for use by external developers. These include MPC and AA wallets, built-in marketplaces, and a Decentralized Identity (DID) system. Additionally, its user-facing livestreaming platform, Ultiverse Live, has amassed 350,000 followers and nearly 40 million likes on Binance Live, offering significant exposure to partners. Ultiverse's infrastructure also includes its own mission platform, Mission Runner.
Core Assets: Ultiverse’s core assets currently include the Electric Sheep NFT, Meta GF NFT, and World Fragment.
The Electric Sheep NFT is the first and core asset of the Ultiverse ecosystem, with a total supply of 7,000. It was minted in July 2022 at 0.5 ETH each and currently has a floor price around 2 ETH—delivering a 4x return in ETH terms and approximately 8x in USD terms for holders. It has helped establish a solid community. Holders enjoy priority access and bonus rewards across multiple projects within the Ultiverse ecosystem and are eligible for airdrops of the governance token $ULTC.
Historical floor price trend of Electric Sheep
The Meta GF NFT, launched at the end of 2022, is positioned as an AI companion with customizable avatars, designed to accompany players as they explore the Ultiverse world.
The World Fragment NFT has not yet been issued and will be airdropped to holders of Electric Sheep NFTs. According to the official documentation, players can combine world fragments to form unique worlds. Holding different World NFTs unlocks distinct AI-powered personalized experiences—including unique storylines, characters, world objectives, and core conflicts—meaning each NFT holder could experience an entirely different game.
Dapps: Within the Ultiverse ecosystem, Dapps are referred to as "Micro Worlds." They fall into two categories: those partnered with Ultiverse—such as the casual idle game Meta Merge and the upcoming racing game BAC launching on Blast—and internally developed Dapps including Ulti-pilot, Terminus, and Endless Loop, all launched recently.
Terminus launched in March and serves as the core platform of the Ultiverse ecosystem, built using the UE5 engine with both PC and VR versions available. As described in official documents, Terminus is a virtual world where NPCs are powered by high-intelligence AI, enabling multi-path, highly responsive interactions and dialogues that may ultimately influence gameplay outcomes. Characters are also AI-driven, allowing continuous progression even when players are offline—making Terminus a perpetually online gaming world.
Screenshot of Terminus
Ulti-pilot launched in February as the gateway for users to experience the Ultiverse world. Users can dispatch their avatars to explore the world and earn substantial Soul tokens (which can later be exchanged for the governance token $ULTC).
Endless Loop is Ultiverse’s MMORPG title, also built on the UE5 engine. The game has not yet launched.
From its product architecture, it’s evident that Ultiverse is not just a single game—it aims to become an AI-driven metaverse platform connecting vast numbers of end-users with various stakeholders in the web3 industry, fulfilling its vision of Meta-Fi.
Looking ahead, Ultiverse’s primary goal this year is full product rollout, including PC and VR versions of Terminus, along with onboarding more game partners. They plan to launch a Game Launchpad and deploy their own Rollup in the second half of 2024 to better serve partner games and realize their vision of a Web3 gaming platform.
Investment Background and Partnerships
Ultiverse has completed three funding rounds with an impressive roster of investors:
On March 18, 2022, Ultiverse raised $4.5 million in a seed round at a $50 million valuation. The round was co-led by Binance Labs and Defiance Capital, with participation from Three Arrows Capital and SkyVision Capital.
On March 25, 2022, Binance Labs made an additional $5 million investment in Ultiverse through equity acquisition. Nicole Zhang, Head of Binance Labs, stated that the investment ensures Binance Labs maintains influence over the team’s strategic direction.
On February 14, 2024, Ultiverse closed a $4 million strategic round at a $150 million valuation, led by IDG Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, MorningStar Ventures, Taiko, ZetaChain, Manta Network, DWF Ventures, and others. Several prominent NFT KOLs also joined the strategic round, including Dingaling, Grail.eth, Christian2022.eth, and 0xSun.
Ultiverse’s Investors
Overall, Ultiverse boasts outstanding backing, encompassing top-tier VCs, market makers, exchanges, major blockchains, and influential KOLs—providing strong support for its growth.
Founder Frank graduated from CMU and is a passionate gamer. The team now exceeds 200 members, many of whom previously worked at major game studios such as Gameloft, Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Tencent, contributing to renowned titles like Elden Ring, Assassin’s Creed, and Prince of Persia.
Given its ambition to become a platform connecting players and games, Ultiverse has cultivated numerous partnerships across the gaming ecosystem.
For example, the March "Terminus: Finding Your Path Partners" event was jointly launched by Ultiverse with blockchain networks (Zetachain), other games (Ainchess), infrastructure providers (Rpggo, Particle Network), gaming guilds (N9Club, GuildFi), and NFT communities (Weirdo Ghost Gang).
Source: https://twitter.com/UltiverseDAO
Additionally, Ultiverse recently announced partnerships with over 300 web2 and web3 AI and gaming teams, covering nearly all leading web3 games—strengthening its position as a gaming platform.
Tokenomics
Ultiverse has published the utility and economic model for its governance token $ULTC:
Within the Ultiverse ecosystem, $ULTC serves three main purposes:
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Governance
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Dapps wishing to join the Ultiverse ecosystem must pay in $ULTC, with a portion of these tokens distributed to users
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$ULTC serves as the payment method for assets within the Ultiverse ecosystem
The total supply of $ULTC is 10 billion, allocated as shown below:
Source: https://docs.ultiverse.io/ultiverse-tokenomics/token-structure-overview
Notably, 8% of the total token supply will be allocated to airdrops, targeting holders of Electric Sheep NFTs, MetaGF NFTs, Soul token holders, and owners of other ecosystem assets.
The current floor price of the Electric Sheep NFT is around 2 ETH, giving it a total market cap of approximately 14,000 ETH (~$47.6 million). Assuming Electric Sheep NFT holders receive 2% of the $ULTC supply, the resulting fully diluted valuation would be $2.38 billion—comparable to Portal, the last Game+AI project listed on Binance—indicating a reasonable valuation. Moreover, Electric Sheep NFTs offer additional utilities beyond $ULTC airdrops, such as eligibility for World NFTs mentioned earlier.
Soul is currently the "points" system within the Ultiverse ecosystem, initially earned by staking Electric Sheep NFTs as a reward for early supporters. The team previously announced a conversion rate of 100 Soul = 1 $ULTC. Following the release of the tokenomics model, Ultiverse launched multiple initiatives to attract new users, leveraging Soul to further boost brand awareness. For instance, the Ulti-pilot campaign launched in late February will distribute 10 billion Soul tokens (equivalent to 100 million $ULTC, or 1% of total supply), drawing widespread participation.
Conclusion
Ultiverse is a project worth watching for several reasons:
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The web3 gaming sector currently enjoys favorable macro conditions ("timing," "geography," and "people") and is poised for breakout growth in this bull cycle
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The Ultiverse team has consistently delivered during the bear market, releasing well-received products and building a cohesive community
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The rapid advancement of AI over the past year has captured global attention. Ultiverse has deeply integrated AI throughout its architecture, positioning it well to benefit when the AI + gaming narrative gains market traction
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Strong investment backing
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