Solchicks founder rattles $US100m tin for new crypto project
According to the purple teaser pitch deck, Catheon’s already lined up 37 games for distribution, including Wu’s other crypto-based game Solchicks (which raised $US77 million last year in a token sale and boasts 113 investors on its website).
Moving video games to the blockchain
Aside from the blockchain-based gaming shop, Catheon also wants to build an advisory studio that helps traditional games “blockchain themselves”. This process, Wu reckons, takes between three and four months.
Most recently, Catheon landed a big fish in Mark Aubrey. Aubrey, who built a plum gaming career at Activision Blizzard as the MD and head of APAC, joins Catheon as co-CEO.
In terms of financials, Catheon is deep in the crypto-weeds. Over the last nine months the pitch deck says Catheon banked $US88 million from token vesting and $US63 million in cash. It boasts a 95 per cent EBITDA margin and 89 per cent cash conversion. It says it doesn’t capitalise any costs.
While capital costs might be $0, the operations are substantial: Catheon Gaming already has 94 core employees, 106 community team members, 8 strategic advisors and has partnered with 19 game studios.
Lazard managing director David Higley, based in Los Angeles, is understood to be overseeing the mooted capital raise.
Wu’s internet ghosts
While Catheon’s big audacious goal being considered by Australia’s largest venture capital funds and a few select crypto-specific investors, Wu has to shake off some negative internet press that has dogged his footsteps these last twelve months.
Wu discovered the crypto industry last April, just as “meme coin mania” was in full swing. As the pointless Dogecoin dominated headlines, Wu launched CatzCoin, a token that promised 5 per cent of all earnings would support cats finding shelters.
The coin was largely experimental and at the end of the day, it doesn’t sound like any cats were saved.
Wu’s second project was HoneyX, a kind of crypto-based OnlyFans, a US-based content creation platform that largely features adult-only material.
For a brief period last year, OnlyFans banned adult content from its platform, prompting Wu to try and seize the market opportunity with HoneyX.
But once the US giant realised its revenue would effectively slump to zero without the sex workers and pornstars, it reversed its decision and HoneyX fell away.
This all happened in the space of six months, before Wu launched Solchicks, the crypto-based game that is due for widespread release later this year.
