Original | Odaily Planet Daily
Author | Nan Zhi
Editor | Qin Xiaofeng
Since the announcement of its creation on January 26, the 3A game SkyArk Chronicles' Genesis NFT sales contract address has accumulated a deposit amount exceeding 50,000 ETH, making it one of the most anticipated NFT projects in the market this year, as evidenced by its popularity.
However, this afternoon, a statement from Binance Labs refuted the false financing of SkyArk Chronicles, pushing it into the whirlpool of public opinion. Participants in the public sale began to worry that the project might run away and only hope to recover their principal as soon as possible.
In just three days, the community reputation of SkyArk Chronicles has plummeted sharply. Tonight, the project will also announce the list of bid winners, adding great uncertainty to its future prospects. Odaily Planet Daily has compiled relevant information about SkyArk Chronicles for investors to make judgments.
I. The project is hot, and financing information is refuted
On January 12, SkyArk Chronicles announced the completion of a $15 million financing round, with Binance Labs leading the investment.
On January 26, SkyArk announced the start of the NFT sales event. The whitelist pricing for the magic book is 0.15 ETH, while the public sale and whitelist will bid within the range of 0.2 to 0.6 ETH.
Due to the recent NFT market rebound and the background of Binance's investment, users have high expectations for the project (anticipating the future listing of tokens on Binance) and have chosen to participate in the bid at the maximum price of 0.6 ETH. As of this morning, in just three days, the deposit amount of the SkyArk Genesis NFT sales contract address has exceeded 50,000 ETH, with a temporary report of 50,928.9 ETH, equivalent to approximately $115 million.
Just as the community was looking forward to the future of SkyArk, a statement from Binance Labs shattered the fantasy. This afternoon, Binance Labs Fund announced that SkyArk Chronicles was a project incubated and invested by Binance Labs in the third phase of the Binance Labs incubator in 2021, and Binance Labs did not participate in the latest round of financing announced by the project this year.
Subsequently, SkyArk Chronicles also posted a statement on X platform to confirm Binance's announcement. "Binance Labs invested and incubated SkyArk Chronicles in the third phase of the incubator program, which is its first and only round of financing."
In addition, SkyArk Chronicles also deleted the tweet announcing the $15 million financing from January 12 this year.
The psychedelic operation of the SkyArk project team has also cast doubt on the authenticity of SkyArk's financing in the community, with concerns about false advertising and fears that the project team may run away with the funds. "Now we just hope that the project team won't run away and will refund the money that didn't win." Some community members also expressed dissatisfaction with Binance Labs for not clarifying the investment information in a timely manner.
In the latest news, Binance Labs explained the original intention of today's refutation:
Normally, the project party will communicate with us before PR to confirm the release content, which is stipulated in the investment contract terms; if the project party does not communicate with us but presents the truth, we will not mind. The core issue is that we were not aware of the $15 million investment round and the mention of Binance Labs leading the investment in SkyArk Chronicles' PR;
After the SkyArk Chronicles team released the PR, we contacted the project party to delete and correct it; today, when some users came to Binance Labs to confirm the investment information, we found that the project party only deleted the tweet and did not clarify the facts, so Binance Labs unilaterally clarified it.
"The development of a project will not collapse because Binance Labs clarified the facts; if prosperity is built on false expectations, it is not really brilliant. From the operation and publicity capabilities of the project team during this period, we can see the potential of this project for C-end users and the community, but we hope everyone will focus on the product rather than misunderstandings based on Binance's $15 million investment." Binance Labs stated.
In addition, there are rumors in the community about SkyArk selling its shell, claiming that the project team has a history of rug projects. Kelvin, the founder of SkyArk, stated in tonight's AMA that the claim of selling the shell is a rumor, and several founders are located in Singapore, with their personal information publicly available for inquiry, so users do not need to worry about refund issues, and the project will proceed as planned.
II. The authenticity of the $15 million financing
After Binance's refutation, the most concerned issue in the market is whether the "15 million US dollars financing" claimed by SkyArk is true or false, and how much of it is inflated.
Kelvin, the founder of SkyArk, responded that there is indeed a $15 million financing, mainly in the form of equity and multiple rounds of financing. There has only been one round of equity financing, in which Binance Labs participated and holds the largest share. Binance Labs may have misunderstood that SkyArk conducted another round of equity financing.
According to the deleted announcement by SkyArk, the participating institutions in the financing also include Vividthree, GuildFi, Jambo, BreederDAO, Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero, Wangarian, co-founder of Tangent Ventures, and S.Y. Lee, CEO of Story Protocol.
An investigation by Odaily Planet Daily found that Vividthree is a listed company in Singapore, mainly engaged in digital and on-site experience production and digital media production.
In 2022, VividThree entered the NFT gaming industry through an investment in GammaR, subscribing to a convertible loan of up to 4.08 million US dollars. (Odaily note: A convertible loan is a form of loan that allows the loan holder to convert the loan into the company's stock at some point in the future.) GammaR is a gaming and gamification company founded by Jonathan Zhang (Chinese name Zhang Weiquan) in 2021, who is also a co-founder of SkyArk and former CEO of SkyArk.
After receiving investment from Vividthree, Zhang served as the (Deputy) CEO of the company from May 31, 2022, and resigned on November 29, 2023, for reasons unknown.
In short, Vividthree did provide a four million US dollar fund to GammaR & SkyArk, and VividThree also obtained significant managerial authority in SkyArk. The documents state that during his tenure, Zhang relinquished any discussions, decisions, votes, and payment instructions related to GammaR and SkyArk, and instead, these responsibilities were assumed by VividThree CEO Charles Yeo.
Apart from Vividthree, Odaily Planet Daily did not find any announcements from related organizations regarding investment in SkyArk, pending further confirmation. Odaily Planet Daily will continue to monitor the latest developments regarding SkyArk.
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