Pixelcraft Studios, creators of Aavegotchi, a rapidly-growing Web3 gaming protocol and community, has announced the successful completion of a multi-year long token sale, raising a total of $30 million.

Beginning on September 14, 2020, the sale of the $GHST token was structured as a DAICO (Decentralized Autonomous ICO) – a model for decentralized fundraising initially proposed by Vitalik Buterin - founder of Ethereum.

Lasting more than two years, the sale finally ended when AavegotchiDAO, the official governing body of the Aavegotchi protocol, voted to end the sale due to uncertainty about the stability of the DAI stablecoin.

The final raise of 30M represents one of the largest fundraising rounds in 2023, especially in the GameFi sector. Notably, no VCs or Angel Investors were directly involved in the raise.

The funds will be split between community participants, with the lead developers of Aavegotchi – Pixelcraft Studios – receiving 25%, or $7.5M, and the DAO Treasury receiving the remaining $22.5M, with all funds to earmarked for development, marketing, liquidity provision, or protocol rewards.

The Aavegotchi team expressed their gratitude for the overwhelming support from the community. "The successful conclusion of this sale represents a watershed moment for the decentralized fundraising space and, we hope, a model for responsible fundraising for projects in the future. We are thrilled to have such a strong and passionate community behind us and are excited about the potential of AavegotchiDAO receiving the lion's share of this raise," said Coder Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Pixelcraft Studios.

The Aavegotchi ecosystem combines gaming, DeFi (decentralized finance), and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to create unique and engaging experiences for users. Players can purchase and customize Aavegotchis, which are ghostly digital pets with unique traits and abilities. These Aavegotchis can then be used to battle other players or participate in various games and activities within the Aavegotchi universe (The Gotchiverse).

The announced roadmap for 2023 includes an entire new gaming blockchain powered by Polygon Supernets with GHST as the gas token, new cross-platform gaming titles, and the full onchain decentralization of the Aavegotchi protocol.