Billed as one of the most exciting developments in NFT gaming, Ragnarok is a project that has generated huge levels of interest. Not only are gamers keeping a watchful eye on all that is developing, but the company had managed to make early moves that demonstrated the true size of the potential here.
Through its first-ever NFT sale, Ragnarok managed to bring in an astonishing $15.5 million of Ether (ETH). These funds belonged to the company’s treasury and they were earmarked for NFT gaming development. With everything set to perfection, the shock was understandable when CEO, 0xfanfaron, came clean about the fact that a whopping 12% of this capital was now gone: lost to crypto trading.
“We exchanged the ETH from the mint for 15.5 million in USD Coin. As it turns out, this was a good move in treasury management. But when ETH’s price went down, I made mistakes by buying ETH multiple times when I thought it was an advantageous investment for the project.”
To the credit of 0xfanfaron, he has now pledged to personably put these mistakes right. He will ensure that the treasury, over at Ragnarok, sees all trading losses covered. While this may be seen as a positive, how did Ragnarok ever get into this situation in the first place?
0xfanfaron’s misjudgment
While the CEO of Ragnarok may seem noble by vouching to put this all right, the reality is that he was primarily to blame. Initially, the head of the NFT gaming company made a smart move. He allowed the ETH from the NFT sale to be exchanged for USD. Soon after, ETH would drop but it seemed that Ragnarok had escaped any harm.
The problems that arose are that the ETH price continued its downward spiral. 0Xfanfaron believed, as many others did, that ETH would soon have to start coming back up. With that thought, he bought the crypto numerous times, but the problem was that its value just didn’t return.
The Ragnarok head thought that he would simply reinvest when the timing was better. However, what his actions led to were losses worth $1.827 million. During this time, Ragnarok also had other expenses to be covered and spent $1.9 million on outsourcing development with a further $6.9 million coin on salaries.
The plan to put things right
As we’ve seen, the Ragnarok CEO is set to reimburse funds to ensure that the company is back to where it should be. How, exactly, is he planning on doing this? Here’s what he has suggested:
- He will return $600,000 from the sale of the NFT
- His NFT compensation will be reduced by $600,000
- A pay of $200,000 will be taken over the next four months
- A team member, Krimbo, has also stated that $250,000 worth of compensation will be returned.
Looking towards a transparent future
The fallout for this NFT gaming developer could have been astronomical. However, as it stands 0xfanfaron is still in place and he states that he has the backing of the whole of Ragnarok and its investors. With the first gaming arcade from Ragnarok due in just seven months, 0xfanfaron has taken additional steps to settle any potential nerves.
He has stated that to be transparent, he will publish a list of all wallets that are to be used to compensate the trading losses. As he has pointed out himself, the company still has $10 million in the treasury and this is an incident that will soon become a distant memory.
