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On May 22, the GameFi Gala Games project announced a partnership with Las Vegas-based poker streaming platform PokerGO to launch a new Web3 social poker game. Dubbed PokerGO Play, users will be able to upgrade and improve their players, as well as win real prizes. PokerGO beta testing is scheduled for June, with the full version available later this year.
In May 2022, PokerGO released a collection of 1,326 Non-Fungible Genesis Tokens (NFTs) representing all possible starting hand combinations in Texas Hold’em. The collection has about 52 Ether (ETH) in total trading volume with a minimum price of 0.1 ETH. At the time, perks for NFT holders included, but were not limited to, “the chances of winning cash, memorabilia, and merchandise when their hand appears at winning moments.” In the May 22 announcement, the developers wrote:
“PokerGO Genesis NFT holders will receive preferential in-game status and both parties are planning special events at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas.”
Gala is the developer of a series of “play to earn” blockchain games based on Ethereum. On May 18, Gala developers announced that they had burned more than 21 billion Gala tokens (GALA) worth about $640 million after the distribution of the v2 protocol. Earlier, in December 2021, decentralized online poker platform Ethereum Virtue Gaming launched a digital poker casino using cryptocurrencies and a “play to earn” model. The platform is backed by World Poker Tour champion and poker celebrity Phil Ivey.
In November 2022, the Gala Games token bridge was used due to an endless mining failure that resulted in about $4.5 million being extracted from its liquidity pool. The project is currently in a $28 million litigation with pNetwork, the interoperability bridge used by Gala Games on the BNB smart chain, over the latter’s alleged involvement in the incident.
