Quick Take
- Gigaverse started as a hobby project before quitting jobs and raising $2.3M from 1confirmation
- Over $5M in annualized revenue and 75,000 paid users in first six months
- Game design prioritizes risk-reward mechanics and simplicity for on-chain players
A Game With No Roadmap
The idea for Gigaverse started inside a Discord channel. A few friends, still working full-time jobs, decided to build a game they actually wanted to play. It wasn’t a startup pitch. It wasn’t a company yet. And it wasn’t supposed to turn into anything big.
“We just wanted to build a game we love,” said Dith, co-founder of GLHF and the driving force behind Gigaverse. “We set no expectations around it.”
That changed fast. Within a few weeks of launch, Gigaverse saw rapid organic traction. Paid accounts climbed. Marketplace activity picked up. It became clear that the project wasn’t just viable, it was growing. The founders quit their jobs. Three months later, GLHF closed a $2.3 million raise led by 1confirmation to scale development.
Many of these details came from a recent interview between Dith and 11AM, published September 4.
Building for the Onchain Audience
Gigaverse is a browser-based RPG built around nostalgic visuals and fast feedback. Players craft items, clear dungeons, and trade digital goods. It runs on Ethereum and uses a $20 install fee to gate entry. That up-front cost serves as both onboarding filter and economic anchor, leading to a paying user base that’s now passed 75,000 accounts.
“We made a very intentional decision to build for crypto-native users,” said Dith. “Browser might not be optimal for game distribution, but it’s where on-chain users live.”
He points to platforms like Hyperliquid or Pump.fun as examples. These aren’t mobile-first apps. They’re in-browser, lean, and built for users already familiar with wallets, tokens, and on-chain transactions. That same friction exists inside Gigaverse, but it’s by design. “You can’t build for both [mainstream and crypto-native] audiences at once,” he said. “They’re entirely different personas. You have to pick.”
Disneyland, Not Just Dungeons
The game world is expanding around a core idea: modularity. Each Gigaverse experience is part of a connected loop. Dith compared it to a digital version of Disneyland, where each mini-game acts like a different ride. Items found in one game mode can impact outcomes in another. Strategy comes from specialization. Players choose which paths to min-max. No one can do everything.
This structure is intended to build coordination between groups. By limiting how far any one user can go solo, the game encourages trading, social strategy, and meta-level planning. It also opens space for casual users and whales to coexist.
“We’re building for both ends of the spectrum,” he said. “Someone on a tight budget can find a way to win. A whale can drop ten ETH on a one-of-one and be playing a different game.”
That spectrum is already visible. A recent series of rare character auctions saw individual items sell for over 10 ETH each. Meanwhile, $1 crafting potions with a 70 percent success rate feed a constant loop of risk and reward at the low end of the market.
Crypto as an MMO
Dith describes all of crypto as “a kind of MMO.” It’s a framing that influences how GLHF approaches design. Gigaverse is less about story and more about systems. He wants every action in the game to carry a sense of weight. Not necessarily large financial risk, but micro-stakes that make each decision matter.
“When you craft, there’s a 30 percent chance it fails. That’s a decision,” he said. “And those small risks compound into real gameplay.”
Even at an early stage, Gigaverse is already generating over $5 million in annualized revenue and has moved over $9 million in marketplace volume through peer-to-peer trading. Its economy is active, with more than 6 million items sold and over 450,000 total transactions.
Retention has been high in part because of this economic layer. Some players drop in for high-stakes auctions. Others grind the lower-tier systems and flip items. Different entry points, different play styles, same world.
Next: Open World and Scaling
The funding round came together after the traction became too large to ignore. GLHF had already crossed millions in revenue before raising a single dollar. Most VCs Dith spoke to were interested only as follow-ons. It was a cold DM from 1confirmation’s Brett Shear that led to the deal.
“We were questioning if we even needed to raise,” Dith said. “It wasn’t about capital. It was about partners.”
The new funding will support the development of Gigaverse’s first major open world update. Character movement, traversal mechanics, and large-scale exploration features are now being built to complement the existing pixel dungeon loops.
More players are entering through mintable assets like Gigaverse Eggs on OpenSea. Events like the one-day Jucius Maximus auction are designed to surface new character types and expand player agency without over-saturating the ecosystem.
GLHF still runs lean, and Dith says that’s by choice. “I actually think doubling the team would slow us down,” he said. “We want to keep moving fast.”
