Quick Take
- Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson says US regulation is shifting toward crypto-friendly clarity
- Gaming metaverses and NFTs creating new secondary markets for digital goods worth $150B annually
- Ethereum’s developer community drives Web3 gaming adoption as incumbents enter the space
When Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president of Immutable, joined Fintech.TV, the conversation moved quickly across regulation, gaming, and the infrastructure powering Web3 games. His comments followed a wave of headlines, including JPMorgan partnering with Coinbase to link customer accounts for crypto trading and the SEC unveiling Project Crypto alongside the Genius Act.
Ferguson said the US stance on crypto has shifted from caution to a position of leadership. “We’ve essentially gone from crypto as illegal to they want to make America the crypto capital of the world,” he said. He pointed to regulators’ statement that most crypto assets are not securities, calling the clarification “pretty telling” and a step that would “allow a lot more people to build with certainty inside the US.”
Gaming’s Digital Economy
Ferguson emphasized the scale of the gaming industry, noting it generates more revenue than music, movies, and television combined. “Seventy percent of those revenues come from not the ability to play games, but purchasing in-game digital goods,” he said, describing a $150 billion annual market for skins and costumes in titles like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox.
He said Web3 can transform those digital goods into assets that players can trade. “Companies and players can actually earn royalties on secondary trades,” Ferguson explained. He argued that the shift could change how studios approach user acquisition, which costs an estimated $70 to $80 billion each year in advertising through platforms like Meta and Google.
The Metaverse Shift
Asked about gaming metaverses, Ferguson said the concept already exists in platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft. “Really, this is a word used to describe shared online communities and economies where people have persistent characters, identities, or goods,” he said. Web3, in his view, makes those economies more efficient, giving developers new ways to monetize through secondary markets and fees.
“We’re going to see existing games incorporating this technology to have better engagement from players, better monetization, ultimately brand new monetization streams,” he added.
Ethereum at the Center of Web3 Gaming
Ethereum’s role in Web3 gaming also came up, as the network marked its 10th anniversary this week. Ferguson pointed to Ethereum’s introduction of smart contracts as a turning point that enabled tokenized assets like NFTs. “Ethereum was the first ever smart contract enabled blockchain,” he said. “You first had Bitcoin and it was essentially just currencies, and then Ethereum came along and said we can apply decentralization to all computer logic.”
He said the industry is moving from building infrastructure toward commercialization, with public gaming companies now exploring token launches to incentivize players. “We would have been laughed out of those conversations a year ago,” Ferguson said. “The complete shift in cultural attitude from major incumbents toward adopting this technology for games and broadly for everything has been fairly fundamental overnight.”
