Share this article
Gaming DAO Merit Circle, YGG ‘Terminate Relationship’
Merit Circle members had proposed canceling YGG’s investment in the organization because of a lack of perceived added value. Now the two are parting ways.
By Sam Reynolds
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:17 p.m. Published Jun 14, 2022, 3:33 p.m.
Two of the largest names in the play-to-earn scholarship space have decided to part ways after seven months.
Members of Merit Circle voted to terminate their relationship with , buying out the guild's 175,000 USDC ($175,000) investment in the play-to-earn gaming decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for 1.75 million USDC.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
YGG and Merit Circle offer play-to-earn gamers so-called scholarships. Gamers, almost always in developing countries, borrow the non-fungible token (NFT) that serves as the entrance fee for the game. As part of the deal, the gamers remit yield back to the NFT’s owners as they play.
“Collaboratively, Merit Circle Ltd and Yield Guild Games came to an agreement,” YGG wrote in a Medium post. “The proposed solution terminates the formal relationship between the Merit Circle DAO and Yield Guild Games. This space would not be where it is today without Yield Guild Games, and not without the Merit Circle DAO.”
In May, the two play-to-earn scholarship giants were caught in a governance strife as members of the Merit Circle DAO said YGG was not adding enough value as an investor and proposed "refunding" the investment. For its part, YGG said the investment, which closed last October, never required anything more than a capital infusion.
As community members pointed out in May, there’s no legal mechanism to "refund" an investor's contribution. It would need to be bought out at a mutually agreeable price.
The entire crypto gaming industry and related play-to-earn scholarship DAOs have faced strong headwinds during the last quarter as earnings on games like Axie Infinity drop.
Axie Infinity’s AXS token is currently trading for $14.33, down 33% during the last month, according to CoinGecko. It began the year just shy of $100. Meanwhile, YGG’s token is currently trading at $0.40, down 38% month on month, while Merit Circle is trading at $0.80.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
USDC Issuer Circle Secures Abu Dhabi's ADGM License in Middle East Expansion
The license allows Circle to expand USDC payment and settlement tools across the United Arab Emirates.
What to know:
- Circle has obtained a Financial Services Permission license from Abu Dhabi Global Market, allowing it to operate as a Money Services Provider in the UAE.
- The stablecoin issuer has appointed Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, former manager at payments firm Visa.
- The approval comes as part of the UAE's emergence as a global hub for regulated digital assets, following similar licenses granted to Binance.
Top Stories
