Client: Loop Games: gaming studio with games downloaded over 100 million times across Google Play and App Store, with prior exits of Match 3D and Match Tile 3D to AppLovin.
Project: Pethereum: Free-to-Play and Play-to-Earn metaverse where players collect NFT pets through mobile gameplay and use utility tokens to enhance the in-game experience. Decisions are made by a DAO governed by Pethereans.
Vircon Legal Role: Lead legal counsel to Loop Games on the structural design of Pethereum (compliance architecture, DAO governance, NFT distribution and tokenomics) with cross-border tax and securities risk analysis.
Challenge
Play-to-earn models operating in the grey-zone of blockchain regulation can drift toward token-economy patterns that resemble pyramid schemes when the legal architecture is not constructed correctly from inception. Pethereum had the potential to become one of the larger play-to-earn metaverses globally, which made it essential to set the structural defaults on the right side of compliance, across multiple jurisdictions, before the product reached scale.
Solution
Vircon Legal designed the legal framework end-to-end: jurisdiction selection, DAO governance constitution, NFT issuance mechanics, utility token design, tax positioning, and consumer-protection compliance across the target markets. The architecture was built to scale across multiple jurisdictions without later structural retrofits.
Impact
Pethereum launched with a clean compliance posture and a DAO-governed structure that allowed the team to focus on product velocity rather than ad-hoc legal remediation. Loop Games positioned itself as a credible operator at the intersection of mobile gaming and on-chain economies.
Related
For more on the practice areas relevant to this engagement, see ICOs, Crypto-Currencies & Blockchain, DAO and Startup Law.