AGV Monthly Update (December/EOY 25)

DAO Programs & Initiatives Arbitrum Gaming Ventures (AGV)
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It’s been a busy year for all of us within the Arbitrum ecosystem, and the team at AGV is grateful for all the support we’ve received from delegates and other AAEs such as OffChain Labs, the Arbitrum Foundation, and OpCo. Read on for a look back at what we’ve accomplished this year at AGV, as well as the highlights from December and a look at what’s to come in 2026. Happy holidays!

A Message from Michael Chang

When I joined Arbitrum Gaming Ventures as General Manager in August, I knew I was stepping into something unique. After two decades in venture capital and gaming, I’ve learned to recognize when all the right pieces are in place: a forward-thinking community, patient capital, and a genuine understanding that great experiences drive platform adoption.

Throughout the past year, AGV has gained significant momentum. We deployed more than $12M in investments, investment earmarks, and grants across 20 companies, expanded our thesis beyond pure gaming into gamified consumer applications and entertainment, and established ourselves, as well as the Arbitrum ecosystem, as a trusted partner for builders in the web3 space.

The gaming industry remains turbulent, but turbulence creates opportunity. The best teams find ways to thrive, and our job is to identify those exceptional builders and help them leverage Arbitrum’s technology.

H1 2025: Establishing our Vision

Earlier this year, AGV closed its first tranche of investments across companies that showcase what’s possible when blockchain meets consumer applications. Our first cohort included Wildcard, Hyve Labs, T-Rex, and Xai, bringing promising projects and proven founders to the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Since announcing these investments in May of this year, we’ve supported these teams as they’ve continued to grow. Here are a few highlights from our first cohort of portcos:

Wildcard

  • Entered Early Access on Steam in October, marking a significant step toward gaining mainstream traction.
  • Wildcard is establishing itself as a competitive esports title; their Road to DreamHack tournament culminated with finals played at the DreamHack convention in Atlanta this October..
  • AGV and Wildcard were featured on an episode of The Web 3 Gamer podcast that explores how blockchain, Web3 gaming, and community-driven ecosystems are converging to shape the future of play.

Hyve Labs

H2 2025: Expanding Our Investment Thesis

Gen Z doesn’t separate gaming, finance, social, and entertainment into neat categories. The best entrepreneurs are building at these intersections, and AGV is backing them. This led us to expand beyond pure gaming into adjacent categories like gamified finance and prediction markets—applications that leverage Arbitrum’s speed and liquidity to create experiences impossible elsewhere.

Coverd: Finetainment for Gen Z

Coverd reimagines personal finance as gameplay, introducing a new “Finetainment” category that bridges traditional finance and on-chain experiences.

Forkast: Real-Time Prediction Markets

As our Venture Associate Ethan Sy noted: “Forkast embodies Arbitrum’s vision for scalable, consumer-ready applications that make speculation as dynamic and social as the content itself.”

Giant: A Creative Playground for Gen Alpha

Next-generation children’s media platform powered by generative AI to create interactive, personalized storytelling experiences for kids. With Giant, kids are not just watching stories anymore. They are building their own.

December at AGV

2026 AGV Council Elections Concluded

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2026 AGV Council elections process! As you’ve probably aware, voting concluded on Snapshot December 4.

Here are the electees:

  • Tim Chang
  • John Kennedy
  • Greg Canessa
  • David Bolger
  • JoJo

Background checks for the incoming 2026 AGV Council are underway; thanks to OpCo for helping us with this process!

The Game Awards

This month, we attended The Game Awards where, in addition to witnessing Flute Guy rock out, we got some valuable face time with developers and industry veterans.

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Portfolio Updates

Wildcard

Coverd

  • Hosted their biggest in-person activation event so far in NYC. Check out the highlight reel here.

Giant

  • Experience Giant’s creative playground for yourself (or share it with your kids) to support the project.
    • Download the app and try it out–even just opening it once counts.
    • Consider leaving a rating and a short review; these interactions have a big impact.

Thought Leadership and Media

Looking Ahead to 2026

As we close out 2025, the momentum is clear. We have additional deals in diligence that will continue expanding Arbitrum’s footprint across gaming, entertainment, and consumer applications—some pushing deeper into gaming and entertainment, others venturing into gamified consumer and perhaps entirely new territory.

In an industry facing consolidation and capital scarcity, AGV offers patient capital, strategic support, and genuine partnership. When I joined, I said success would mean being known as an industry thought leader with standout investments and as a trusted partner, not just a funding source. As we head into 2026, we’re well on our way.

Thank you for your continued support. We’re just getting started.

Michael Chang
General Manager at AGV

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Is there an estimate on when governance should expect to see financial statements and a complete portfolio list? That way governance can better understand what off chain assets and expenses AGV has.

For example, how far into the authorized $25m USD cap have expenses run thus far? The H1 2025 report indicated a lifetime spend of $2.1m as of May 31, 2025, and an accompanying forecast of a range of spend. Is this forecast continuing to be representative of expectations?

How can expenses be driven lower? If even half ($12.5m) of the $25m operating budget is used, that would eat up 1/3 of the assets visible onchain. The lower estimate in the forecast is around $12.5 over 3 years.

Are there any significant assets other than the ~$38.2m in the 3 main addresses onchain and the $12m of investments? It’s not publicly available how big AGV is at this point after token price depreciation.

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We’re aligning with the Council on these matters ($ARB price fluctuation, current market conditions, 2026 budget, updated forecasts) to appropriately inform the DAO in our upcoming H2 ‘25 Transparency Report, which we plan to publish in early February. This report will provide more detailed information on our expenditure and portfolio growth through H2 of 2025.

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Thank you.

Just to confirm: This will include a balance sheet and updated expense projection?

For context, it looks like about 8% expenses*, which is prohibitively high for an investment vehicle, and requires action by the AGV council unless AUM is higher or expenses lower than expected.

*($12.5m low expenses scenario over 3 years = $4.16m annually; $4.16m / $50.2m current total AUM = 8.3%)

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It’s been several weeks, so bumping these so AGV team can confirm:

  1. whether a balance sheet will be published in February
  2. the inferred expense ratio accuracy and/or whether an updated expense projection will be published in February
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Hey GFXLabs,

Apologies for the delay; our team is now back from the DAO Holiday Break - we hope you enjoyed yourself the last few weeks as well.

As mentioned before, we are aligning with Council on details that will be included in the upcoming Transparency Report. We have noted requests made by you and other delegates on the forums, as well as during the previous AMA calls held during Council elections, and we continue to gather additional delegate feedback in preparation.

Updated expense breakdown and projections will be provided in the upcoming Transparency Report; we will align with other AAEs and the Arbitrum Foundation on any standard structure for expense reporting.

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