AGV Monthly Update (September)

[ArbitrumGaming]

September proved to be a busy yet productive month for the AGV team, with lots of activity around conferences, a big hiring announcement, and a healthy amount of media coverage earned through our internal PR efforts.

Introducing our New GP: Michael Chang

As mentioned in our August AGV Monthly Update, we recently brought on a General Manager, and now we’re excited to officially introduce Michael Chang to the Arbitrum DAO.

Michael brings over 20 years of experience in venture and corporate acquisitions in the video game industry. He’s worked on sourcing, evaluating, and executing investments at firms like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Apax Partners. He has also spent time in corporate development and acquisitions at traditional gaming giants like EA and NCSOFT.

What really stood out to us, though, wasn’t just Michael’s resume, but his track record of getting deals done in gaming and his deep network of relationships across the industry. That combination will help AGV scout, support, and bring the most exciting projects in gaming and entertainment into the Arbitrum ecosystem.

As General Manager, Michael Chang will lead strategy, investments, and partnerships to drive long-term growth of the AGV portfolio and broader Arbiotrum ecosystem, serving as both a capital allocator and public-facing leader.

Media Coverage

The announcement of Michael Chang joining AGV resulted in earned media coverage from multiple outlets, including:

• GamesBeat

• BlockchainGamer.biz

• Crypto-Reporter

• BusinessWire

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Governance Notices

We recently posted two separate governance-related notices to the forum:

1. Proposal: AGV Council Compensation Calibration: Benchmark for Next Term & Startup-Phase Bonus (Updated Proposal)

@ArbitrumGaming

Summary

This two-part proposal seeks DAO approval for an updated compensation framework for the Arbitrum Gaming Ventures (AGV) Council. The first part aims to calibrate future Councils’ compensation to align with benchmarks from comparable roles in similar industries, while the second part would grant a bonus to members of the inaugural Council in recognition of the much higher than scoped work load required during AGV’s startup phase.

Both components of this proposal are to be fully funded within AGV’s existing operating budget and require no additional DAO funds. Together, they ensure that Council members are fairly recognized for past contributions while setting a sustainable, market-aligned baseline for service in the years ahead.

2. AGV to Begin Receiving OpEx Funds in ARB Instead of USD Equivalent (Optimistic Approval)

@ArbitrumGaming

As part of our ongoing treasury management collaboration with the Arbitrum Foundation, the GCP Foundation (now AGV) will begin receiving its operational expenditure (opex) budget directly in ARB tokens rather than in USD/USDC equivalents converted by the Foundation.

This update follows the rationale previously outlined here:

• It alleviates operational overhead for the Arbitrum Foundation
• It grants the GCP Foundation greater flexibility in managing conversions
• It keeps our treasury processes consistent with those already employed by the Foundation

The GCP Council has voted in favor of this change. This adjustment is within the remit of the Council under the bylaws and does not impact the approved opex budget.

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Conferences

AGV team members recently represented gaming on Arbitrum at major industry conferences Korea Blockchain Week and Token2049 Singapore. We had a great time connecting with our partners at the Arbitrum Foundation and Offchain Labs, as well as the numerous builders, delegates, and VCs we met at these events.

We’re distilling our thoughts and learnings from these conferences and plan to share them on our blog in the coming weeks.

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Thought Leadership

• With the news of Michael Chang joining AGV now public, we took this opportunity to sit down and have a forward-looking conversation between the firm’s partners. To learn more about Michael’s take on the current games funding landscape, why Arbitrum is poised for growth, and how he sees AGV evolving over the next year, check out the full interview:
  A Conversation with Michael Chang.
• Dan Peng and Blake Waddington (Community Manager for Wildcard/Thousands) were recently interviewed for the Web3 Gamer Podcast, a platform that explores the exciting world of Web3 gaming, blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies and what they mean for the future of digital entertainment. The episode featuring AGV and Wildcard is slated to release in mid-October, so stay tuned!

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What’s Next

October will be another busy month for AGV, with initiatives and activities including:

• Council Nominations beginning mid October

• AGV team presence at San Francisco Tech Week and Los Angeles Tech Week

• Additional thought leadership opportunities in the form of podcasts, media interviews, and written content on our owned channel

As always, AGV is here to serve the DAO and support the growth of gaming on Arbitrum. For questions, feedback, or to get involved, reach out to @Atomist, @Djinn, or @ArbitrumGaming.

Thanks for your continued support. There’s more to come soon.

[GFXlabs]

@ArbitrumGaming

Council Nominations beginning mid October

It would be great to get more information on the state of AGV prior to this. Even as someone who has followed AGV, it’s difficult to know what the current financial health of the AGV is, and KPIs are mostly around making investments and unclear how governance should evaluate those investment decisions. Even if they’re all too new to have reached any milestones, it would be helpful to know in advance what the overall portfolio should be doing 6 or 12 months from now.

More broadly, how can delegates understand whether the current council is doing the best possible job given their constraints? And should we expect all council members to run for reelection or do new candidates need to be found?

Also, as of the H1 2025 report, the AGV was falling short on 1 of its 3 KPIs (daily active users). Please provide an update on whether each KPI is on track to be met prior to nominations.

[ArbitrumGaming]

@GFXlabs

It would be great to get more information on the state of AGV prior to this. Even as someone who has followed AGV, it’s difficult to know what the current financial health of the AGV is, and KPIs are mostly around making investments and unclear how governance should evaluate those investment decisions. Even if they’re all too new to have reached any milestones, it would be helpful to know in advance what the overall portfolio should be doing 6 or 12 months from now.

More broadly, how can delegates understand whether the current council is doing the best possible job given their constraints? And should we expect all council members to run for reelection or do new candidates need to be found?

Also, as of the H1 2025 report, the AGV was falling short on 1 of its 3 KPIs (daily active users). Please provide an update on whether each KPI is on track to be met prior to nominations.

Hey GFX, thanks for these questions. AGV is in good shape financially. We’ve been taking a conservative approach to operations and hiring in order to stay well below budget with our OpEx funds; you can see projections for our OpEx spend on page 30 of our last Transparency Report, as well as data on our OpEx spend from the program’s inception through the end of May 2025 ($2.1M):

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From a deals perspective, we’ve been steadily deploying capital, and had planned PR activities to announce our latest batch of deals next week, but those plans have been put on hold due to circumstances beyond our control related to individual portcos. Those deals are going ahead, but cannot be publicly disclosed until later this year. While we strive for transparency with the DAO, our hands are tied in some cases when, for example, the lead investor on a round chooses to extend their exclusivity clause.

Due to our press release being stalled, we are exploring other ways to get what news we can out in the coming weeks - but the AGV portfolio has grown, and continues to, with healthy deal activity flowing daily. We made great connections at Korea Blockchain Week and Token2049, and have lots of meetings slated for LA and SF Tech Week in October. Additionally, we have received a large amount of inbound inquiries about deals since announcing Michael Chang’s joining AGV.

In 6-12 months, the portfolio will have continued to grow, and we will have announced plenty of deals spanning gaming, infrastructure, finetainment, and more as our thesis continues to evolve.

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Related to AGV “falling short” on the DAU KPI, as mentioned on page 15 of the latest Transparency Report, we do see these overall KPIs as achieveable for the program, but it’s important to remember that they were drafted at a time when the expected value of the program’s ARB holding was around $300M. Due to ARB price volatility, that is far from the financial reality we are faced with today. Additionally, as many of our investments are not yet at the go-to-market stage (as is typical with any VC), it is difficult to make meaningful progress toward this KPI at this early stage of the program’s lifetime.

Regarding the other two Original Tally Proposal KPIs (Orbit Launches, Studio Deals), AGV is on track to meet our year one goals, as noted in the table on page 14 of the latest Transparency Report:

Projections for our Year 2 Targets will be evaluated in the next Transparency Report.

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More details on the elections process will be provided in the coming weeks, but we expect most, if not all, council members to run for reelction.