Crypto Game Pirate Nation’s Activity Soars Ahead of Token Launch

Pirate Nation, an onchain role-playing game (RPG) that operates on its own Arbitrum Orbit-based Layer 3 blockchain, is set to launch its PIRATE token on Thursday, and players have been ramping up their activity ahead of the event.

“We’re excited. PIRATE will have day-one utility in the game (we just pushed gems live, but they can’t be purchased until after the airdrop claim), and we’re going to release more info about staking soon,” team member and ‘Head Booty Dealer’ Dith told The Defiant.

Daily transactions on the Apex chain hit an all-time high of 1.46 million on June 8 as the first season of the game’s ‘Booty Points’ program came to an end. These points will convert into PIRATE token allocations.

The Apex chain’s transaction throughput is currently above all Ethereum Layer 2 networks except Base and Arbitrum, according to a dashboard maintained by rollup provider Conduit.

Pirate Nation and Apex are developed by Proof of Play, a gaming studio that raised $33 million last year in a seed round led by a16z and Greenoaks.

As the name suggests, the game centers around pirate characters, which can be sent on various quests to collect resources that are used to craft new items like ships. Pirate Nation is free to play. However, owning a Founder’s Pirate confers enhanced abilities.

PIRATE will have a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 47% allocated to community initiatives like the forthcoming airdrop and future points seasons. The team gets 28% and investors 11.75%, with the remaining 13.25% reserved for ecosystem development.

Disclosure: The author holds Pirate Nation NFTs.