Token

Bitcoin ETF

The year continues to batter and bruise the crypto industry with shutdowns and bankruptcies.&nbsp;
On May 20, the onchain trading card platform Fantasy Top became the latest to announce that it is shutting down after&nbsp;two and a half years.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/bankruptcy/coinbase-backed-crypto-super-app-shuts-down" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Coinbase-backed super app shuts down</a>
<h2 id="structural-trap-no-one-escapes">Structural trap no one escapes</h2>
In a<a href="https://x.com/0xKipit/status/2057121958135836920" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> post on X</a>,&nbsp;Fantasy Top&nbsp;co-founder Kipit explained that the greatest trading card games (TCGs), such as Magic, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, succeeded because they were games first and assets second.&nbsp;
Players bought cards to play, and financial value followed as a consequence of gameplay quality and community depth.&nbsp;
Crypto TCGs invert that order entirely.
<blockquote>
 "The card is financial before it is anything else," Kipit wrote. "You don't attract people who love the game. You attract people who want to make money from cards. Those are not the same people."
</blockquote>
That financialization paralysed the team's ability to iterate.
Every gameplay change risked moving card prices, while every new mode redistributed value. The team apparently attempted multiple reroutes, like a free-to-play mode, a lighter onboarding funnel called Clout, and eventually a full pivot to prediction markets that stripped the <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/iconic-crypto-marketplace-shuts-down-users-fear-losing-millions" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">non-fungible token</a> (NFT) layer entirely. None moved the needle.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 "We saw the trap and tried to escape it," Kipit wrote. "Every move was an attempt to get back to 'game first.'"
</blockquote>
<h3 id="popular-on-thestreet-roundtable">Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:</h3>
<ul>
 <li><a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/americans-now-owe-a-staggering-18-8-trillion-in-household-debt" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Americans now owe a staggering $18.8 trillion in household debt</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/u-s-senator-issues-stark-warning-over-new-banking-loopholes" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">U.S. Senator issues stark warning over new banking loopholes</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/analyst-says-competition-forced-trump-linked-firm-to-pull-etf-filing" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Trump-linked firm immediately withdraws Bitcoin ETF application</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="token-launches-and-a-price-on-everything">Token launches and a price on everything</h2>
Kipit extended the critique beyond Fantasy Top to the industry at large. They argued that premature token launches inflict the same damage on companies that financialisation does on games.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 "A token before product-market fit is poison. Every employee thinks about the price. Every user thinks about the price. You stop building and start managing sentiment," Kipit wrote.
</blockquote>
Despite the closure, Fantasy Top confirmed that all pre-seed and seed investors will be reimbursed in full.&nbsp;
This was possible because the platform, which raised $5.6 million from Dragonfly, never touched investor capital to fund operations. The business paid approximately $20 million back to its community over its lifetime.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/bankruptcy/another-major-gaming-platform-is-shutting-down" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Another major gaming platform is shutting down</a>

Another crypto platform shuts down after 2.5 years

Table of Contents

TheStreet Roundtable

Other articles published on May 21, 2026

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!