---
title: 'Is Crypto''s Play-2-Earn Back?! [PIKAMOON DEEP-DIVE]'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=MP2jQHnT83g'
video_id: 'MP2jQHnT83g'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 1448
---

# Is Crypto's Play-2-Earn Back?! [PIKAMOON DEEP-DIVE]

> Source: [Is Crypto's Play-2-Earn Back?! (PIKAMOON DEEP-DIVE)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=MP2jQHnT83g)

## Summary

PikaMoon's co-founder and CEO, Luke, joins the host for a sponsored deep dive into the web3 play-to-earn game that launched last month with a $150 million fully diluted valuation. The conversation covers the project's $6 million community-funded pre-sale, the 70-person development team in Pakistan, token utilities such as staking and monthly leaderboard rewards, and the roadmap that aims to take on Axie Infinity and Illuvium.

### Key Points

- **Bear-market fundraise and team** [01:44] — PikaMoon sold out a pre-sale and raised $6 million in a bear market. The team built a 70-person software development house in Pakistan (Orbit Cosmos) and is scaling it to 150-200 developers.
- **Valuation snapshot** [02:27] — PikaMoon hit a fully diluted valuation of around $150 million, while the actual market cap is approximately $20-25 million, up about 300% from launch price.
- **Beta gameplay and Pika Hub** [03:34] — The beta is a basic, turn-based battle system (Tekken-style) with matchmaking against other players or AI and leaderboard ranking. The Pika Hub, coming in one to two months, will add staking and a relaunched leaderboard system.
- **Staking design** [05:36] — Two staking pools are planned: direct staking and LP staking. Early entrants receive the highest APY, and stakers get exclusive in-game perks such as NFT and asset drops.
- **Reward economy** [07:26] — The reward system is similar to poker: with 10,000 users, the top 1,000 (10%) receive monthly tiered rewards. A marketplace and an esports wagering section are also in development.
- **Community-first funding** [09:44] — PikaMoon raised from 15,000 individual investors and took no VC money, turning investors into ambassadors. It has 600+ ambassadors and has only tapped 6% of the English-speaking crypto market.
- **Creative team pedigree** [12:27] — The lead animator previously worked on Meg 2 (with Jason Statham) and Kong vs. Godzilla; lead creative Jahan Jahidi has worked on major Pakistani TV series and films. The team argues Pakistan does not mean compromised quality.
- **Market comparisons** [15:48] — Illuvium reached a price of roughly $2,800-2,900 and an FDV of about $22 billion with no beta in the last bull market. PikaMoon claims it is over 1,000 times smaller than Axie Infinity's peak valuation.
- **Token access** [17:41] — The PIKA token is currently trading on Bitget and MEXC plus one DEX. A new centralized exchange listing is coming along with an open-world teaser trailer.
- **Cost advantage** [21:06] — A Western developer costs about $6,000 per month, while a Pakistani developer costs about $1,000 per month. This allows six developers for the same budget, with savings redirected to marketing.

### Conclusion

PikaMoon is still very early — the beta is basic, staking hasn't shipped, and its valuation is 1,000x smaller than Axie's last peak — but the community-first funding model and cost-efficient development strategy give it a credible runway to compete in the next cycle.

## Transcript

your host hustle as always we're going to be diving into the web 3 gaming the crypto gaming landscape as pea Moon launched last month hit valuations of launched last month hit valuations of $150 million fdv right off the bat and I
mean honestly what they're building I think on the surface they see the really interesting exactly what they're building I have the co-founder and CEO with me today we're going to dive into the ecosystem and go over exactly what
is going on with in the peeka Moon project so without further Ado let's project so without further Ado let's jump in the
game as always guys head down below hit that like button and subscribe to the channel we're pushing for that 100K Mark here we're we're like 95 .5k on the subscribers so help us out down below and keep in mind this is sponsored by
and keep in mind this is sponsored by peam Moon one of our top sponsors on the channel let's go ahead and bring on Luke the co-founder and CEO of peekamoon how you doing today yes bra I'm ready to drop some Alpha bombs I guess it's why
the day and hopefully I'm going to be the man to give it to them yeah now that's what the listeners love we're here to absorb all the alpha and it's my job to get the alpha out of you so we'll see what we can can do over the course
of the show but uh Luke go ahead and introduce yourself and then in your own for someone who might not have heard about it for sure I think you actually gave a pretty smashing interview on myself but I am one of the founders and
co-ceos at pea Moon I guess a little bit of an introduction to what we've been able to do over the last year A lot has transpired but we did sell out a pre-sale we raised $6 million and with that in a bare Market which was no easy
to build a 70 Man team software development house in Pakistan currently orbit Cosmos which is exclusively building peam Moon we're actually upscaling that to around 150 people 200 people all developers working in the
next six months again powering peam Moon and we do have our beta out on IOS and Android devices at the moment anyone could go download it I encourage you guys to do and we'll able to build that in six months as you said we've actually
probably the most exciting thing that's been able to happen we got that fully diluted valuation of around 150 mil I think in terms of actual market cap we're currently trading around 20 to $25 million which is up around still around
300% from launch price which to me is still extremely attractive in terms of valuation especially comparing us against some of the biggest in the game and our competitors and we've got a full road map that I'm really excited to get
into how we're going to go toet to- Toe with them some of the game is it's live on Google Play iOS all that good stuff what is the
gameplay Loop like and it's a the the regular app store you can just jump in and download it now yeah completely so at the moment it is I'm not going to lie it is pretty basic but the main reason why we did that is because we wanted to
get out the beta as quickly as possible because I think within crypto just to say the least is transparency is a bit of a problem and to actually have a product and show what it is is what we wanted that foundations for so you can
go in you can download it as I said I encourage you all to be able to actually do that it's a turn-based battle system so anyone will be able to matchmake against anyone else or you can also matchmake against the AI you compete and
fight against each other almost like a Tekken style if that's anyone's played any of that and then you try and rank yourself up the leaderboards and with the peon Hub which is coming in the next sort of month or two we're actually
based game because you can't actually go away and earn any rewards but we will be staking with the relaunch of our leaderboard system is all of the players are going to start actually earning some peer as well okay awesome and how long
has the game been in development yeah for sure so we started development around middle of last year as I said we were able to actually get that beta out in 6 months which was no short fee and now we've been able to
expand the team much more and we are going to continue obviously expanding features that we're going to be incorporating into this game which is all going to be slowly dropped out over the next little while got it um and
currently obviously the the token launched last month the Pika token what currently do with the token and maybe what are some of the future utilities coming to the Pika token for sure well
one thing that actually happened with our pre-sell is we sold out the phase three allocation so quickly we ended up raising I think around 1 and a half million in 4 days we gave ourselves a 60-day countdown to be able to actually
sell out the remaining and the main reason for this is so that way we could release the staking and all of these dap features with the peer moon hub like aligned when the token sold out however we just blew up we we went through too
quickly so currently the token is trading because we wanted to get it out and onto the market as quickly as possible and what's going to be coming with the taking to with the token to give it some more features first and
foremost is the staking okay and we're going to have direct staking and LP staking so two different pools and how it's going to work is as well is the earliest into those pools are going to be able to get the biggest rewards okay
so if we were to view this almost as a curve if we're on the x-axis we've essentially got the uh amount of tvl locks or the amount of peer locks and the y- axis we've got the amount of percentage apy the people who get into
the pool directly at the beginning while the TVO is at its lowest are going to get the highest amount of rewards one thing that I would say about staking in general as well is just people locking up their tokens essentially to be able
to claim them and then dump them it's a bit of a negative sum so we wanted to do wanted to be able to add some more features into the staking so people who do stake are also going to be able get exclusive parks within the game and
access within the game as well such as nft drops asset drops and again when you do spend your rewards if they are linked from those rewards from the staking you're going to get exclusive access to assets that you wouldn't have been able
to get otherwise as a non- Staker essentially but there are going to be a lot more details to come as this is coming out in the next sort of 30 to 60 days the next month or two so I definitely say keep your eyes tuned
because as I said more details also on the apy and the percentages that you're going to get as well as those exclusive features are all coming very very soon awesome and um as far as like the gameplay loop as well so you can you can
earn through uh the staking mechanism which is on the way how does the economy work in game like do do they earn the Pika token or how does the Pika token facilitate within the game yeah for sure So currently at the moment we're
structure okay and it's it's kind of similar to Poker if we've got 10,000 users on the game at the moment anyway the top 1,000 players okay for that like
10% are going to get distributed rewards to their account every single month okay like uh first place gets the most second place lower TI system it is going to be skewed and with those rewards you're going to be able to spend them in the
marketplace which is again is coming which you can use to level up your characters earn more rewards as well within the game we're also making an exclusive Esports section and competitive section where you can wager
competitive section where you can wager your coins your nfts in all game love it okay uh no that that's that's definitely I think I think the PVP wagering inside of the games I think not enough projects have that aspect so whenever you have
some sort of like a PVP setting I think it's a really good way to facilitate competition and not only but more add utility to the Token as every project is market right I feel like a lot of gamei tokens or or play to earn tokens they
don't really have as much utility baked in as people would like to see so as many intricacies with the token as possible and I'm with the token as possible and I'm assuming on the staking by looking at it
so there's a supply shock whenever the staking happens is that correct yes exactly right okay got it um and then I mean you mentioned the the daily active consistent growth on that that is it pretty steady and and on top of that
maybe go into how you guys were able to build such a loyal community in a Rel relatively short amount of time and I mean um you know it's it's been pretty impressive I see the sentiment across the timelines sometimes in the YouTube
comments Etc so uh maybe jump into the user numbers like you mentioned and then how did you guys craft out this this loyal community in such a quick fashion levels that we can dive into there and
I'd say one thing obviously the product is extremely extremely important but to be able to grow it all comes down to marketing at the end of the day and being able to foster a good Community who are able to back the project and we
did have 15,000 individual investors into the pre-sale we didn't take any money from any VC and the main reason why we did this is again because if you incentivize the community to invest they also become your ambassadors and
spokesperson and spokes people for the project we actually have an ambassador program where we've got over 600 law ambassadors constantly preaching the word of peak Moon again how we've come back to be able to grow so quickly it is
a bit of a um you know secret Source I guess is maybe the way to say it but one thing that I will say is we've only actually tapped into 6% of the English-speaking Market within crypto okay and that's partnering with the best
influencers in the game like yourself and being able to come on we actually have 400 influencers who are going to be coming up and we're actually uh dropping our open World trailer very very soon as well with a new exchange announcement so
there's a little bit of Alpha and again they are all purporting this we also haven't even been able to tap into the South American Market just yet we have full campaigns to be able to do that and the Asian so it's just about constantly
molding adapting seeing the potential Market that we can move into and making Market that we can move into and making those strategic plans on a good product makes sense okay and what regions are you guys uh tapped into the most you
upcoming but where are you seeing the most uh player base coming out of actually have a very big Community within Pakistan itself and that's mostly
because of our software development company which has been built out in there and we're getting a lot of Gamers from those regions in terms of the investor side of things we've actually the way that you target a gamer and an
investor is two different markets y it's completely different and the investor mostly is coming out of these European and America I think the over 60% of our investors are currently based in the US okay got it um and then the response
what what kind of feedback are you guys seeing like the amount of time that they spend I don't know what the key metrics are that you guys are tracking as far as the player base goes but like average time in the game matches played all that
good stuff and and what are some maybe of the gameplay upgrades we mentioned for the utility of the token what are some of the mechanics inside of the game that are going to be revamped or updated in the coming months yeah completely I
of the actual software developers who are building this we have game designers we have writers artists modelers riggers animators developers to say the least and again a lot of people might think just because we're going into Pakistan
that you're compromising on talent but one thing that I also like to say is this is completely not true our lead animator I think his name is air nahim actually we signed him just coming off of the Meg 2 movie the one with Jason
Stam with the big big Blockbuster and before that he was working on Kong versus Godzilla again lead animator in there you can go check out his IMBD and you can see all of these guys on the orbit Cosmos LinkedIn as well Jahan
jahidi are lead creative and concept artist when it comes to this as well do University lectures all over Pakistan and has worked on some of the biggest TV series and movies in Pakistan and again has his own IMBD so these are the
creatives and the lead people the blood and guts almost behind peam Moon who are coming out and building this at the moment yes as we did touch on earlier at the moment we are very very early in our development road back we're really truly
right at the start here and with that the beta is basic because we've only had five to six months to actually go out and build it but coming back to your question is these guys are improving the gameplay mechanics their upgrades new
characters new environments and there's almost two sections to this as well because we have the battle system which is more so the competitive element of earn rewards and then spend those in the marketplace which we've also covered and
then you have the complete open world which is also being developed and the open world is a little bit different essentially this is more so based on exploration crafting and survival similar to Minecraft in a way and we're
going to be excited to actually be able to show you that in the next couple of weeks with a mini sort of teaser trailer that is coming out awesome um and I mean obviously like what is the grand scheme vision for like over the next 6 12 18
months really as the cycle plays out where do you guys want to position yourself and and where do you want to see the game at in that timeline yeah for sure well as I said orbit Cosmos which is building out peon
the software velopment house currently has around 70 or it does have 70 full-time employees we're actually upscaling that to around 200 in the next 6 months our new office opens on Monday comrad my co- CEO and founder is
actually flying out on Monday to Pakistan to open up that new office and that's going to be super exciting for us again in the background those new improved so there's going to be more animations there's going to be more
fight moves there's going to be more strategies incorporated into the game and we're going to try and get that out as quickly as possible as well as incorporating all of these features within the Pea Hub which is going to
bridge us from that web two into that web free game with all of these nfts I actually missed a part of your question there sorry from what your beginning as the course of the cycle where do you guys want to position yourself uh you
know 6 12 18 months down the line like what is the Grand Vision for where you want peeka moon to be yeah for sure I just to look at ourselves and you know we are truly wanting to build a AAA quality Style game and we are wanting to
Benchmark ourselves against the best of the best okay and we want to grow into that market and let's actually look and take a comparison about where those guys were able to essentially achieve in the last ball market and where we are
essentially in that cycle as well we take a look at alium they had no beta in the last ball Market I think they actually reached a price of around actually reached a price of around $2,900 to 2,800 and an FDL of around 22
billion no beta nothing we've already been able to deliver that ax Infiniti obviously the first mover but a very very basic game I think they reached around $160 market cap which is around A40 billion valuation okay peaker moon
for where we are obviously the whole goal here as a CEO as a Founder as our investors we're here to try and drive up the market caps as high as possible that is the goal that is why everyone is here and that's the game that we're in and
budgets that we can raise and then the also the more that we can build within the game as well and continue expanding our output which we've been able to do within Pakistan itself okay giving it just as a monetary valuation comparison
we're still over a thousand times smaller than axi infinity in what they were able to achieve in the last bull market and that's not to say even that we aren't even able to be able to surpass those Peaks you know
and what our goal here is to be able to go toe-to-toe with them we have that full go road map that full game plan we've only as I said got into around 6% of the English-speaking Market when it does come to this as well we have all of
does come to this as well we have all of this unrealized people who have no idea about peon and it's our job over that next sort of six months to continuously grow continuously Express the message and tap into so that way we can show
what it is that we're actually building yeah absolutely I I love the vision and I mean obviously the the market cap is currently grow uh ripe for growth if I have to say so myself where can people like jump in and and maybe do some
there's the documentation and stuff on the website but where can they also get their hands on the token currently for sure so we're currently trading on Bigg and Mexi as the two centralized exchanges we do have a new centralized
exchange coming out with the mini open world teaser in the next couple of weeks as well but I can't officially announce who that is just yet and we are trading those three current the two Sexes and one deex which is currently available
you can go as you said check out on our website pe. we do have full tokenomics breaks down of our token if you want to do a little bit more of a deep dive and Twitter again is going to be the best form yeah for sure um and obviously
amidst uh this recent Market dip and like you mentioned the the the crowd of investors versus players it it doesn't seem like your community is very wavered there it seems like you know and a lot of a lot of communities will jump
project to project but when I see the sentiment on on Twitter and YouTube it's quite impressive I I do have to say and Community isn't uh the end all Beall but it definitely is a strong suit when you have that virality to it on on social
impressive to see the community shows up to all the YouTube comments here every time and they show up to the Twitter they show up everywhere I see peeka Moon I mean they're they're always flooding the comments so uh you know it's it's
have built over what feels like such a short period of time yeah I I completely agree you know what it is a completely short period of time and I'm so proud to be part of obviously this and all of the community who have been able to come on
and be investors and be the you know the spokesperson for themselves and peon as those ambassadors and helping us grow because we truly wouldn't be here without them we're all aligned and on the same page they understand the vision
as well as you've just said there the market has dipped and we've actually period because if we actually launched it about a month or two maybe prior to when we did the market was pumping like this whereas we've experienc CH exactly
when the gaming was hot and yet we're still currently up I think around 250% to 300% from what the pre-sale investors tokens and a lot of them as well the staking hasn't even come out yet and
that's going to cause a little bit more of a lockup o of the tokens as well they understands inherently where we currently are in the market and and you as well is you know I'm not going to come out here and say that our game is
in as full-blown development as someone like axi who've had years to develop but the difference between us and the difference with them is in my opinion you know the moves essentially always happens there was a period of time where
if you did get in very very early to those projects obviously that's where you saw the greatest potential of those returns and that our investors they can truly see that within us and I'm not here to you know say this is what it is
but we have a full drad back we're building out a product to truly compete will say again when it comes to Pakistan on and any business truly let's just give an example here if we have $100,000 to be able to spend in the business if I
wanted a western developer I'm spending $6,000 a month on the best of the best you know for those animators in this market whereas in Pakistan I'm actually market whereas in Pakistan I'm actually only spending $1,000 so I can get six of
these developers which we're not substituting on any quality by the way we're still getting the very best of the best for a way cheaper price and also they're working in a team okay they're aligned they're incentivized they can
collaborate those ideas which I think also makes for a better end product and this is why we've been able to develop so quickly compared to the rest of the all of these other people and two
we also have more money for marketing as well because of that because we H can little bit on cost but we already have our output here we can then use that to again tap into newer markets make beggar strategies and try to continuously grow
into the future and unlock what already hasn't essentially been unlocked yet yeah for sure I I know that firsthand building out a software product it's a dealing with a western versus a non-western developer and it's just part
of the game but when you can make it happen and not sacrifice quality uh it definitely goes a long way so um I I've seen that firsthand personally working people jump into the community telegram dis Discord and uh maybe find yourself
on Twitter as well yeah for sure I would say first things first go to peam Moon coin on our Twitter I think you've got it up there so super appreciate that on peam moon. you're going to find all of our official links so jump into the
Discord we have all of our community there actively talking our telegram is more so just an announcement Channel but if you want to get more in- depth and recommend Discord if you like me personally then just jump over to
Twitter again I'm just luky apples all right perfect well Luke I know it's busy I know it's a little later for you it's early morning here for me but uh I really appreciate the time and and coming on and just sharing the vision
for what's to come peam Moon and I think when the gaming Market kicks back up I think peekamoon should be a pretty exciting one to watch for sure for sure able to come on and speak a little bit about peam Moon bro and I also I think
I'll see you next week in Toby as well I've heard you're coming out and I'm I'm excited to meet you in person for sure all right perfect we'll definitely connect out there and uh guys smash the like button subscribe follow pea Moon
follow Luke on Twitter as well hop in their Discord their Community is super Lively and I mean i' I've really I haven't seen many communities develop like that in such a fast time like I've mentioned over the show so uh show them
some love follow the Twitter jump in the community like And subscribe help us post to that 100K number and we will see you guys on the next one youall have a great rest of y'all's day and as always play well my friends