Can the once-popular face-sculpting app Zepeto support the Web3 metaverse ZepetoX?

Will Zepeto, the once-popular face-sculpting app, be able to integrate with the Web3 metaverse ZepetoX?

Author: Zen, LianGuaiNews

On October 16th, the metaverse project ZepetoX announced that its ZTX token has completed its genesis airdrop and has been listed on Bybit, Gate.io, Bithumb, Coinone, and SushiSwap. After being listed on Bybit and Gate.io in the afternoon, the price of ZTX briefly surpassed $0.025 before dropping throughout the night to a low of nearly $0.014. As of 3 PM on October 17th, the current price of ZTX is $0.0145, with a fully-diluted market cap of $144 million.

ZepetoX is a Web3 metaverse project built and incubated by Jump Crypto and Zepeto on Arbitrum. In August of this year, ZepetoX completed a $13 million seed round with lead investment from Jump Crypto and participation from Collab+Currency, LianGuairataxis, MZ Web3 Fund, and Everest Ventures Group.

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Backed by leading South Korean Internet giant Zepeto

As the only blockchain project to receive full support from Zepeto, ZepetoX will be able to leverage the technical expertise, content assets, existing IP, and user resources accumulated by Zepeto over the past few years.

Zepeto was launched in 2018, developed by Snow, a subsidiary of the South Korean Internet company Naver. In May 2020, it became independent from Snow’s business and was operated by Naver Z, a virtual universe subsidiary. The application is a virtual fashion social platform where users can freely create their own digital avatars and currently has over 400 million users worldwide.

In Zepeto, users need to first design their face shape and features according to personal preferences, commonly known as “face manipulation,” and then purchase fashionable clothing, accessories, and unlock different poses, actions, and backgrounds for taking photos with friends on the platform. In addition, Zepeto features a user-generated content (UGC) mode where users can produce and sell various virtual items, including clothing, using the tools provided by the Zepeto platform and earn income. Besides virtual characters, Zepeto has also created a virtual gaming world where users can control their avatars to explore locations such as haunted houses, classrooms, schools, virtual landmarks, and even participate in parties, camping, or virtual weddings.

With its excellent face manipulation system and social attributes, Zepeto quickly gained popularity worldwide shortly after its launch, especially in Asian countries, primarily China, Japan, and South Korea, consistently ranking in the top ten on the App Store for several months. In early 2019, Zepeto officially launched a product called “Zaizai” specifically tailored for Chinese users, which became Zepeto’s largest market. At the end of 2021, Zepeto announced a Series B funding round with a valuation of over $1 billion, raising approximately $189 million. SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund 2 invested $150 million, with the remaining approximately $41 million coming from Mirae Asset, k-pop agency JYP, BTS agency HYBE, and YG Entertainment.

On August 25th this year, ZepetoX launched a promotional campaign on Zepeto, where users who created a ZepetoX account would receive a virtual ZTX-branded hoodie. This virtual apparel can be used on both platforms. According to official statistics from ZepetoX, this campaign attracted over 200,000 new users from various regions around the world, including many Zepeto creators who have a combined fan base of over 8 million on the Zepeto platform.

Web3 Edition of The Sims 4

ZepetoX builds upon the foundation and success of Zepeto by incorporating blockchain technology. It expands upon the existing features of Zepeto, allowing users to not only create their own digital identities but also convert the assets they create with creativity and time into currency and income.

Utilizing Zepeto’s infrastructure, ZepetoX has already released the Avatar Builder. It provides the same character creation and dressing experience as ZEPETO, allowing all users to customize their own digital image. Upon entering the world of ZepetoX, each user will receive a free “virtual villa” including a plot of land and a house. Through the decorator mode, users will have the freedom to design and decorate their villa, including planting vegetation and furnishing their homes. Players can also harvest resources and mine minerals to create digital assets, including placeable furniture items and wearable clothing items. Based on the recent second round of game testing, the upcoming ZTX Beta from ZepetoX will focus on character, house, and land design and decoration, resembling the core gameplay of “character creation” and “house building” in The Sims 4.

ZepetoX also introduces the concept of districts, which are currently categorized into four areas: gaming, art, finance, and fashion. The development and decision-making of each district are determined through member voting. Players can choose to build, delegate, and host portal games, events, and other experiences within their chosen district, and receive a share of the profits from the rewards obtained. To join a specific district, players need to purchase a District Home NFT to acquire a house in that district, which can also be decorated in the decorator mode.

ZTX Genesis Home Mint is the first NFT series issued by ZepetoX. It was launched in August this year and consists of 4,000 unique 3D rendered District Home NFTs. The public sale price was 0.06 ETH, and as of October 17, 2023, the floor price is 0.21 ETH. Genesis district homes provide owners with more benefits, including more crafting options and faster item production. By owning more houses, users also have more opportunities to participate in the game.

The Token Economy of ZepetoX

The ZTX token is the native token of ZepetoX and will be primarily used for governance, purchasing in-game assets, and in-game functionality services. Specifically, various in-game assets such as furniture and clothing created by users in ZTX Beta will be minted as ERC721 and ERC1155 NFTs. These digital assets will be sold through smart contracts and priced in ZTX tokens. In addition, in-game utility functions such as “skip timers,” “fast extraction,” “quick harvesting,” and other time-related features can be purchased by players using ZTX tokens.

The total supply of ZTX tokens will be fixed at 10,000,000,000. 1.0% will be allocated to ZTX initial liquidity, 4% will be allocated to MM LIQUIDIT, 4% will be allocated to the genesis airdrop, 5.5% will be allocated to early investors and advisors (with a 6-month lock-up period and 2-year vesting period), 9.5% will be allocated to ZEPETO (with a 1.5-year lock-up period and 4-year vesting period), 35% will be used for X2E incentives (with a 1-month lock-up period and 4-year vesting period), 16% will be allocated to the development team (with a 6-month lock-up period and 3-year vesting period), 15% will be allocated to the ZTX Treasury Fund (with no lock-up period and a 3-year vesting period), and 10% will be allocated to the community fund (with a 1-month lock-up period and 3-year vesting period).

For players who own District Home NFTs, the ZTX token can be obtained not only through exchanges but also in the game. Players can collect Genesis Dark Matter on the land of the Genesis Home and use a furnace to create $ZTX capsules. After storing them in their inventory, they can exchange them for ZTX tokens. $ZTX capsules come in different types, and the higher the difficulty in creating them, the more ZTX tokens they can be exchanged for.

Unlike the recent AAA-level blockchain game Big Time, which launched the BIGTIME token after achieving good results, ZepetoX has started selling ZTX tokens before officially launching its product.

In the year-end summary of 2022, ZTX provided a glimpse of the project progress for 2023. They plan to release the first NFT “ZTX Genesis Home” in the first half of this year and launch the ZTX Beta, which includes core gameplay, downtown social experiences, and multiplayer portal games, in the third quarter.

However, in reality, the “Genesis Home” minting event was postponed to August, and the public sale on OpenSea didn’t start until August 30th. In addition, the project team is currently preparing for the final round of testing, so it may take some time before ZTX Beta is officially released.

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