French crypto outlet The Big Whale is reporting that Animoca Brands has finally run out of patience with its subsidiary The Sandbox.
According to The Big Whale’s Gregory Raymond, The Sandbox’s founding CEO Arthur Madrid and COO Sebastian Borget have been reshuffled, with Animoca’s Robby Yung taking over day-to-day running of the project.
The key reason cited is the failure of the current management team to accelerate development and launch the metaverse, which despite being announced in 2018 and releasing its first temporary alpha season in 2021, still remains in alpha, with only user-generated content available in a persistent form.
Its Alpha Season 6 was expected to be launched in July with supporting brands including Cirque du Soleil, SSC Napoli, Deepak Chopra, Casio G-SHOCK, Kun Agüero, and Open Circus so this restructuring of the company has likely been in the works for some time.
The Big Whale is also reporting that over half of The Sandbox’s 250 employees are being fired with offices being closed in Argentina, Uruguay, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and France.
When it formed The Sandbox Romania in 2024, the company said it had 13 offices worldwide.
Animoca Brands acquired The Sandbox in 2018 for around $5 million.
The project has since raised over $115 million from VCs, most recently a $20 million convertible bond on a $1 billion valuation in June 2024, as well as many millions more through its multiple land and NFT sales.
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