Investor / Holder Update (Feb 10, 2026)
hi all 🙂
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently to plan out 2026 for Cambria, wanted to share some of the updates and thinking with yall. tl;dr - 2026 is shaping up to be our big make-or-break year. all of the work we’ve been putting in over the past 3 years (mainly on the core product and community) now needs to meet the test of scale as we move towards full launch / TGE.
the way I’ve always thought about the core product, launch timing, and TGE is this → have we built enough of a foundation that will enable us to turn a moment where Cambria blows up virally into a growth arc that maximizes momentum? with any live service game, especially a crypto game where attention and liquidity are extremely reflexive, fully capitalizing on a moment in the sun seems like an existential concern - we only get a few shots to kick start the flywheel.
so far, we’ve done things (like seasons, Duel Arena) specifically with this dynamic in mind - we knew we didn’t have enough scalable content (not easily “solvable”) to launch in longer formats early on. we’ve also been a bit stealth in terms of marketing to web2 / working with bigger web2 creators - with the extreme negative stigma crypto gaming has, we knew the first impression of these gamers needs to be “oh this is actually cool.” however, we’ve also balanced this stealth somewhat by building in public on crypto twitter - this combined with seasons / playtests have been tremendously helpful in building the current Cambria community / cult.
along with content, being “ready” for a big mass market push also involves things like tech scalability, internal tooling (for content, balancing, exploit prevention, handling large sums, etc. etc.), team maturity, and also just a tremendous amount of learned experience from iterative product development - shipping things, finding what people are geniunely drawn to, and collecting feedback both from chats with users as well as revealed preference (product metrics).
however, after 3 years, I can say that we’re finally close to being “ready enough” with Genesis. we have an incredible amount of traction for a crypto game, especially over the most recent 2 seasons of Gold Rush where we’ve had hockey stick growth. we have the most advanced real-money game currently in the market. we’ve done over $145m in onchain volume. ****even though we’d like to spend more years in development, we don’t have forever to prove this all works, especially in the current market of “prove it or gtfo.” also, at a certain point in development, missing key product insight from just having the game live starts to really kill.
launching Cambria in 3 seasons over the past year has been perfect - each season has 1) created an incredible hype window, 2) allowed us to test key gameplay loops without long term economic baggage, and 3) has been the top of funnel for our current community at very little cost. however, seasons are not the foundation of a real business. downsides include:
tl;dr, seasons are not the foundation of a business that will operate in many ways like a casino - consistent volume instead of bursty peaks, where players can sit in at the table any day they want and not feel like they have to grind for 12 hours a day to remain EV-competitive.
I have a X article dropping tomorrow on Cambria Genesis (Cambria 24/7 launch) that will go over our vision for the full launch in full detail, so will skip most of the nitty gritty - but tl;dr - Genesis combines the core “degen MMO” core loops that have proven to have massively addictive PMF (+ net revenue generating) in our previous Gold Rush seasons with a few key economic twists that significantly add depth to the persistent economy and introduce new gameplay loops that will allow us to take the game to a mass market audience. key additional elements include: uncapped risk / variable stakes, low stakes onboarding via a play-to-earn like “deposit bonus” system, Steam / non-crypto “practice play” versions, mobile / downloadable, and a low-stakes FTUE that hooks players into the core loop before introducing pvp or other frustration.
we’re planning to launch this on mainnet (immediately after TGE) as a multi-month “Season 1”, but its designed with the goal of creating a long-lasting, sustainable economy thats persistent and always online - Genesis will be the “oldschool runescape” core game (or Path of Exile “Standard League”). we’ll still have the hyper-competitive / grindy / fast XP “Gold Rush” seasons post launch, but likely only a few times a year, as a way to maximize spectacle, experiment with new gameplay loops, and as a big content and growth push to drive continuous top of funnel to Genesis via periodic spikes - think osrs deadman mode or leagues. Duel Arena and Islands gameplay will also fit in directly into Genesis as we finally start putting all of the pieces together.
more to come here…