Ark: Survival Evolved outfit Snail Games is considering its own USD stablecoin
With stablecoin usage continuing to boom in all aspects of DeFi and traditional finance, it’s no surprise that game companies are also looking to leverage this new payment primitive.
Examples include
- Animoca Brands, which is working with Standard Chartered bank and HKT to issue a Hong Kong‑dollar–backed coin,
- Playtron’s Game Dollar which will go live on Sui, as well as
- Philippine Peso–pegged stablecoin PHPC which has been live on Ronin for a year.
The latest company to be added to the list is Snail Inc.
The Nasdaq-floated company has announced that it’s exploring the feasibility of launching its own proprietary stablecoin, which will be US dollar-backed.
Of course, such an undertaking is complex. Snail Inc. notes that actually launching a stablecoin would be “subject to a range of factors, including but not limited to, regulatory approvals, market conditions, technical feasibility, cybersecurity safeguards, financial controls, and internal governance”.
However, the benefit would be Snail positioning itself “as an early mover within the digital entertainment industry”.
To help its process, the company has retained AscendEX’s CEO Dr. George Cao and legal advisors, including what it calls “a nationally recognized law firm serving cryptocurrency and blockchain clients”.
“While our focus continues to remain on gaming across our ARK franchise, indie titles, and other up-and-coming genres, this investigation into the crypto space and evaluation of the feasibility of launching our own stablecoin would mark a key step in advancing our vision of driving innovation across digital entertainment,” commented Snail Inc.’s co-CEO Hai Shi.
Founded in China as Suzhou Snail Digital Technology Co., Ltd., the company is best known for MMORPGs such as Age of Wushu as well as its ownership of Ark: Survival Evolved outfit Studio Wildcard.
Snail Inc. is the overall US-based holding company, which owns the Chinese operations as well as globally-focused divisions such as Snail Games and Snail Mobile.
For the calendar year 2024, its total sales were $85 million, with net income of $2 million.
