Pixelcraft Studios, the makers of the NFT gaming protocol and first pixel art-styled NFT collection on the Polygon network Aavegotchi, have announced together with the DAO that they have managed to successfully fundraise an astounding $30 million DAI in a multiyear token sale structured as a DAICO (Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offering), making it one of, if not the first successful token sale to utilize such a fundraising model coined by Vitalik Buterin, while also being the longest sale to ever take place in the world of crypto so far.

This comes as a result of the recent tokenomics shift in the $GHST token that involved ending the bonding curve as suggested by the community amidst fears of DAI depegging due to the recent banking collapse involving Silicon Valley Bank and others. The decision was a forward-thinking and very smart one, as DAI and USDC did indeed depeg, leading to the end of the bonding curve, and thus, the end of a lengthy, fair and massively successful token sale that involved neither angel investors nor any VCs.

The token sale initially began on September 14th, 2020 on the Ethereum network using the DAICO fundraising model suggested by Vitalik Buterin in January 2018, which is a sale done through an AMM smart contract owned by a DAO and known as the bonding curve. Through such a token sale, interested investors were able to purchase the $GHST ERC20 token through the bonding curve, sending $DAI to the contract in return for minted $GHST tokens, while those who wanted to sell back would return the minted tokens to the contract in order to burn them and thus receive back the $DAI stablecoin, as explained by the Coder Dan, the Co-founder and CEO of Pixelcraft Studios, in his Twitter thread.

In the official press release, the CEO commented the following:

“The successful conclusion of this sale represents a watershed moment for the decentralized fundraising space and, we hope, a model for responsible fundraising for projects in the future. We are thrilled to have such a strong and passionate community behind us and are excited about the potential of AavegotchiDAO receiving the lion's share of this raise."

A lion’s share indeed it is for the AavegotchiDAO, as the funds are divided in such a way so that the DAO Treasury gets 75% of the funding, that is, a whopping $22.5 million, while the developers take the remaining nice sum of $7.5 million. This new funding is set to be used for “development, marketing, liquidity provision, or protocol rewards.”

The team recently announced a Q3 launch for the Gotchichain, as part of their 2023 “Year of the Gotchi” roadmap.