I. Project introduction
Upland is a virtual real estate and metaverse game based on the EOS chain, where players can buy, sell, and trade virtual property corresponding to real-world locations.
Through the Upland platform, users can earn game tokens and dollars, participate in various in-game activities and tasks, develop their virtual empire, and enjoy a decentralized, player-driven economic system. The goal of the game is to build an open metaverse that integrates real and virtual worlds, providing users with rich interactive and creative experiences.
II. Project highlights
1. Real-world geographical mapping: Upland's virtual world is based on the geographical location of the real world. Users can purchase, trade, and develop virtual land, which corresponds one-to-one with real-world locations. This way of connecting the real world and the virtual world provides users with a brand new interactive experience.
2. Ensure the uniqueness of user assets: Each piece of land is a unique NFT (non-fungible token), ensuring the uniqueness and immutability of ownership. Users can earn profits by buying, selling, and exchanging these NFTs.
3. Rich playability: Users can develop on their own land, such as building virtual buildings, opening virtual stores, etc., further increasing the value of the land. Upland provides rich development and investment opportunities, attracting the attention of a large number of players and investors. The game has Upland currency (UPX), which users can use for various transactions and interactions.
4. Strong financing background: Upland has received support from well-known investment institutions. In 2021, Upland raised $18 million led by Animoca Brands; in 2023, Upland raised $7 million in Series A1 financing, with investors including EOS Network Ventures, bringing the total financing amount to $25 million
III. Market value expectations
As an EOS blockchain game, Upland is easy to get started with and highly playable. According to DappRadar's data, the unique active wallet reached 154.59k in 30 days, with over 130,000 players holding tokens, which to some extent demonstrates a solid user base.
The project team is proactive and the in-game token economy model is designed reasonably. The token distribution also takes into account the interests of multiple parties. At the same time, a total of $25 million was obtained through two rounds of financing. Investors such as EOS Network Ventures are still quite optimistic about the future performance of the project.
In addition, media reports indicate that the project has recently established a strategic partnership with Bitget, focusing on launching the utility token SPARKLET on Ethereum. This cooperation will include establishing Bitget's virtual headquarters in the virtual universe built by Upland, and providing a large number of token airdrops and rewards to the Upland and Bitget communities. The project itself is also Bitget's latest Launchpool.
Based on the above information, Upland (SPARKLET) itself has many users, and the capital side is optimistic about it. As an exchange Lp project, it is benchmarked against the current hot NOT 1.48 billion circulation market value in the game field. With the sustainable development of the project, it is expected that the future circulation market value may reach 1 billion US dollars.
IV. Economic model
Upland's economic model is powered by multiple tokens, which provide players with different utilities.
1、UPX
UPX is the core exchange medium of Upland, designed to facilitate the purchase of virtual property, digital goods, and assets. The pricing method of UPX is 1 US dollar exchanged for 1,000 UPX, which is a fixed exchange rate. Players can exchange UPX for legal currency through credit cards, PayPal, in-app purchases, or selected cryptocurrencies.
UPX cannot be traded on external exchanges or within Upland. Upland operators do not repurchase UPX from players. However, according to the agreement, Upland repurchases UPX from some brands and development partners that meet specific requirements and terms. UPX theoretically has unlimited supply and is minted as needed.
2、SPARK/SPARKLET
SPARK is Upland's utility token used to create and drive non-living objects, including buildings, map assets, vehicles, and NFTs designed specifically for immersive indoor displays, such as wearable devices, furniture, and FIFA World Cup goal video spotlights. Spark can be mortgaged, i.e. allocated to tasks within the time required to complete them.
SPARKLET is an externally tradable token that can be bridged to Spark within the platform for world building and UGC asset development.
3、Stem
Stem has not been launched yet. In order to test the mechanism of Stem, Upland launched "Protems" supporting the Totem Gamification series in 2023. Protem will be used until Stem and Life are fully released. It will be exchanged with Stem 1:1 after its launch in the future.
The total amount of SPARKLET tokens is 1 billion, and the distribution is as follows:
Initial launch and airdrop: 4%, no lock-up period, TGE release 4%
Ecosystem and rewards: 20%, locked for 48 months, TGE not released
Incentives and rewards: 24%, locked for 84 months, TGE not released
Development and growth: 25%, lock-up for 84 months, TGE release 1%
Spark holders: 12%, no lock-up period, TGE release 12%
Liquidity and multi-chain support: 5%, lock-up for 12 months, TGE release 1%
Advisors and supporters: 10%, locked for 60 months (one year cliff period), TGE not released
V. Team and financing
The Upland team is composed of three co-founders, Idan Zuckerman, Dirk Lueth, and Mani Honigstein.
They completed Series A financing of $18 million on November 2, 2021, with investors including Animoca Brands, Alumni Ventures, Global Founders Capital, etc. On October 20, 2023, they raised $7 million in Series A1 financing from EOS Network Ventures. The total financing amount reached $25 million
VI. Risk Warning
1. The cryptocurrency market is volatile, and large price fluctuations may lead to investment losses. Therefore, cautious decisions should be made and market risks should be fully understood.
2. As a blockchain-based virtual real estate and metaverse platform, technical vulnerabilities or hacker attacks may cause losses to user assets.
VII. Official link
