NOX Ecosystem: Community & Investor Update — February 2025
Dear Equinauts and NOX Investors,
First and foremost, We want to express our sincere gratitude for your continued support and patience. It’s been some time since our last update in June 2024, and I recognize that many of you are concerned and frustrated with the lack of communication regarding the NOX token and updates. Today, we want to address these concerns transparently and provide a comprehensive overview of where we stand, what we’ve accomplished, and our path forward.
Where We Stand: Addressing Your Concerns
I understand that many of you feel disappointed and anxious about your investment. You trusted us with your funds just over a year ago, with expectations of a token launch by March-2024. The delay has been frustrating, and some have even questioned our intentions. Let me be crystal clear: we have not abandoned the project, misappropriated funds, or changed our fundamental vision. Every dollar raised has been meticulously tracked, spent on development and operations, and we remain committed to delivering on our promises — albeit on a revised timeline due to market realities.
Addressing Refund Requests
We understand that some investors have requested refunds as the token remains illiquid after a year. This is a fair concern that deserves a direct response. The reality is that the funds raised have been fully deployed into development, operations, and building the ecosystem as detailed in our financial breakdown. These funds were not held in reserve — they were invested in creating the infrastructure, products, and technology that will ultimately generate value for token holders. Investment is never risk-free and this idea that it can be (via refunds) is exactly what has caused Launchpads to die in this past cycle.
This means we cannot offer refunds. While this is undoubtedly disappointing for those seeking an exit, it’s important to understand that this was always structured as an investment in a blockchain project, not as a deposit or short-term loan. The funds have been used exactly as intended: to build and develop the NOX ecosystem.
Instead of refunds, we are focusing on:
1. Enabling token utility through claiming and staking portal
2. Creating additional value streams through offering diversified projects on NOXstarter
3. Offering allocations and airdrops in our ecosystem IPs like Plank Pushers & Mindborn Sons
4. Positioning for eventual liquidity when market conditions improve
5. Securing launchpads for the eventual Public Round raise & Launch
We believe this approach will ultimately deliver more value than a partial or compromised refund process that would jeopardize the entire project. Our goal remains to deliver on the vision you invested in, even if the timeline has shifted due to market realities.
Financial Transparency
We raised $1.1 million in our private rounds, below is how these funds were allocated:
Our runway has been primarily directed toward:
- Team salaries, advisories and contractors
- Operations, subscriptions and infrastructure
- Marketing initiatives ( with limited success as noted in our June update)
- Development costs for NOX Starter platform, NOX Vegas/Slots , PLANK PUSHERS and Mindborn Sons.
The raised funds have been depleted since the end of October, and we are now operating with a skeletal team on the launchpad front, we remain with our web3 dev team, game dev studio and have recently paused operations in our Cebu Animation Office, and at this point operations have been sustained through personal contributions (bootstrapping) to maintain momentum. This is not ideal, but it demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the ecosystem and to you, our investors.
What We’ve Accomplished
Despite the challenges, we are proud to report that we’ve made significant progress on multiple fronts:
1. NOX Starter Platform
- Completed all planned development tasks
- Platform is fully operational capable of delivering flexible access and raise parameters, offering support across all chains and asset types.
- Implemented claiming and staking functionality (soon to be deployed)
2. Project Portfolio Expansion
We’ve been quietly building a diversified ecosystem:
Plank Pushers
We’re particularly excited to share significant progress on Plank Pushers, a project that truly represents our commitment to innovation in the web3 gaming space. As many of you may have seen, we’ve been quietly building something special that merges skateboarding culture with cutting-edge blockchain technology.
Plank Pushers represents the next evolution in web3 gaming, merging skateboarding culture with AI agents and dynamic storytelling. Our vision is to create a digital playground where art meets innovation, and our community shapes the future of entertainment.
Our team has achieved several major milestones:
Abstract Chain Integration: Our most recent development has been particularly exciting — we’ve partnered with NFINITY, who are currently at NFT Paris discussing partnerships with Abstract. This strategic move positions Plank Pushers at the forefront of web3 gaming innovation, marking a significant step forward in our technical infrastructure.
Core Development: The game’s fundamental systems are complete, featuring:
- Cross-platform compatibility across PC, mobile, and tablet devices
- Immersive skating mechanics with tricks and combo systems
- Robust reward mechanics integrated with blockchain technology
NFT Ecosystem: The Lil Pushers NFT collection is ready, bringing unique character designs and art that captures the essence of skateboarding culture while providing genuine utility within the Plank Pushers ecosystem.
Direct Benefits for NOX Holders
We’re excited to announce that NOX token holders will receive:
- Priority whitelist access to the Plank Pushers NFT presale
- 5% of the total $PUSH token supply allocated specifically to NOX presale investors (subject to staking requirements)
- Early access to beta testing phases
Our skateboarding mini-game release on TON network has already proven the market fit with over 4.5 million games played, demonstrating genuine user engagement even before our full launch.
We believe Plank Pushers represents everything we stand for — merging genuine gaming experience with blockchain utility alongside AI agents, in a way that puts the community first. While the current market might not favor traditional web3 gaming tokens, we’re using this time to build and perfect our products, ensuring we’re ready to capitalize when the market sentiment shifts.
Mindborn Sons
We’ve made significant strides with Mindborn Sons, our flagship action-RPG that has been in development since 2021. The latest milestone is the completion of our second cinematic trailer, with both main characters — Mali and Nah-leeni — fully realized and integrated into the game engine.
Current Development Status:
- Character development complete for both protagonists, including advanced hair and cloth physics
- Engine integration finalized with motion-captured animations
- Environment and cinematic sequences in final production phase
- Sound design and post-production underway
The playable demo has received positive feedback from early testers, and we’re excited to announce a strategic partnership with BEAM’s testing team. Their extensive testing group will help refine the gameplay experience further. While the gaming sector of web3 remains quiet, we’re using this time to perfect the core gameplay mechanics and narrative elements that makes Mindborn Sons unique. We will share a playable demo with you guys in the very near future!
We’re taking a measured approach to any potential token launch, prioritising game quality over market timing. When web3 gaming regains momentum, Mindborn Sons will be positioned with a polished, engaging experience that puts gameplay first.
As with our other ecosystem projects, NOX holders will be positioned to benefit from any future Mindborn Sons token launch, but our immediate focus remains on delivering an exceptional gaming experience as and how resources allow.
NOX Vegas
NOX Vegas development was kicked off early last year with the team building out our very own in-house slot machine to be the first product on the NOXVegas platform.
Design and development progressed well, but we encountered security challenges that required more extensive work than initially anticipated. Given these challenges, we made the strategic decision to pause development of our proprietary games until after the NOX token launch.
Two months ago, we rekindled development efforts, focusing on creating a robust frontend UI framework that will serve as the foundation for the platform. (keep an eye on our socials for some screenshots). Our current strategy is to populate the NOXVegas platform with affiliate games from established suppliers that have proper licensing and security measures in place. This approach will allow us to:
- Launch with a diverse game library while our proprietary games are being developed
- Generate affiliate commissions that will feed into the NOX stakers rewards pool
- Establish user engagement and platform stability before rolling out our own games
NOXVegas is strategically positioned as a “Bear Market” product — designed to maintain engagement and generate revenue streams during market downturns. We will continue iterative development as resources allow, with the goal of creating a fully-featured gaming platform that serves as another cornerstone of the NOX ecosystem.
3. Adapting to Market Conditions
Understanding the current market sentiment, we’ve been developing a strategic response:
Recognising the surge in interest around meme tokens, we’ve been quietly working on a stealth project (we will give more info soon) designed to capitalize on the current market narrative while staying true to our ecosystem values. NOX token holders will benefit from this project once it comes to fruition (as per all our ecosystem IP), providing an additional avenue for potential returns and liquidity, while we work through the broader market challenges. No promises on this one as of yet! We will continue to cook!
The Path Forward
NOX Token and Public Round
Let me address the elephant in the room: the NOX token launch delay. Despite our best efforts and discussions with multiple launchpads over the past two months, we’ve faced significant challenges:
1. Launchpad Hurdles : Unreasonable refund policies and excessive upfront fees from potential launchpad partners
2. Alt-coins Dormant : Drastically reduced interest in alt-coin and utility token offerings in the current market with 90% of liquidity going to Memes & BTC
3. The requirement for substantial liquidity : commitments that would put investor funds at risk in an unfavourable environment
Rather than forcing a token launch that could harm long-term value, we’ve made the responsible decision to:
1. Open the Claiming Portal: In the coming weeks, we will enable all investors to claim their NOX tokens. While these tokens will initially be illiquid (no trading on exchanges yet), they will have full utility within our ecosystem, particularly on the NOXStarter platform.
2. Continue Noxstarter Operations: We will maintain the core functionality of the platform, bringing in select projects that align with current market interests while preparing for a resurgence in the alt-coin sector.
3. Continue to develop out our other ecosystem projects and prepare them for launch
4. Continue to chat and agree suitable Launchpads for NOX public round
5. Strategic Repositioning: We’re adapting our go-to-market strategy to align with current narratives while preserving our core vision. We need to make sure we are utilising and focusing on the parts of the ecosystem that makes the most sense at this point and we will continue to monitor the current meta and adjust as and when we need
A Personal Note
We would like to address the accusations of “scamming” and “never gonna launch” head-on. As a team and full believer’s in this project for the last 4 years, We understand your frustration. The crypto market is volatile and often merciless, and delays breed suspicion. But I ask you to look at our actions:
- We’ve built and delivered a fully functioning launchpad platform
- We continue to develop our ecosystem projects
- We’re adapting to market conditions rather than forcing a potentially disastrous token launch
- We’re opening the claiming portal & staking platform so you maintain control of your tokens
- We’re providing additional value through our diversified initiatives like Plank Pushers & Mindborn Sons
- We’re now personally bootstrapping the project with our own funds beyond the initial raise, demonstrating our skin in the game and long-term commitment
This is not the behaviour of a team looking to abandon ship — this is the response of a dedicated group navigating treacherous waters while keeping our community’s best interests at heart. I implore you to go through our whitepaper/guide and you will see that everything we have mentioned there has been finished, or is being continuously worked on, the only thing that has changed is the token launch timeline from our initial plans.
Conclusion
The past year has been challenging, and we’ve had to make difficult decisions (some good and some bad). But our commitment to the NOX Ecosystem and to you, our community, has never wavered. We’re adapting, evolving, and positioning ourselves for long-term success rather than short-term gains.
We have done everything we said we would do and are currently impacted by the market in the same way every other gaming focused start-up is, but unlike others who have no runway left, a token launched and now dead! We still have all our major bullets to fire when the market turns in our favor.
Our responsibility as a team and recipient of investor funds to build a product/project was to build it. We have built it as per the plan both we AND YOU believed in, but the market is out of our control and it has not shown any enthusiasm for Web3 Gaming as a bullish investment sector this cycle. As a responsible team, we have tried our very best to control the negative impact this market would have on your investment and that is to not expose the token to it. If we caved in to those wanting to launch the token in this market it would be catastrophic, and with the amount of skin in the game we all have, that is definitely not an option any sane team would make.
Remember you don’t raise for a token, you raise for a product and the product is not the token!
We will move to a monthly community & Investor update and will announce anything as it’s happening on our socials. Finally we thank you for your patience, your support, and your belief in our vision. Together, we will weather this storm and emerge stronger.
