Dr. Disrespect’s Studio Shuts Down, ‘GTA 6’ Meme Coins on Solana

The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Biggest news

Deadrop studio shuts down: Seven months after controversial streamer Dr. Disrespect was booted from his own game studio for alleged misconduct with a minor, Deadrop game developer Midnight Society confirmed Thursday that it is shutting down.

“Today, we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of over 55 developers contributing to our new IP Deadrop,” the company wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Dr. Disrespect slammed Midnight Society during a livestream on Thursday, claiming the situation was “handled extremely poorly by leadership,” adding that they did not properly investigate his alleged misconduct. Quinn Delhoyo, one of the co-founders of the studio, previously told Decrypt that the streamer was dismissed after a series of phone calls where he explained the situation.

GTA 6 meme coins: Unofficial Game Theft Auto-themed meme coins continue to flood onto Solana, with a handful of new takes like GTA 6 Coin and GTA Guy reaching higher than a $1 million market cap last week. Success didn’t last too long, however, with most tokens crashing more than 90% from their peaks—extremely typical for meme coins.

These meme coins aren’t the only connection the game has had to the world of crypto. Rumors about a potential inclusion of in-game crypto rewards for players in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, although unsubstantiated, have been circulating since at least 2021. Rumors grew louder in 2024 when it was speculated that Bitcoin and Ethereum would play some role in the game—although, again, this was never confirmed by any official source.

Only time will tell if GTA 6 will include crypto in some way. But if any game is big enough to push crypto gaming through to the masses, it would be the enormously anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6.

Farm Frens slam TON: Telegram game Farm Frens delayed its FREN token airdrop on the Base layer-2 network until some time in February, citing important roadmap adjustments as a result of “unreasonable deadlines” from Telegram and The Open Network (TON).

In a post on X, the game claimed “heavy-handed restrictions” were placed on mini app developers following the recent announcement that all Telegram mini apps with crypto integrations would need to exclusively use TON. The Farm Frens team said there was “no prior warning” of this, slamming the move as being against the ethos of decentralization and censorship resistance—calling TON “The Closed Network.”

Farm Frens’ airdrop will still take place on Base, and the developers said that the game will initially lack any in-game crypto integrations due to the TON exclusivity pact.

ICYMI

• Characters from Ubisoft’s Champions Tactics are now available as avatars in Ethereum metaverse game The Sandbox.
• B3, a layer-3 gaming chain built on Ethereum network Base, is gearing up to launch a token.
• Ethereum gaming network Ronin is set to get an AI agent SDK later this year, which developers say will bring a new level of immersion to gaming.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art has launched a Web3 art history game on Base that rewards players with NFTs.

• Ethereum combat game Moonray will be coming to Xbox in 2025—without its crypto features, like its PS5 version.
• MMORPG Legends of Elumia is launching on the Ronin gaming network, migrating over from Solana.
  
• Buzzy crypto shooter Off the Grid is now playable via the Ethereum gaming arcade Bsmnt, with a collectible cartridge.
• The developers of crypto shooter Shrapnel released an update about progress towards its full, free-to-play launch.
• Yuga Labs metaverse Otherside attempted to break a Guinness World Record for most players in an FPS battle on Friday… but ultimately fell short of the goal.
  

• Mark Long was appointed CEO of Unio, a game development studio. Long was CEO of Shrapnel developer Neon Machine until he shifted into an advisory role in December.
  
• Telegram game Zoo ended its mining phase on Friday ahead of an expected airdrop.
• The Sandbox announced the acquisition of QED, a Romanian software development firm
• Telegram gaming platform GOAT Gaming secured a $4 million funding round, with participation from TON Ventures.
• A new Off the Grid battle pass was released on Monday, introducing a new shotgun.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Andrew Hayward