195 | From breeding Axies to Beam

Jon Jordan talks to Marco van den Heuvel, the co-founder and CEO of Beam about the formation of what was originally called Merit Circle as an Axie guild in 2021, then becoming a game investment DAO, and which rebranded as Beam in 2024 as it moved to focus on gaming infrastructure, something it will double down in 2025 with the launch of the Abu Dhabi-based Beam Ventures fund and accelerator.

• [2:15] Marco's journey in crypto starting with Bitcoin in 2017.
• [3:30] Started his first company around crypto community management.
• [3:45] Merit Circle started in 2021 when Axie Infinity blew up.
• [7:35] Merit Circle started as a guild breeding Axie but quickly expanded to other games.
• [9:26] It also moved from play-to-earn to become an investment DAO and now running Beam.
• [12:07] How much of this shift away from P2E was luck
• [12:44] The data showed that demand for Axies was dropping fast in fall 2021.
• [15:55] Did Merit Circle invest too widely? Would it have been better to put 200% into 50% of deals?
• [20:54] Why Merit Circle started making games like Edenhorde.
• [22:00] We're not a game developer. We intend to become a leading player for gaming infrastructure.
• [24:35] Why Merit Circle rebranded to Beam.
• [27:25] It also caused a strong upward valuation on the BEAM token.
• [28:55] How does Beam compete with Ronin, Immutable, Mythos etc?
• [30:27] Beam's tech stack can support multiple blockchains such as Immutable, Sophon etc.
• [31:58] What games should we check out? Trial Xtreme Freedom, Forgotten Playland, Rumble Arcade
• [34:20] Abu Dhabi-based Beam Ventures fund and accelerator is gearing up for launch in 2025.
• [37:56] How significant will AI agents be for blockchain gaming?