GalaxE by HODL Assets
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
GalaxE by HODL Assets was a San Francisco-based Web3 startup founded in 2021 by AJ Bosch, Lenny Schutz and Jenny Q. Ta building a cross-blockchain NFT-social marketplace and metaverse platform. GalaxE let users create, buy, sell and mint NFTs across multiple blockchains, with social networking, gaming, augmented reality and a crypto-swap feature for over 450 cryptocurrencies, plus its own publicly listed $HODL token on Stellar. The team raised several accredited angel rounds and was raising a $15 million Series A in 2022.
02 / GalaxE by HODL Assets FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
a faulty early 20% profit-sharing deal with token investors (incompatible with HODL as a utility token) made the company untenable, blocked sustainable fundraising/exchange listings, and left shutdown plus asset liquidation as the board's only recourse.
Original founders' 20% profit-sharing agreement with early token investors was described as faulty and uncorrectable without dissolving the enterprise.
The letter said the undisclosed profit-sharing condition would likely repel future venture capital and make growth unsustainable.
Profit-sharing conflicted with the utility-token legal opinion used for BitMart/Bitrue listings, with expected delisting.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product or service closed
Prior HODL Assets open letter (21 Sep 2022) said GalaxE would be phased out with galaxe.io going dark on 30 Sep 2022:
- Liquidation
Board letter announced intention to shut down HODL Assets, Inc. for good, disband the enterprise, and liquidate/distribute assets including outstanding HODL tokens.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In 2021 HODL Assets was formed when AJ Bosch and Lenny Schutz's team acquired Jenny Q. Ta's blockchain company CoinLinked; GalaxE became its flagship NFT platform.
- 02
GalaxE launched its cross-blockchain NFT marketplace with artist collections, including a collection by the Dogecoin co-founder benefiting cancer research.
- 03
The company raised several accredited angel rounds totaling about $3 million and was raising a $15 million Series A in 2022.
- 04
The $HODL token fell to effectively zero trading volume; no independent record of a 2022 liquidation was found.
- 05
No reliable loss figure with a clear subject, period and basis exists, so no loss amount is recorded.