Immutable: Two Australian Brothers Built the Infrastructure That 70% of Web3 Gaming Runs On
By BCGamer —
Tags: imx, immutable, immutable x
While everyone else was making promises, Immutable was building plumbing.
Boring, unglamorous, absolutely essential plumbing.
Two brothers from Sydney looked at Ethereum in 2018 and said: "This is unusable for games. Let's fix it." Six years later, they control 70% of the Web3 gaming market, have $300+ million in funding from Temasek and Tencent, survived an SEC investigation, and signed more games in 2024 than every previous year combined.
This is the story of how infrastructure became the winning strategy.
The Founders: Not Degens, Engineers
James Ferguson and Robbie Ferguson aren't your typical crypto founders.
James was studying law and commerce at the University of Sydney when he paused his degree to learn programming in San Francisco in 2015. His first venture, Rivlr, was an esports tournament platform. Then Shopyak, a single-page store builder.
Neither became a unicorn. Both taught him how to build.
In 2017, the Ferguson brothers saw CryptoKitties and had a different reaction than most people. While everyone else was laughing at expensive digital cats, James saw the future:
"CryptoPunks was a proof of concept for crypto collectibles. We thought it was cool, but for us, the idea of combining that with video games was so obviously a better system."
They recruited Alex Connolly and founded Fuel Games in 2018. Their first game, Etherbots, let players own and battle digital robots on Ethereum.
It worked. It also cost players $50+ per transaction in gas fees.
That's when they realized: the games weren't the problem. The infrastructure was.
The Pivot: Building the Rails
In 2019, Fuel Games rebranded to Immutable and shifted focus from making games to making the platform that makes games possible.
The thesis was simple: Ethereum is too slow and too expensive for gaming. But Ethereum is also the most secure and decentralized blockchain. So instead of abandoning Ethereum, they'd build a Layer-2 that inherits Ethereum's security while eliminating its problems.
Working with StarkWare, they developed Immutable X – a zk-rollup that could process 9,000 transactions per second with zero gas fees.
Zero. Gas. Fees.
Let that sink in. In a world where Ethereum transactions could cost $50-100 during peak times, Immutable built a system where minting and trading NFTs costs nothing.
The mainnet launched in 2021. The IMX token hit $9.52 in November 2021 during the NFT boom. They were off to the races.
The Funding: Serious Money From Serious People
Immutable's fundraising history reads like a who's-who of global capital:
RoundDateAmountLead InvestorValuationSeedJuly 2018$2.4MContinue Capital-Series A2019$15MGalaxy Digital-Series BSept 2021$60MBITKRAFT Ventures-Series CMarch 2022$200MTemasek$2.5B
That Series C is the one that matters. Temasek is the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund. Tencent is the Chinese gaming giant. Animoca Brands is the Web3 gaming juggernaut.
These aren't crypto VCs throwing money at narratives. These are institutional investors who did real due diligence and concluded Immutable was building critical infrastructure.
The company also announced a $500 million developer fund to attract games to the platform. That's not token money – that's real capital deployed to build an ecosystem.
The Games: Gods Unchained and Beyond
Immutable isn't just an infrastructure company. They also make games.
Gods Unchained launched in 2018 as the first major NFT trading card game. Think Hearthstone, but you actually own your cards. At its peak, it was the second-largest blockchain game by players.
The game proved the model worked. Players could:
Earn cards through gameplay
Own them as NFTs
Trade them freely on marketplaces
Use them across the ecosystem
When the ESRB rated Gods Unchained "Adults Only 18+" in December 2023 just because it used cryptocurrency (leading to temporary removal from Epic Games Store), it highlighted both the regulatory uncertainty and the fact that Immutable was building real games, not just speculation vehicles.
Guild of Guardians launched in May 2024 as their second major title – a squad-based mobile RPG that hit 1 million downloads by end of Act 1. The team brought in Chris Clay, former Design Director of Magic: The Gathering Arena, to lead development.
The Partnership: GameStop Goes Web3
In February 2022, GameStop – yes, that GameStop – announced a partnership with Immutable to build their NFT marketplace.
The deal included:
$100 million joint fund for NFT gaming grants (in IMX tokens)
Up to $150 million in IMX tokens for GameStop upon hitting milestones
Integration of Immutable X into the GameStop Wallet
Exclusive partnership terms
The marketplace launched in October 2022, bringing Immutable's technology to GameStop's tens of millions of PowerUp Pro members.
Now, did the GameStop NFT marketplace become the next Steam? No. The broader NFT market collapsed, and GameStop's Web3 ambitions have been... let's say "on pause."
But the partnership validated Immutable's approach. A major public company with real lawyers and compliance teams chose Immutable over every other blockchain option.
The Bear Market: Surviving 2022-2023
The crypto winter hit Immutable hard.
IMX crashed from $9.52 to under $0.40 – a 95%+ decline. The company laid off at least 20 staff in July 2022, including core Gods Unchained team members. NFT volumes collapsed. The narrative shifted from "play-to-earn" to "play-to-earn is dead."
But Immutable kept building.
They launched the Immutable zkEVM testnet in August 2023 and the mainnet in January 2024. This wasn't just incremental improvement – it was a complete architectural evolution.
While Immutable X used StarkWare's technology (which is excellent but has its own programming language), Immutable zkEVM used Polygon's CDK to create an EVM-compatible chain. Translation: any Ethereum developer can now build on Immutable without learning new tools.
Same zero gas fees. Same security. Now with full Ethereum compatibility.
The SEC: Cleared After Five Months
In October 2024, just before the US election, Immutable received a Wells Notice from the SEC – a formal warning that the agency was considering enforcement action.
The focus? Their 2021 IMX token sale, specifically a pre-launch investment from Huobi Ventures at $0.10 per token.
Immutable called it "regulation by enforcement" and maintained they had done nothing wrong.
Then Trump won. The SEC under the new administration started dropping crypto cases left and right.
In March 2025, the SEC closed its investigation into Immutable with zero findings of wrongdoing and no enforcement action.
Co-founder Robbie Ferguson called it "a huge win – not just for Web3 gaming, but everyone who believes in digital ownership rights."
The IMX token jumped 15% on the news.
The Dominance: 70% Market Share
Here's the stat that matters: according to Messari and VanEck, Immutable controls approximately 70% of the Web3 gaming market.
Let me repeat that. Seventy percent.
In 2024 alone:
Signed 250+ games (more than all previous years combined)
Scaled to 4+ million users
Processed 150+ million transactions on zkEVM
7 of the top 10 Web3 games at Gamescom were built on Immutable
The game library now includes:
Gods Unchained – Trading card game
Guild of Guardians – Mobile RPG
Illuvium – Open-world RPG
RavenQuest – Most-watched Web3 game on Twitch in 2024
Cross the Ages – Digital collectible card game
Ember Sword – MMORPG
460+ other titles
Major partnerships in 2024 included:
MARBLEX (Netmarble's Web3 arm) – Brought Ni no Kuni and other titles
Ubisoft – First legendary title announcement
Polygon – zkEVM collaboration
The Merger: One Chain to Rule Them All
In April 2025, Immutable announced they would merge Immutable X into Immutable zkEVM to create a single unified chain called simply "Immutable."
The merger, expected late 2025, will:
Consolidate hundreds of millions in assets
Unify 460+ games onto one chain
Provide automatic migration for users (no action required)
Preserve all wallet addresses and contracts
For users, it's seamless. For developers, it's simpler. For the ecosystem, it's consolidation of liquidity and activity.
The Tech: What Actually Makes It Work
Let's get specific about why Immutable matters:
Zero Gas Fees: Players don't pay transaction fees. Period. Immutable covers gas for Passport holders.
9,000+ TPS: Compared to Ethereum's ~15 transactions per second, Immutable can process 9,000+. That's the difference between "unusable for games" and "works like a real platform."
Immutable Passport: One-click social login. No wallet setup. No seed phrases. Just... sign in with Google. Over 4 million signups as of late 2024.
Carbon Neutral: Every transaction is offset. This matters for mainstream gaming companies worried about ESG.
Ethereum Security: All transactions ultimately settle on Ethereum. You get the speed of L2 with the security of L1.
EVM Compatibility: Any Ethereum developer can build without learning new languages.
The Inevitable Games Fund
In April 2024, Immutable partnered with King River Capital and Polygon Labs to launch the Inevitable Games Fund.
By March 2025, the fund had grown to $280 million AUM – a 180% increase in nine months.
The fund has invested in 16 Web3 gaming projects, providing not just capital but:
This is how you build an ecosystem. You don't just provide technology – you fund the projects that will use it.
The Current State (2026)
The Good:
70% market share in Web3 gaming
460+ games in ecosystem
4+ million Passport users
SEC investigation closed with no action
$300M+ raised from top-tier investors
zkEVM successfully launched and growing
Major partnerships (GameStop, Ubisoft, Netmarble/MARBLEX)
Technology that actually works at scale
The Concerning:
IMX still down ~90% from ATH
Most signed games aren't live yet
Broader GameFi sector struggling
Q1 2025 saw 60% price decline with market downturn
Competition from other L2s increasing
The Honest Take: Immutable is the clear infrastructure leader in Web3 gaming. The technology works, the partnerships are real, and the market share is dominant.
But infrastructure plays are slow burns. Success depends on:
Web3 gaming as a category finding product-market fit
Signed games actually launching and attracting players
Broader crypto market recovery
If you believe blockchain gaming is going mainstream, Immutable is probably your best bet on the infrastructure that will power it.
If you think blockchain gaming is a dead end, none of this matters.
The Investment Thesis
Bull Case:
70% market share = winner-take-most dynamics
$3.5B peak valuation from institutional investors
SEC cleared = regulatory certainty
zkEVM merger simplifies ecosystem
460+ games = multiple shots on goal
Passport = solved onboarding problem
Backed by Temasek, Tencent, Animoca
Bear Case:
90%+ down from ATH
GameFi sector broadly struggling
Most games signed, not launched
Competition from other L2s and alt-L1s
Revenue model dependent on trading volume
Execution risk on chain merger
My Take: Immutable took the boring approach – build infrastructure, sign deals, survive bear markets – and it's working.
While flashier projects were making announcements and losing everything, Immutable was signing games, shipping code, and accumulating market share.
Two brothers from Sydney now control the rails that 70% of Web3 gaming runs on. That's not hype. That's execution.
The Bottom Line
Immutable is the AWS of Web3 gaming.
Not the sexy consumer-facing play. Not the viral sensation. The infrastructure that everything else depends on.
They solved gas fees. They solved onboarding. They solved developer experience. They survived the SEC.
Now they just need Web3 gaming itself to figure out how to attract real players in real numbers.
If that happens, Immutable wins. If it doesn't, nothing in this sector matters anyway.
Not financial advice. The author may hold positions in projects discussed. Always DYOR. Building infrastructure isn't glamorous, but someone has to do it – and controlling 70% of a market while everyone else was blowing up isn't a bad outcome.