Founder spotlight: Justine Lu from Lootex
Having developed partnerships with more than 50 games, the Lootex marketplace boasts more than 12,000 NFT assets and 140 collections available for trading across multiple blockchains. Lootex’s platform currently supports trading in-game NFTs on several different blockchains, including ETH, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, and AVAX.
One crucial component of the blockchain-based games ecosystem is a mechanism for users to reliably and easily trade game-related assets with one another. To service this need, several companies have opened their own marketplaces. However, one marketplace that stands out from the rest is Taiwan-based multi-chain marketplace Lootex.
Having developed partnerships with more than 50 games, the Lootex marketplace boasts more than 12,000 NFT assets and 140 collections available for trading across multiple blockchains. Lootex’s platform currently supports trading in-game NFTs on several different blockchains, including ETH, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, and AVAX. With 2.1 million USD in transactions occurring on the Lootex platform every month, it’s no wonder that Lootex is now known as one of the largest and fastest-growing NFT marketplaces in Taiwan and in the world.
Steering the Lootex ship is CEO and Co-Founder Justine Lu. Justine has accumulated years of experience in game marketing, research and PR, including time spent at the Taiwanese publisher of World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games. She’s also an avid gamer herself! We caught up with Justine for a chat about what differentiates Lootex from other game-focused NFT marketplaces, and what the future holds for the Lootex team.
How did your team come together and decide to start building Lootex? What sparked the idea?
Growing up as gamers, my team and I have played many games of different genres. But something that was similar for every game was the lack of capability to own any assets in their virtual space. Paying for an item was very time limited, as soon as the game server shuts down, all the in-game related items goes along with it.
Together with my core team members, David Tseng (COO & Co-Founder) and Tengying Yu (Marketing Director)- we all have similar experiences working in well-known gaming industries for more than a decade. We saw the potential in revolutionizing the gaming industry through the use of blockchain technology.
Late 2017, CryptoKitties was introduced as one of the first blockchain games to have NFTs as an in-game asset. I instantly fell in love with the concept of owning something digitally. And this sparked my inspiration to build the next generation of a game asset marketplace. I am grateful that everyone took the leap of faith, with the idea that I presented, into building what Lootex currently is today.
What would you say is Lootex’s biggest competitive advantage over other marketplaces? How does Lootex plan to stay ahead of the competition in this market?
Firstly, we have a specific target market focusing on gamers. Other markets are just selling NFTs, what we have is our Launchpad featuring limited edition game asset NFTs.
Lootex also supports multiple blockchains giving players a good user experience. As an NFT trader myself, I feel like it’s a hassle to have to use multiple platforms / marketplace just to list your NFTs.
Last but not the least, we feature new projects (for game creators) on top of our marketplace — giving each project an opportunity to have enough exposure. Usually, a marketplace only features well-known / popular / best selling collections. Here in Lootex, we believe that every project has the potential to be known if given the chance.
What are the biggest challenges that NFT marketplaces are currently facing? How is Lootex tackling these challenges?
We found out that good NFT projects are sometimes having trouble getting exposure on most NFT marketplaces. Their listings may get buried many pages deep, and hard to reach to their TA. Lootex values community’s input and likes to leverage their broad knowledge of what’s new and worth sharing out there. We are building a system where our Lootizens may vote for which store’s banner deserves to be put on the prime spot, and there may be a rating or review system for each game.
Congrats on launching your Founder’s Badge! In a nutshell, can you explain why users should be excited for it — and how they can acquire one?
Our Founder’s Badge will be a limited edition and soulbound NFT, identifying your status throughout the metaverse. The Founder’s Badge demonstrates players’ commitment to the Lootex ecosystem, and one way to obtain it is by staking 1000 LOOT tokens or more and locking it for no less than 12 months.
You can choose to stake and lock $LOOT in our single-sided staking pool, or provide liquidity in our LOOT/ETH or LOOT/BNB liquidity pools. The Purple Founder’s Badge (level 3) is legendary. Gold (level 2) is epic. Silver (level 1) is rare. Each wallet can only hold one Founder’s Badge, and the badges are not transferable. Check out our article here for more info and instructions!
With 50+ game partnerships as of today, what traits do you look for in a great GameFi partner?
First would be an experienced, well-known team that can be trusted. We all know that there are many projects, not only in GameFi, but also NFTs, getting rugged. So a reliable team will always increase the chances of making it a trustworthy project. Of course, there is no guarantee which project will go rug, but at the very least it minimizes the risk of getting involved in a scam project.
Also, one thing I look for is a clear roadmap and whitepaper, where I can align Lootex’s visions and goals with theirs. Not only can we form a strong partnership, we can also do cooperative campaigns like cross promotions, etc.
And lastly, speaking from a decade of gaming experience, I want enticing / enjoyable games where I can disregard the fact that I actually paid for it. Combining the perspective of traditional and blockchain games is a must! We invest in traditional games because it gets us excited, even if we do not get something in return. Therefore it should be the same mindset for investing into a P2E game. We can rather “Play and Earn” instead of playing to earn. Many people get involved in blockchain games just because they want to earn and forget the whole concept of why the game was built — it’s for people to enjoy as a hobby, not make it as a profession.
Lastly — are there any exciting upcoming features in Lootex that you’d like to share with us?
We are proud to share that Sebastien Borget, Co-Founder and COO of The Sandbox, is joining Lootex as advisor and investor! One major aspect of the extended partnership is that Lootex starts to build its Avatar Equipment for the Founder’s Badge holders inside of The Sandbox. We plan to build multiple gameshops within TheSandbox using our own land plot where gamers will be able to feel the realism of buying things inside the Metaverse.
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