After the failure of Web3 games, memecoins target old video games

A memecoin that buys virtual hats

Web3 gaming once led to the imagination that players would create a true parallel economy, where they could exchange items, skins, and characters for cryptocurrencies. However, interest in blockchain games has fallen flat. Some imaginative minds within the crypto community may have found a workaround by turning to traditional games.

A memecoin called RSTR, which stands for Robin Hood Hat Strategy, has been launched on Robinhood Chain via the Pons launchpad. Its mechanics are directly inspired by MicroStrategy's strategy with Bitcoin, but the treasury asset is neither a cryptocurrency nor a stock. It is the Robin Hood hat, a virtual headgear from the game Old School RuneScape (OSRS), published by Jagex for over 20 years.

The mechanism relies on a simple loop. Every purchase or sale of RSTR incurs a 1% fee, of which 70% is returned to the token creator. This creator then uses the collected ETH to buy official RuneScape Bonds, which are exchanged for gold pieces (GP), the game's currency. With these GP, they finally purchase Robin Hood hats on the Old School RuneScape marketplace.

The price of the hat skyrockets in the game

As a result, the price of the Robin Hood hat has exploded, rising from 700,000 GP to over 14 million GP in just a few days, multiplying by more than twenty compared to its price before the trend began.

Five days after the launch, the operation already concentrated more than 8,000 hats spread across 8 different accounts, with an estimated virtual value of around $22,000. In response to what they perceive as manipulation, players even gathered in the game's world 305 as a sign of protest.

MemeFi and virtual economies, an explosive cocktail

This experiment fits into the MemeFi movement, where on-chain mechanics are repurposed to create viral attention. The loop is virtuous for the token: the more the hats increase in value, the more attention the operation attracts, the more RSTR is traded, and the more fees fund new buybacks. The token's market capitalization reached around $6 million in just a few days.

Robinhood Chain, launched on July 1st, has established itself as the playground for these experiments. The American broker's blockchain recently set activity records with $875 million in daily volume on its DEX.

A fleeting trend or the beginning of a new wave?

The main risk comes from the still very artisanal nature of the mechanism. The collected ETH must be manually converted into Bonds, then into gold pieces before being used to buy hats in the game. Jagex may especially view the operation as real-world trading, which is prohibited by its rules, and ban the involved accounts. Ironically, these bans could remove the held hats from circulation, increasing their rarity and further fueling speculation.

Some observers are already anticipating an extension of the concept to other gaming universes, such as Counter-Strike skins or other rare items. One thing is certain: when the memecoin's volume collapses, the buyback mechanism will come to a sudden halt. For speculators, the window could be short.