Watch the video of this interview on Gamma Prime’s YouTube channel:
Interview with Michael Gord (Founder & CEO at GDA Capital) and Korath Wright (Director of Capital Markets at Gamma Prime)
Michael Gord (Founder & CEO at GDA Capital):
My name is Michael Gord. I’m the founder of the GDA Group, a serial entrepreneur and investor. My primary focus right now is to usher in a digital gold rush by taking gold, putting it on the blockchain, and seeding it into games and social culture as an incentive and engagement layer.
Korath Wright (Director of Capital Markets at Gamma Prime):
Fascinating, fascinating. Have you seen that model elsewhere? Have you seen anything similar?
Michael Gord:
I think we’re a first mover with this thesis. I’ve been really bullish on the idea of creating monetization engines for cultures, so we’ve been exploring this for some time. There are companies that have raised a lot of money to create real-world asset markets and have been unsuccessful — to varying degrees — but no one has actually created a functioning market for real-world assets.
On the gaming side, many games have gone viral and attracted lots of users but have been unable to create a sticky market, because the digital assets players earn are speculative in nature. It’s “pondenomics” — when the market goes down, everyone races for the exit, stops earning, and stops playing when the income drops.
So I believe the solution to creating a real market for real-world assets is viral games — and the solution to creating a sticky market for viral games is real-world assets.
Korath Wright:
Interesting. So where do you see the RWA space going from your perspective, given your unique position in the market?
Michael Gord:
Wow, loaded question. From a broad perspective, I think all assets that are worth something will eventually move on-chain. We’re going to see tens of trillions of dollars of assets become tokenized. And if you can repeat the other part of the question—
Korath Wright:
Yeah, really it was about where things are going. That’s it.
Michael Gord:
Specifically at the intersection of real-world assets and games, we’re starting with gold because we’re well positioned, have strong relationships, and have access to good underlying assets.
Everyone who has played games has earned gold coins in a game. That concept isn’t new.
The difference now is that I want to make those gold coins actually redeemable — represented by a real-world asset.
If we’re right, and tens of millions of users come into our ecosystem to earn gold or other RWAs, then games could become the mechanism to create markets for any real-world asset.
If someone wants to play a game and earn gold — great. Or they could play a game and earn silver, emeralds, or a share of a building. If they’re playing games to earn a share of real-world assets, they’re already signaling interest in that market.
Korath Wright:
That’s fascinating — using games to engage people with markets they’re interested in. Absolutely. What do you see as some of the challenges or barriers that need to be overcome to get there?
Michael Gord:
Good question. Honestly — time. I think the market is ready, and this solves a lot of problems, so I believe it’s inevitably going to happen.
There’s a bit of an educational curve. We launched our first game where users can play and win gold — it has great engagement. We just launched it a couple of weeks ago, so the narrative is still new.
Our objective over the past month and moving forward through the rest of the year is to continue layering gold into the ecosystem. In addition to launching viral games ourselves, we’re partnering with other games, metaverse worlds, social platforms, and ecosystems with large user bases.
That includes enabling people to earn gold inside existing environments, or partnering with universities or restaurant chains that want points of interest where people can visit a location and “mine” gold.
So yeah — time is the biggest factor, and broader adoption of the “play for gold” narrative, which is already in progress.
Korath Wright:
Absolutely. Well, that’s a fascinating approach. And as for today at the Tokenized Capital Summit — how has your experience been?
Michael Gord:
It’s been great. Shout out to Gamma — you guys put on really well-curated events.
Korath Wright:
Appreciate that. And who have you been looking forward to meeting, or who have you met that stood out?
Michael Gord:
Everyone. It’s been great. I saw my friend Alex from Outside the Box Capital — he’s great. I just ran into Turpin. The crowd here has been really strong.
Korath Wright:
Fantastic. Having people like you here has helped us grow into the largest side events at Token 2049, which we’re grateful for. We’re really looking forward to following your progress and seeing where you go.
Michael Gord:
Sounds good. Thank you very much.
Korath Wright:
Perfect, thank you.
Michael Gord:
Cheers.
Korath Wright:
Absolutely.
