Ex-TikTok gaming head to launch blockchain games startup

By his own admission, Jason Fung has taken “a giant risk” to leave TikTok and build a blockchain gaming platform on his own. But as head of gaming for the Chinese social media giant, he saw a huge opportunity to provide interoperability for games between the various blockchains that they are currently confined to.

In an interview with Reuters, Fung said, “Right now, if you look at any developer when they implement NFTs or blockchain in their games, they have to choose a single blockchain, be it Polygon or Solana or Binance Smart Chain. But imagine a more interoperable option.”

Fung’s new venture will be called Meta0, and he will be launching the company with an unnamed co-founder.

Despite the sceptical nature of traditional game producers over the uses of blockchain in the tech stack, Fung’s previous employers are highly bullish on the sector. TikTok has been aggressively expanding into the blockchain and overall $300 billion gaming market, although it has only seen mixed results so far.

Under Fung’s stewardship, TikTok purchased gaming studio Moonton for $4 billion and launched pilots of mini games on their social media app in select locations.