The Lament of the Nightingale: The Rise and Fall of a Web3 Pioneer

The Wings of the Nightingale

In April 1985, a 10-year-old boy from Sichuan named Tian Xingzhi held a plane ticket to New York, standing at Beijing Capital International Airport. Twenty years later, he would return to China as Andy Tian, sparking a storm in the gaming industry.

Andy is highly gifted and was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study computer science. After graduating, he joined Boston Consulting Group, providing strategic consulting for Chinese enterprises. In 2005, he joined Google China, responsible for mobile business and assisting in introducing the Android system to the Chinese market.

In 2008, Andy left Google to join a friend’s company, Hiped Information Technology, focusing on developing social games. The company launched "Medical Mayhem," which achieved great success on Facebook. In 2010, social gaming giant Zynga acquired Hiped and appointed Andy as the head of Zynga China.

However, as users shifted from PC to mobile, Zynga China encountered a development bottleneck. In 2013, Andy left again and co-founded Asia Innovation Group (AIG). The mobile social game "Peng Peng" launched by AIG achieved unexpected success in the Southeast Asian market, marking the company's path of "going overseas."

Every step on the road counts.

In 2015, the live streaming industry exploded in China. AIG quickly followed suit and launched the overseas live streaming platform Uplive. Uplive replicated the Chinese live streaming model in Southeast Asia, introducing features such as anchor guilds and fan economy, which completely changed the local internet entertainment ecosystem.

In 2017, the ICO craze swept the globe. Andy and his Vietnamese friend Charles Thach planned to package Uplive for an ICO. They proposed a project called Gifto, aimed at establishing a cross-platform tipping mechanism for content creators.

On September 4th, China suddenly banned ICOs. Gifto had to turn to overseas markets. By partnering with Binance, Gifto became the first exchange-led fundraising project (IEO). On December 14th, Gifto completed its public offering on Binance, with an oversubscription of 1066 times. Four days later, the GTO token was listed for trading, and its price skyrocketed 10 times.

Nightingale Chasing the Sun

The success of Gifto has boosted the team's confidence immensely. Andy and Charles started to heavily engage in investments and advisory roles for other projects. They also formed a team in Vietnam and founded the Kryptono exchange.

In February 2018, Gifto collaborated with photographer Kevin Abosch to launch "Forever Rose," becoming the world's first blockchain artwork. Gifto frequently released positive news, leading to strong performance in the secondary market.

However, the good times did not last long. In the second half of 2018, the cryptocurrency market entered a deep bear market. Gifto's business growth stagnated, and the Kryptono exchange fell into difficulties. In July 2019, Kryptono suddenly shut down, and users' assets could not be recovered.

Cold Winter · Scorched Earth · Rebirth · Sigh

In the face of the market collapse, the Gifto team chose extreme measures. They shut down almost all external channels, and the project entered a "dormant" period lasting three years. In 2021, Gifto was publicly listed as a "dead/inactive" project.

At the end of 2022, Gifto re-emerged under the new identity of "Gifto Metaverse." In January 2023, the project received a $2.5 million investment and announced a token swap, upgrading GTO to GFT.

However, just as the project seemed to be rejuvenating, Andy Tian suddenly fell ill and passed away at his home in Beijing on February 6, 2023. Two days later, GFT was listed on Binance, but it was only a flash in the pan.

Squeeze out the last bit of dignity

In November 2024, Binance announced the delisting of GFT. Two days later, the GFT official minted 1.2 billion tokens on the BNB chain, causing a stir in the community. Binance had to delist GFT ahead of schedule, marking the first time in the exchange's history.

In February 2025, GFT announced a merger with another project, GOTG, requiring all token holders to complete the token exchange in a short period. This once-promising Web3 project ultimately disappeared at the end of people's trust.