Robby Yung carries two titles that together capture much of the Web3 conversation today. He is CEO of Investments at Animoca Brands and CEO of The Sandbox. The two roles, he says, complement one another: investment and infrastructure, strategy and execution.
He begins by explaining the recent change in The Sandbox’s leadership. “Sebastian and Arthur, who are the co-founders, have taken a step back from day-to-day management,” he says. “Arthur has moved to chairman of the firm, and Sebastian is now our global ambassador. He’s tireless, on the road more than two hundred days a year, and now he’s also focused on a new product, a new initiative within The Sandbox ecosystem, called Sand Chain.”
Sand Chain is the next stage in The Sandbox’s evolution, an infrastructure platform built to support the creator economy.
“You can build on Sand Chain, and it leans more into the DeFi aspect of the Web3 community,” Yung explains. “We were very successful for a period focusing on creating an interactive 3D space, our Web3 equivalent to Roblox or Minecraft, but we neglected to fully realise the value of SAND as a product. It’s a billion-dollar asset, a top-100 token, with daily liquidity of twenty-five to thirty million dollars. That’s more than Amazon stock. And yet, apart from staking, you couldn’t really do anything with it. Sand Chain changes that.”
The ambition is to give the token both purpose and reach. “It’s not to the detriment of gaming or the metaverse,” he says, “but we have this opportunity we’ve essentially left on the table. Sand Chain is our way to make use of it.”
Yung speaks with the assurance of someone who has seen cycles come and go. “I used to be CEO of the whole business,” he says, referring to Animoca Brands. “As we grew, it made sense to define roles more clearly. My focus has always been on investing and M&A rather than product building. So now I oversee our investing activity and that includes things like The Sandbox but also our accelerator, the Residency, which supports founders locally.”
He describes Animoca Brands as one of the earliest champions of digital property rights. “The key to digital property rights is tokenization,” he says. “It’s the currency of blockchain infrastructure. Everything should be tokenized, digitally native assets like in-game items or stablecoins, and non-digital assets like financial products or natural resources. IP is a big one. That really leans into our DNA.”
For Yung, tokenization is the framework for interoperability. “The net effect is network effect,” he says. “You could buy a PFP as an NFT, use it as your avatar in The Sandbox, build things, sell them, earn SAND, and then stake it for a return. It all works because of interoperability. And that interoperability comes from agreed token standards.”
He smiles at the comparison. “For older guys like me, the token is like a website in 1998. Back then, a website was how you agreed to present something digital. Now the token is how we agree to represent digital value.”
As Vice-Chair of OMA3, the Open Metaverse Alliance, Yung sees the same principle play out across the sector. “None of this works at scale until we have interoperability,” he says. “That’s the language of tokenization.”
Gaming remains close to his heart, though his definition of it has broadened. “Tokenization is the platform,” he says. “Gaming is one on-ramp. So are stablecoins. If you live in a country with hyperinflation, that stablecoin is your entry to the same platform. Tokenization ties it all together.”
He acknowledges the friction with traditional gamers. “There was a kickback, yes and no,” he says. “Mainly from Western gamers. There’s something cultural in it. In the West, having more money can be seen as not good. In Asia, it’s simple, if you can earn money playing games, why wouldn’t you? It’s a different attitude.”
The shift between platforms fascinates him. “Gamers are conservative,” he says. “They play in cutting-edge worlds but resist change. It’s why the winners of each platform cycle tend to be native to that platform. Microsoft and Sony dominated consoles, but they weren’t the biggest on mobile. The mobile winners were new, Supercell, King, Rovio. The same will happen in Web3. The winners will be native to the platform.”
He draws an easy parallel with the early internet. “Back in 1999, people thought buying shoes online was insane,” he says. “Now I buy all my shoes online. It’s just time. Every new platform takes time.”
Animoca’s portfolio now counts more than six hundred and forty companies. “We’re not a fund manager,” he repeats. “We’re a strategic investor. We invest early, seed or Series A, and there has to be a reason. Either they can work with our other companies, or our services can help them get to their goals faster.”
Those services range from tokenomics to go-to-market strategy and liquidity. “People know us for tokenomics,” he says. “But after token generation events, everyone wanted market making too. So three years ago we started an OTC desk. We can amortise that cost across the portfolio, which makes us a value-added investor.”
He talks with enthusiasm about two companies he believes will lead the next phase. “Tower began as a tower-defence game, part of our history,” he says. “It’s now launching on OKX’s new CeDeFi platform. It’s a fair-launch, community-built project, completely organic. The team is excellent, and they’ve found something magical with their community.”
“The other is Nuva, a joint venture with the Providence blockchain,” he continues. “It’s focused on tokenizing real-world assets. The first products come from the Figure portfolio in the US, the only SEC-registered stablecoin yielding four percent, and a tokenized home-equity loan portfolio worth fifteen billion dollars, yielding nine percent. These are institutional assets, held by the likes of BlackRock and Goldman. We’re creating Nuva tokens backed by those vaults to democratise access. Everyone wants a nine-percent yield and 24/7 liquidity. Nuva delivers that.”
When asked about regulation, Yung doesn’t hesitate. “You don’t balance creativity and regulation,” he says. “We don’t have enough of the right kind. In the UK, everyone I speak to is smart and switched on, but the legislation still isn’t fit for purpose.” He recounts a meeting with a minister who, despite being in the treasury for a year, had never been briefed on stablecoins. “That’s frightening,” he says. “The civil service moves too slowly.”
He sees the government’s fear of stablecoins as misplaced. “A stablecoin is yield-bearing fiat,” he says. “They’re afraid of capital flight because it’s a better product. It’s actually a compliment.”
On markets, he is equally clear. “We’re in a bull market,” he says. “It doesn’t always feel like it because the money isn’t coming from traditional VCs. They’re over-extended on AI. But there’s plenty of liquidity, from hedge funds, crypto funds, and large angels who can move faster.”
For Yung, success will come when the question of adoption stops being asked. “Tether has five hundred million customers,” he says. “They’re in Argentina, Nigeria, Indonesia. That’s mass adoption, even if it’s invisible from Europe.”
Leadership, for him, is both discipline and empathy. “The hardest decisions are always about people,” he says. “When companies struggle, you can’t wait too long to act. Acting early saves more jobs than acting late.”
He ends on a personal note. “I studied economics,” he says, “but I was never taught how to read a P&L. We don’t teach financial literacy, even though it’s what keeps you alive. The younger generation is better. They’re more fluent with money, and Web3 gives them tools to manage it themselves.”
As the conversation lightens, Yung jokes that in any city in the world he can always find a Chinese restaurant, somewhere familiar, somewhere to ask for directions in Chinese. We agree that the same could be said for Irish pubs; they’re everywhere, even in The Sandbox. The first one was built over three years ago but now maybe it is time to revisit that project. Now, as The Sandbox expands, there is talk of phase two, a fuller, more connected version of the virtual Irish pub. It seems fitting: wherever there is a Chinese restaurant or an Irish pub, there is community — and that, in the end, is what Web3 is really about.
In conversation at ZebuLive 2025
