- Trung Nguyen built Axie Infinity to merge gaming with blockchain, turning passion into a global crypto gaming movement.
- Despite major setbacks, Trung Nguyen kept Sky Mavis on track, focusing on core blockchain tools and future game releases.
When Trung Nguyen started building Axie Infinity, he wasn’t just playing around. Although he initially only wanted to combine the world of gaming and blockchain, it turns out that his life changed much faster than the loading screen of an old-school game.
Born in Vietnam in 1992, Trung has been familiar with computers and digital games since childhood. But not many would have thought that his love of games would lead him to create one of the largest NFT projects in the world.
Even more interesting, he did not graduate from a foreign campus or an elite international school. Trung honed his knowledge at FPT University, one of the technology campuses in Vietnam. He also attended a high school specializing in mathematics and IT.
But his story doesn’t stop in the classroom. He started his career in the startup world at the age of 19, co-founding Lozi.vn—a social platform for food bloggers, which later transformed into an e-commerce platform. So if today he is known as the founder of Sky Mavis, it is not by chance.
Trung Nguyen: From Technology to Blockchain, and Entering the NFT Game World
After leaving Lozi, Trung worked at a financial company called Anduin Transactions. But there was a drive from within him that made him continue to explore new potential. At that time, blockchain was not as familiar as it is now, but that was what attracted him. For him, this technology had an interesting gap—not just about money, but about digital ownership that anyone could access.
In 2018, together with several colleagues, he founded Sky Mavis. His focus? Building blockchain-based games that could actually be played, not just seen as mere digital collections. From there was born Axie Infinity, an NFT game that immediately took off, especially in the Philippines and several other developing countries.
This game is not just about collecting cute characters, but also offers a play-to-earn model, where players can earn income in the form of crypto such as AXS and SLP.
However, behind this success, Trung is not free from challenges. In March 2022, Ronin Network—the blockchain network that powers Axie—experienced a massive hack, costing over $600 million. For many companies, this could have been the end of the story, but Trung chose to persevere.
He said that when he found out about the incident, he had mixed emotions. But he also realized that the only way out was to continue development.
Realistic Steps After the Peak of Popularity
On the other hand, Axie Infinity wasn’t always at the top. After the hype of 2021, public attention began to shift. People who used to play for a living began to ask themselves: “Is this sustainable?”
Trung responded by making a tough decision. By the end of 2024, Sky Mavis had cut 21 percent of its employees. But he said it wasn’t because of financial issues but rather part of streamlining focus. He wants the team to be more consistent in developing three core things: Ronin Wallet, Mavis Marketplace, and a new version of Axie Infinity scheduled to launch in 2025.
The decision is not without risk, but Trung remains optimistic. For him, the crypto world is not just about quick money projects. He believes there is a future for games that can provide real economic value to their users, without sacrificing the entertainment aspect.
Although the public is not talking about Axie as much as before, Trung is still active on social media, especially Twitter, where he shares updates and occasionally personal views.
Compared to other CEOs in the crypto industry, Trung has a slightly different style. He is not the flamboyant type who likes to appear in the media in eccentric clothes or make bombastic statements. Instead, his approach is calmer, more like “work first, make noise later.” And perhaps, that is what makes many people—especially in the Southeast Asian game and developer community—still respect him.
Although he has been called one of the most influential figures in the crypto world by international media, Trung does not seem to want to stop. Today, he’s still developing his new project with one vision: to make blockchain technology feel like a natural part of everyday gaming. Not complicated, not intimidating, but fun.
When you think about it, Trung Nguyen isn’t just a CEO. He’s a living example of how a game—which seems like a fun thing—can be a gateway for people to enter a more open digital economy.
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