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What is SAND?

SAND is an ERC-20 token with a hard cap of three billion, created for The Sandbox, a user-generated gaming platform whose map is divided into LAND NFTs and whose content is built by players with the platform's free creation tools. Whatever gets made, from wearable assets to full games, can be sold for SAND.

The token was deployed on Ethereum in 2019, sold to the public through a Binance Launchpad offering in August 2020, and bridged to Polygon in late 2021, where the marketplace and staking now run to keep transaction costs low.

How SAND works

SAND moves through the platform's economy. Marketplace purchases of assets, avatars and LAND settle in SAND, and The Sandbox takes a 2.5% cut of each marketplace sale, which supplies the foundation funding the Game Maker Fund, creator rewards and staking programs.

The project operates its own bridge for moving SAND and LAND between Ethereum and Polygon, and its documentation lists the Polygon deployment at 0xbbba073c31bf03b8acf7c28ef0738decf3695683 as the token used in staking and most marketplace activity. Routine actions on Polygon are subsidized through gasless transactions.

SAND supply and tokenomics

Supply is capped at 3,000,000,000 SAND with no minting beyond it. Distribution came through a seed round in 2019, a strategic sale in July 2020, the Binance Launchpad sale of 360 million tokens, 12% of supply, in August 2020, and reserves for the company, team and ecosystem programs released on multi-year vesting.

There is no burn mechanism built into the token; the platform's fee take recycles into creator funding and rewards instead. Season events, LAND sales and marketplace activity are what move SAND between players, creators and the company.

Who builds SAND

The Sandbox began as a 2012 mobile game by Pixowl, the studio founded by Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget. Animoca Brands acquired Pixowl in 2018 and moved the brand to a blockchain metaverse under TSB Gaming, a subsidiary it controls, with Madrid and Borget leading the crypto-era product.

The company raised 93 million dollars in November 2021 to expand the platform, and it has grown the ecosystem through brand partnerships across music, fashion and entertainment that publish experiences on LAND.

How SAND is governed

The Sandbox DAO launched on 28 May 2024 as an off-chain governance layer in which SAND and LAND holders vote on Sandbox Improvement Proposals covering treasury use, grants and platform features. The rollout was phased, with the team curating proposals in the first stages and community submissions planned from phase three.

The DAO advises and allocates within the scope the company gives it: TSB Gaming, under Animoca Brands, still owns the platform, its intellectual property and the token reserves, so SAND voting is one input rather than final control.

What people use SAND for

SAND is the currency of everything tradeable in The Sandbox, and holding it is the entry ticket to the platform's reward programs.

• Buy and sell ASSETs, avatars and experiences on The Sandbox marketplace.
• Pay for LAND in primary sales and secondary trades.
• Stake SAND on Polygon, with multipliers for LAND owners.
• Vote on Sandbox Improvement Proposals through the Sandbox DAO.

SAND risks and considerations

SAND depends on one game platform staying relevant. Metaverse activity and LAND demand have swung widely since 2021, and the token gives no claim on Animoca Brands or TSB Gaming revenue, so its usefulness rests on platform usage.

Company-held reserves are large, governance is advisory rather than controlling, and the same brand name covers two deployments, so anyone trading SAND should distinguish the Ethereum contract from the Polygon one and treat SAND on any other network as a third-party bridge product.