Learn with paper money. Compete on live markets. Train an AI that trades for you.
1,950
people tried it, $0 marketing
13,019
trades executed on live markets
50
avg battles per signed-up user
01
The Problem
Three problems. One root cause.
Trading skill can't be verified independently. Retail traders, strategy followers,
and the next wave of AI agents all pay the price.
01 · RETAIL
50M+
traders learning by losing real money. Paying tuition in blown accounts, with nowhere to practice first.
02 · FOLLOWERS
<44%
of "top traders" produce positive follower returns. Followers are subscribing to gamblers and calling it investing.
03 · AI AGENTS
$8B+
daily perp DEX volume. AI agents (x402, Virtuals, ai16z) are entering this market autonomously with zero track record and zero trust signals.
No independent way to verify trading skill. No safe place to learn. No path from curious to paid pro. Battle Trade is all three.
02
The Solution
Start fake. Get good. Earn for real.
01 · LEARN
Paper battles
Free lessons, paper money, AI opponents. Duolingo-style progression through 60+ live markets.
02 · COMPETE
Head-to-head
Battles on live markets. Weapons, sabotage, leaderboards. Fortnite-style credit economy.
03 · PROVE
Verification
Challenges at $19-49. Pass and earn a verified badge. The FTMO model, gamified.
04 · GRADUATE
Real exchanges
Connect a real exchange. We route the order, earn 20-40% of fees. Forever.
05 · ARENA
AI agents
Trading data trains AI agents. Players battle them in tournaments.
03
Metrics
Growing without trying.
131 users who played. 47 came back 3+ times. $0 marketing spend. Pre-launch.
81
authenticated users, 30 days, $0 marketing
50
avg battles per user. Power user hit 407.
13,019
trades placed on live crypto markets
5,168
sabotage events fired (weapon system works)
ACTIVE NOW
65
live lobbies running
BATTLES
6,382
completed to date
TRADES/BATTLE
2.0
avg decisions per game
MARKETING
$0
all organic + events
04
Revenue Model
Acquire traders cheap. Route their orders forever.
The game is customer acquisition at 1/150th the industry cost. Verification builds trust. Order routing is where venture-scale marketplace revenue lives, 20-40% of routed trading fees.
STAGE 1
Game
THE WEDGE
Free paper trading battles. Credit economy monetizes engagement. Duolingo/Fortnite model.
$10
CAC vs $1,500-$10K industry
Credits, Battle Pass, balance reloads, cosmetics
STAGE 2
Verification
THE MOAT
Skill-gated challenges prove you can trade. Verified badge unlocks real-money graduation. FTMO model.
$19-49
per attempt, 60% retake rate
FTMO does $180M+ on this model alone
STAGE 3
Order Routing
THE BUSINESS
Verified traders graduate to real exchanges. We route every order. Earn 20-40% of trading fees. Forever.
20-40%
of trading fees, recurring
Robinhood: $1.8B from order flow alone
The insight: Every exchange spends $1,500-$10,000 to acquire one active trader. We do it for $10 through a game they actually want to play. Then we route their real trades and earn on every order for the life of the account.
Exchange affiliates.20-40% of routed trading fees.
Backend complete. Activating at launch.
2027+ VENTURE SCALE
+2
streams with network effects
Agent battle marketplace.Top creators build AI agents trained on competitive play. Players rent or own them to compete in tournaments. Platform takes 25% on every transaction.
Tournament economy.Verified agents compete in prize-pool tournaments. Entry fees + creator royalties + spectator markets. Revenue scales with player count, not AUM.
Exchange affiliate is the multiplier. A user who graduates and trades $50K/year at 0.1% fees generates $50 in fees. At 20-40% rev share, that's $10-20/year per user. Compounding. Forever. Heavy traders generate 10x that.
Honest caveat: These are modeled, not measured. 131 real users, $0 product revenue. The infrastructure is built and activating with Miami launch. We will have real data within 60 days.
07
Market Size
Retail derivatives are $30T.
50M+ retail traders pay $7B+ in fees every year learning a skill nobody teaches. We route the volume and own the funnel.
Proof point: FTMO does $180M+ on skill-verification challenges. That market didn't exist five years ago. No product, no leaderboard, no network. Just "prove you can trade."
08
Why Now
Four tailwinds hit at once.
01
Perp DEXs exploded
Hyperliquid averages $4-8B daily. On-chain derivatives up 50%+ YoY.
02
AI agents need trust signals
x402, Virtuals, ai16z trading real money with zero reputation. Every battle generates labeled training data. The game IS the training pipeline.
03
Trading is entertainment
50M+ traders want personal brand, verified track record, subscribers.
60% of event attendees return to the platform organically.
Product-led growth: credit economy creates daily retention loop via $500 daily top-up.
Campus activations and KOL battles scale from here. Same funnel, lower friction.
10
Venture Scale
How this gets to $100M.
Credits and events get us to $1M annual run rate. Agent battles + tournament economy + creator royalties get us to $50-80M+ in annual revenue.
AI agent marketplace(creators build, players battle)
Two-sided network(reputation attracts players)
Hearthstone: $400M peak annual revenue on competitive game economy.
The unlock: Phases 2 and 3 only work with verified competitive performance. Every battle generates data that makes the agent marketplace and tournament economy more valuable. The game isn't a sideshow. It's the engine.
11
Why We Win
Three structural moats.
01
Verified-by-competition graph
Nansen labels wallets. We label traders. Every battle compounds the graph.
02
Cross-exchange identity
Binance has had paper trading since 2020. It's dead. Education is at odds with exchange revenue. Walled gardens can't verify across venues. Only neutral infra wins this.
03
Two-sided network effects
Traders compete for reputation. Capital follows reputation. Each side makes the other more valuable.
12
Roadmap
From $15K/mo to $1M monthly run rate.
NOW
$15K
/month from events
131 users, 47 engaged
4 revenue streams built
Coinbase Miami activation
MONTH 4
$50K
/month run rate
Credit + Battle Pass live
Exchange affiliate signed
10K users
MONTH 8
$100K
/month run rate
Real-money trading live
AI agent beta
50K users
MONTH 16
$1M
/month run rate
Agent marketplace + tournament prize pools live
Multi-exchange routing
Series A ready
PRE-SEED $1.5M
SEED ~$4M
13
Team
Built this because we lived it.
Ellis Norman
CEO · FOUNDER
$200M+ revenue across crypto, commodities, and staffing.
15yr trader. CRO at Hexens ($400K to $5M ARR). $0 to $20M ARR at Adia.
Built this because he blew up his first real account and wished this existed.
Austin Fleming
CTO · CO-FOUNDER
Full-stack + Web3 engineer. CTO at Cracked Labs since Oct 2024. Prior: DeFi multi-sig infra at Stability (Solidity, React), Rust/Substrate contributor, co-owner at Flimflam Factory agency.
Shipped the entire platform in 6 months.
Hayk Kosyan
COO
16yr ops, finance, legal. 170 people, 8 countries.
4th startup. Owns legal and compliance. Negotiated every sponsor deal.
Hexens
CoinDesk
Coinbase
BNB Chain
Monad
Nansen
Hyperliquid
Alchemy
Thirdweb
14
The Ask
$1.5M
SAFE + token warrant · $15M post-money cap
First check locked (Hexens) · closing into Consensus Miami.
55% Product
20% Marketing
10% Legal
15% Ops
$500K
cumulative event revenue (Oct '25 to date)
81 / 50
users, 50 battles each. Engagement depth.
May 5
Consensus Miami
15
Let's scale.
The product works. The people who find it don't leave.