Fighting organization Karate Combat is set to launch a Hedera layer-2 network called UP in Q1 2025. This will enable the league to license its “Up Only Gaming” tech stack that powers its app to other sports, leagues, and projects—maybe even meme coins.
Karate Combat, which counts MMA legends Bas Rutten and Georges St-Pierre as ambassadors, has grown in popularity in recent years thanks, in part, to its push into crypto and its token-hungry user base. Karate Combat’s mobile and web app allows users to wager KARATE tokens on upcoming fights. Bet correctly and you win KARATE tokens; bet incorrectly, and you lose nothing.
The crypto-powered app, alongside entertaining fights by professional athletes and crypto influencers, has fueled Karate Combat’s recent success, pseudonymous co-founder “Onlylarping” told Decrypt in an interview. And now, the organization wants to let other projects get a slice of the pie.
“Over the last year, we’ve had a decent amount of demand from other sports, leagues, teams, esports teams, poker tournaments, gambling products, fantasy sports, startups to either license or copy what we built,” Onlylarping told Decrypt. “We’re already very heavily motivated to spread ‘Up Only Gaming’ outside of Karate Combat.”
There are currently 20 to 30 projects set to launch on the company’s forthcoming layer-2 network, the co-founder said, and Karate Combat still hopes to onboard several more before the L2 goes live.
For now, the pool of projects that might use the UP network is wide open, Onlylarping said, even inviting meme coins to join the party. He added, however, that there may be a future in which a big partner asks for exclusivity in a category.
Apps launched using Up Only Gaming will record transactions on the UP layer-2 network. This doesn’t mean, however, that these projects must launch a token on UP or Hedera. Instead, users will be able to deposit other tokens onto the app, and the app will create a synthetic version to use.
