Sebastien Borget Net Worth: Inside The Sandbox Founder’s Wealth

Sebastien Borget is one of the pioneers of non-fungible token (NFT) technology with an incredibly successful career as a tech entrepreneur. Along with his co-founders, he masterminded the creation of an innovative metaverse platform, The Sandbox, and he still serves as its Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Borget revolutionized on-chain gaming with The Sandbox and inspired many of the most popular projects in the industry and he made a fortune in the process. In the article below, we detail Borget’s net worth, early life, career, missteps, investments, and more.

Borget’s net worth is likely in the neighborhood of $100 million, although this is just an estimate given that he rarely discloses his finances. In 2018, his company Pixowl was acquired by Animoca Brands for $4.8 million, along with shares of its own company. Borget co-founded the company with Arthur Madrid. Borget’s salary at The Sandbox is not public, but the company is valued at $1 billion.

He is now considered one of the most influential web3 entrepreneurs, alongside pioneers like Changpeng Zhao, Vitalik Buterin, and Gavin Wood.

Sebastien Borget’s Early Life and Career

Borget is a self-proclaimed “tech geek” who became passionate about video games from a young age, spending hours and hours on his Super Nintendo console. Naturally, he wanted to follow his passion, so he attended one of the top French engineering schools of higher education – Télécom SudParis – where he earned a degree in computer system networking and telecommunications.

After finishing his BS, he attained a Master’s Degree in the same field from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, graduating in the mid 2000s. During this time, he interned at Motorola Mobility.

In 2007, Borget started working with his friend Arthur Madrid. They founded three companies together, and exited two successfully before moving into the mobile gaming space.

Building The Sandbox

The Sandbox is a metaverse gaming platform designed to host user-generated content. Players can buy build experiences and monetize digital assets as NFTs. The platform offers a no-code tool to make content generation accessible, making it one of the most popular on-chain games. Players can also buy digital parcels of land (dubbed LAND) or earn rewards in SAND, the ecosystem’s utility token.

Ever dreamed of owning LAND in the metaverse? 😴💭🌎

Now's your chance to turn that dream into reality! 🙌

Head over to our Discord for all the details on how you can earn your own virtual plot in The Sandbox 👉 https://t.co/Eggb7rBai8

— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) February 20, 2025

In simpler terms, The Sandbox is an online world where the players create the content, including games and 3D illustrations. They can buy and sell that content using SAND tokens.

The platform uses a building block system called voxels, which are like 3D pixels. These cubes allow players to create whatever they want in a blocky, Minecraft-like style.

The Origins of The Sandbox

In 2011, Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget founded Pixowl, a startup that developed family mobile games like Snoopy’s Town Tale, The Addams Family Mystery, Garfield, and Goosebumps Horror Town. Pixowl hired a developer named Pablo Iglesias (aka Onimatrix), who had a personal project called The Sandbox. At that time, the game had 800 thousand views and several thousand worlds. Pixowl worked with Onimatrix to adapt the game for mobile and launched a public beta in March 2012.

In 2016, The Sandbox Evolution was launched. In this version, participants could build their own games and transact with an in-game currency. The mobile game was a massive hit and it ultimately gained 40 million downloads and 70 million player creations. However, Pixowl struggled to retain creators because the App Store and Google Play did not allow the company to share revenue .

Around this time, Borget started thinking about blockchain technology, and he started mining Bitcoin at home. He was inspired by the first blockchain game, CryptoKitties, which let participants buy, trade, and breed NFT cats.

Before I owned any crypto, I had heard about Crypto Kitties. And now I have my very own thanks to@rudem00se 😍

Thank you for my @CryptoKitties , I love her! pic.twitter.com/0hCR5EDv9F

— MadPotters (@MadPottersBK) September 6, 2024

Borget said in an interview that he was really excited about three aspects of the game. Firstly, players bought the cats from other players rather than from the gaming company. Secondly, they bought the cats on an external marketplace (OpenSea) rather than in the game itself. And thirdly, the paid for the cats using cryptocurrency, rather than a credit card. He realized that these factors could solve many of the problems he had faced in game development.

Soon after, Borget and Madrid decided to rebuild The Sandbox as a decentralized, 3D multiplayer experience with virtual land, user-generated NFTs, and its own token.

Acquisition and Growth

The founders pitched to more than 100 investors before they were offered seed funding by Animoca Brands and, in 2018, Pixowl was acquired by Animoca Brands, a collection of web3 businesses headquartered in Hong Kong. The game was redeveloped for web browsers, incorporating blockchain technology. In November 2023, an Alpha version of The Sandbox was made available to the public.

The company expanded by launching lots of small, regional offices, rather than one large centralized, in order to form strategic partnerships in key Asian markets. This was partly because they discovered that the game was particularly well-received in Asia. The Sandbox has also made several acquisitions over the years, including tech company Cualit (acquired May 2022) and German game development studio Svipe (acquired Feb 2023).

The game now has over 6.3 million users with a wallet (up from just 2.1 million in 2022), more than 1 thousand user-generated experiences, and has facilitated the sale of over 350 thousand NFTs. The Sandbox has also been listed as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies.

Funding Rounds

In 2019, The Sandbox received two cash injections: $3.6 million in cash and cryptocurrency earlier in the year in a round led by Hashed and another $2 million in Q3 from Square Enix, B Cryptos, and others.

In November 2021, the company raised another $93 million in a round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, marking the fund’s first foray into the crypto world. The platform used the money to expand its brand partnerships.

In June 2024, The Sandbox raised $20 million at a $1 billion valuation cap in a funding round led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands. They plan to use the money to update creator tools, introduce new social interactions, and expand gameplay possibilities.

Brand Partnerships

The Sandbox has partnered with more than 200 brands to bring creative new experiences into The Sandbox. The Walking Dead brand created locations and NFTs based on the television series. A digital version of Paris Hilton even hosted an in-game dating reality show in The Sandbox. Love Island, Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, and Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen are all brand partners with content in The Sandbox.

🧟 Walkers have infested @TheSandboxGame!
Get your LAND – Wave 2 is this Thursday! With new locations and #NFTs each week!https://t.co/jZkA68mDGI pic.twitter.com/reRPgbfvHX

— The Walking Dead (@TheWalkingDead) August 30, 2021

Snoop Dogg is one of the most popular celebrity presences on the platform. As of 2022, the rapper and producer’s NFTs go for around $475 each, and one fan spent $450 thousand to buy a plot of virtual land in Snoopverse, his virtual neighborhood.

The company’s partnerships go beyond pop culture to more straitlaced brands like HSBC. In 2022, the bank announced that it would acquire a plot of virtual real estate in The Sandbox to engage players. The British Museum has also partnered with The Sandbox to create an immersive virtual experience and a range of NFT collectibles.

Immerse yourself in a world of history, art, and culture of the @britishmuseum 🇬🇧 as digital collectibles and metaverse experiences…inside The Sandbox!

In collaboration with @LaCollectionOffhttps://t.co/ksihwcbUFf

— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) July 27, 2023

DAO

In May 2024, The Sandbox launched a DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organization. A DAO is a blockchain-based organizational structure that has no centralized authority but instead allows members to participate in decision-making through voting. Anyone with SAND tokens or LAND NFTs (virtual parcels of land in The Sandbox) can vote on improvement proposals for the platform. All decisions are recorded transparently on the blockchain.

A batch of proposals is launched every other Wednesday, including suggestions for new gameplays, upcoming platform events, and defining players’ status based on their LAND or NFT holdings.

Alpha Season 4

The Sandbox runs an annual event where a collection of experiences are released for a limited time period. Alpha Season 4 took place in October 2024 and included over 100 experiences created by brand partners and UGC creators and the opportunity to earn $2.5 million in SAND rewards.

Borget’s Other Roles

Since 2020, Borget has served as President of the Blockchain Gaming Alliance (BGA). The BGA is a coalition of blockchain and game companies, including around 250 key players in the industry. The non-profit advocates for blockchain technology in the gaming industry. As president of this group, the French entrepreneur is center stage of the campaign for greater adoption of blockchain by game developers.

Borget is also the co-founder of ArtVerse, an art gallery and cultural hub located in Paris. Artverse, launched in 2024, aims to bridge the gap between physical and digital art.

He is one of the investors who supports the Blockchain Founders Fund, an organization that aims to empower entrepreneurs building with blockchain technology.

Borget’s Vision for the Metaverse

In a speech at the Upbit Developer Conference 2022 in Busan, Borget outlined his vision for the metaverse. He explained that in the future, it will be possible to do anything that we do in the real world in the metaverse. In other words, people will be able to work, learn, and socialize in the metaverse. He noted that The Sandbox already allowed participants to discover new art, visit museums, attend shows, and experience fashion. He added that a couple had already held their wedding in The Sandbox.

According to Borget, literally millions of jobs will be created by the expansion of the metaverse, including roles for architects, interior designers, fashion designers for avatars, game designers, curators, tour guides, animators, and community managers. He is also eager to push interoperability and some NFTs from other platforms can already be used as avatars in The Sandbox.

Sebastien Borget’s Crypto and NFT Holdings

There is no doubt that Sebastien Borget owns cryptocurrencies and NFTs, but his holdings are not public knowledge. He frequently mentions Bitcoin and NFTs on his X (formerly Twitter) account. He even joked that his one and four-year-old children were using Bitcoin, Ethereum, and NFTs.

My 4 and 1 years old are already using Bitcoin and Ethereum and Non-Fungible Tokens #NFTs 😁 #CryptoCollectibles @CryptoKaijuIO pic.twitter.com/nvO22emmdc

— Sebastien 🏞 (@borgetsebastien) August 17, 2019

Borget has also previously Tweeted about some of his NFT purchases, including 2 Kaijus, an NFT wine, Gucci assets from The Sandbox marketplace, and a Cordon Bleu Cognac Bottle.

Today I went shopping for @Gucci NFTs on @TheSandboxGame marketplace and I bought almost one of each 😍https://t.co/rwDzlzjlRl pic.twitter.com/WAVH1g2bOw

— Sebastien 🏞 (@borgetsebastien) October 28, 2022

Sebastian Borget Net Worth: Our Verdict

Sebastien Borget started out as a self-proclaimed tech geek and simply followed his passions. He has since established himself as a key figure in the blockchain gaming industry, pioneering the integration of decentralized technology into interactive digital worlds. While his crypto and NFT holdings are not known, he is no-doubt an early-adopter of blockchain technology and an outspoken fan of Bitcoin and Etherisum. He has also shared some of his NFT purchases on social media.

The majority of Borget’s net worth likely comes from his co-ownership of The Sandbox. Following a $4.8 million exit from Pixowl, his mobile gaming company, Borget built The Sandbox into a fast-growing unicorn with over 6 million users and a wealth of high-profile brand partnerships.

His leadership in the Blockchain Gaming Alliance and other ventures like ArtVerse further emphasize his commitment to the broader adoption of blockchain technology. In the years to come, as the metaverse concept matures and more industries experiment with virtual worlds, Borget’s influence will likely continue to expand alongside his net worth.

FAQs