Republic is the third largest Equity Crowdfunding Portal in the US and owner of the UK’s largest portal, Seedrs. In March 2021, they launched the Republic Realm Metaverse Real Estate Fund, which is available exclusively to a handful of accredited investors. In December 2021 they launched a Test the Waters (TTW) Regulation A campaign to open it up to all investors. It was incredibly popular, surpassing the entire $75 million reservation ceiling in a very short time.

The fund mainly focuses on buying virtual properties in NFT games like Sandbox, Axie Infinity and Decentraland. Once purchased, the property will be held for the long-term while expanding into virtual malls, event spaces, and other communities. Similar to real estate, these types of communities can generate “rents” and provide ongoing income for the fund. That means the fund’s investors will receive dividends like a regular real estate investor would, and if the Metaverse land appreciates in value, they can eventually sell it for a big payday.

However, what likely attracted these $75 million investments is the fund’s incredible performance. Between its initial launch in March and its Regulation A raise in December, the fund returned 145% on invested capital.

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But not everything seems to be going so well since then. Crypto-based assets have fallen significantly since their 2021 highs, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been cracking down on the space since FTX collapsed. In addition, the increase is now in limbo and has not been able to accept investor funds since December 2021.

Now the SEC has officially shut it down, so the fund won’t make any progress. In a recent update, Republic said:

“Based on the feedback we have received from the SEC, as well as other regulatory events that have occurred since this process began, we do not see any…