Aavegotchi (GHST) serves as the governance token for the Aavegotchi NFT Gaming protocol. Holders of the GHST token are granted voting rights within the AavegotchiDAO, responsible for managing all elements of the protocol, Aavegotchi’s main game, the Gotchiverse, and Aavegotchi NFTs. Aavegotchis are essentially pixel-art ghosts, adhering to the ERC-721 token standard. The Aavegotchi NFTs feature dynamic metadata that evolves over time through user interaction. The value and rarity of an Aavegotchi are influenced by its collateral stake, traits, and wearables. The collateral stake is an integral part of the innovative ERC721 Aavegotchi NFT, which governs an escrow contract that holds Aave-backed ERC20 collateral, known as "aToken." This collateral generates yield through Aave's LendingPool. Traits are determined by random attributes at inception, kinship, and experience (XP). The protocol is named Aavegotchi as an homage to Aave, which means “ghost” in Finnish, and it is driven by the Aave protocol, a leading DeFi lending platform. The token ticker, GHST, cleverly represents the word “ghost” without the vowel.

Aavegotchi is developed by Pixelcraft Studios, a company based in Singapore. Jesse Johnson serves as the co-founder and COO of Pixelcraft Studios. Previously, Johnson has held significant roles in various companies, including China Intop Exhibition Co and ZB Group, as director of business relations/development and manager of international market development. Coder Dan is the co-founder and CEO of Pixelcraft Studios. Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave, was the project's initial advisor. In November 2020, Aave made an investment in Pixelcraft Studios. Although the project's mainnet launch was initially set for January 4, 2021, it was postponed to March 2021 due to elevated transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain. Given that Aavegotchis require daily interaction, the Aavegotchi community opted to launch the project on Polygon, a prominent sidechain to Ethereum. On March 20, 2023, Pixelcraft Studios announced the successful conclusion of a multi-year token sale, raising $30 million in total. The sale of the $GHST token employed a decentralized fundraising model known as DAICO, which was proposed by Ethereum's founder, Vitalik Buterin. This fundraising activity began on September 14, 2020.

Each Aavegotchi NFT oversees an escrow contract that contains its "Spirit Force," also referred to as "collateral" or "aTokens," which are yield-generating tokens from the Aave Protocol. The yield produced causes the balance of an Aavegotchi’s Spirit Force to grow over time. Aavegotchis possess a minimum amount of Spirit Force, initially determined by their base rarity score. Upon activating a Portal, ten Aavegotchis with unique trait combinations are generated. Users can summon only one of these ten Aavegotchis, while the remaining nine are permanently destroyed. An Aavegotchi’s traits are determined through Chainlink VRF, an on-chain random number generator, and collectively contribute to the base rarity score. These traits also affect an Aavegotchi's rarity and its performance in the Gotchiverse game. To summon an Aavegotchi, one must stake the requisite type of Spirit Force. The minimum amount of Spirit Force required is fixed for each Aavegotchi throughout its existence. Nonetheless, there is no upper limit for the Spirit Force of each NFT. If the minimum amount is withdrawn, the Aavegotchi is expelled to the so-called Nether Realm, and the NFT is destroyed, with the collateral returned to the owner.

Aavegotchi has spearheaded several innovations and features within the NFT gaming sector. Notably, it was the first major NFT protocol to launch on Polygon. The protocol has distributed millions in rewards through its pioneering play-to-earn model called Rarity Farming, incentivizing the most engaged participants in the Aavegotchi ecosystem with GHST tokens across rarity, kinship, and experience points (XP). Aavegotchi's premier game, the Gotchiverse, has been active on the Polygon mainnet since March 2021. In the Gotchiverse, participants utilize their Aavegotchi NFTs as web3 avatars to engage in exploration, building, battling, earning, and socializing. The Gotchiverse fair-launch playdrop introduced four new ERC-20 tokens collectively referred to as Gotchus Alchemica: FUD, FOMO, ALPHA, and KEK. These tokens function as the foundational elements of the Gotchiverse and are utilized for crafting and upgrading Installation NFTs on a player's Gotchiverse land parcel. Additionally, a fifth ERC-20 token, GLTR, was created to incentivize Alchemica liquidity providers. GLTR's main function is to accelerate the crafting and upgrading processes of Installations within the Gotchiverse. Another advancement introduced by the protocol is Gotchi Lending. Gotchi lending is Aavegotchi's enhancement of the traditional scholarship model made prominent by other play-to-earn games. This feature eliminates the need for intermediaries and eliminates the risk of human error, allowing players to lend their Aavegotchi NFTs to others in a trustless manner. The Gotchi lending smart contract automatically allocates any earned tokens according to the predefined terms once the lending period concludes. In February 2022, Aavegotchi became the first NFT gaming protocol to have its governance token available as collateral on Aave. The initial cross-chain governance proposal on Aave was approved, permitting GHST to be listed as new collateral on Aave's Polygon market alongside BAL, CRV, DPI, LINK, and SUSHI.

The GHST token possesses a maximum total supply of approximately 52,747,802 tokens, established following the termination of the Bancor bonding curve model that was employed to dynamically adjust the token supply. The allocation of the GHST token is distributed as follows: 5 million GHST tokens were designated for the private sale, 500,000 were allocated for the pre-sale, and the public bonding curve sale had no limit but was voted to close under AGIP-64. Additionally, 1 million tokens were allocated to the ecosystem fund, and another 1 million tokens were allocated to the team fund.

The project operates on the Polygon blockchain and is secured through a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Validators participate in the network’s PoS consensus by staking their MATIC tokens as collateral, for which they receive MATIC tokens in return. Aavegotchi's smart contracts are open source, allowing for independent access and review to identify any errors or potential hidden vulnerabilities. These contracts have been subject to numerous audits by reputable industry experts and have maintained a record of zero exploits since their inception.

GHST is available for trading on prominent cryptocurrency exchanges. On centralized platforms, it is paired with various tokens and can be found on Binance, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKEx, MXC, and Bilaxy. Additionally, GHST is accessible on decentralized exchanges such as Quickswap and Uniswap. For more detailed trading information, please refer to Eulerpool.