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From FIFA Trader to Game Founder: How Maitham Mohamed Built Material10

FIFA Ultimate Team trading helped shape Maitham Mohamed’s interest in digital economies. Material10, founded in 2022, is his bet on a more player-driven model—but its age-19 origin claim and business model need qualification.

By TheFinanceBase Team 6 min read
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Maitham Mohamed’s reported path to Material10 began in FIFA Ultimate Team, where he learned to trade virtual players and currency when his parents would not pay for in-game purchases. That experience helps explain his interest in player-driven economies. Material10—now commonly branded M10—was founded in 2022 by Mohamed and Lars Buttler, but the available public sources do not independently verify the claim that Mohamed was 19 when it started.

How FIFA Ultimate Team introduced Mohamed to digital markets

Mohamed has described becoming intensely involved in FIFA Ultimate Team as a child. A 2024 TechTimes profile says he began around age 10 and, without parental funding for purchases, turned to trading players and virtual currency in the game’s market. VentureBeat later reported that he made money through activity in the FIFA gray market at around age 12. Those accounts describe different kinds of activity: trading within the game is not the same as selling virtual value for real money.

Reports also mention high-volume trading, arbitrage, investing in players and bots. The available coverage does not establish the precise scale of his earnings, what any automation did, or whether particular activity complied with EA’s rules. The details are best understood as attributed accounts of his early experience, not a complete or independently documented transaction history. (TechTimes; VentureBeat)

What a game market can teach—and what it cannot

FIFA Ultimate Team gave Mohamed an early view of how scarcity and player demand can create a market around digital items. Trading can reward people who notice price differences, anticipate demand or specialize in particular assets. But the publisher still sets the game’s rules and controls the environment in which those assets exist. A player may create value through time or skill without having an unrestricted right to own, transfer or sell the item.

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It is reasonable to see a connection between that experience and M10’s later interest in player economies, but the sources do not establish a single, direct moment when FIFA led him to found the company. The link is an interpretation of his reported background and the company’s stated aims—not a documented account of his private reasoning.

From finance and technology to game development

Before M10, Mohamed’s reported experience included product work at Amazon, finance and DeFi-related projects, and work associated with Nyan Heroes and NyanDAO. Company and profile pages describe him as M10’s co-founder and CEO, and Forbes lists him in its 30 Under 30 Europe, Sports & Gaming category. These roles place his gaming-economy thesis at the intersection of product design, finance and game development; they do not by themselves demonstrate that the company’s model works. (Forbes; Welcome to the Jungle; Monoceros)

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Why M10 is challenging conventional free-to-play

Free-to-play makes a game accessible without an upfront purchase, while studios commonly earn revenue through direct item sales, battle passes, loot boxes or other in-game purchases. Those mechanisms can fund ongoing development, but they also create incentives that may put spending pressure on players or tie competitive advantage to purchases. The criticism is about how a game monetizes and how that shapes play—not the mere fact that a game is free to start.

Mohamed has also been skeptical of play-to-earn models such as Axie Infinity, where token rewards can become a reason to play in their own right. If the prospect of making money eclipses the game, demand can depend more on new buyers and asset prices than on a durable player community. M10’s stated ambition is different: make competitive games first, with economic activity supporting rather than replacing the core experience. That remains an intention, not a demonstrated outcome.

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Material10’s founding—and the unverified age claim

Material10 was founded in 2022 by Mohamed and Lars Buttler, with London given as its base or association in company profiles. Mohamed is described as co-founder and CEO; Buttler is also identified as a co-founder and has held senior leadership roles. M10 is the company’s shorter public-facing brand, and it describes itself as a gaming studio and publisher. The founding year and leadership are supported by company and profile coverage; the specific assertion that Mohamed was 19 at the time is not independently established by the sources available here. (M10; Welcome to the Jungle; Monoceros)

How M10 proposes to make money

M10 describes its approach as “free-to-play 2.0.” In broad terms, the company has discussed making items available to players, enabling player-to-player trading, and taking a small fee or tax on secondary-market transactions rather than relying primarily on direct sales of items. It has also pointed to blockchain or on-chain infrastructure, including a relationship with Sui, as a way to support tradability. These are descriptions of a proposed model; M10 has not shown a mature, scaled live economy that proves the approach is sustainable. (M10; VentureBeat; Mohamed’s announcement)

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A market-based model could align some studio revenue with player activity and leave room for trading, crafting or other forms of specialization. It would not automatically make an economy fair or player-friendly. Its success depends on choices that have to be made in the game itself:

  • Supply and scarcity: Who decides how many items exist, and can the publisher create more later?
  • Fees and liquidity: What would the transaction charge be, and would enough players trade often enough to support the studio?
  • Access and fairness: Could scarce assets or wealthy traders create advantages that turn a nominally free game into a pay-to-win experience?
  • Market integrity: How would the game address bots, fraud, account theft, wash trading and coordinated price manipulation?
  • Technology and compliance: What would players need to use a wallet or move assets, and how would custody, fees, identity checks, taxes and consumer-protection rules apply?
  • Exit and control: Can players cash out or use assets elsewhere, and what happens to those assets if the game closes or its rules change?

Keeping blockchain in the background may reduce friction, but it does not settle questions about wallets, custody, transaction costs, customer support or regulation. Nor does tradability guarantee that players can freely move an asset between games. An open market can still concentrate wealth, invite speculation or make economic participation feel compulsory.

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What is known about M10’s game

Earlier company and media materials referred to a project called Project Fallen and described a competitive multiplayer shooter with squad-control elements. TechTimes reported a third-person shooter in which players could switch between squads, with a drone or “RTS-lite” mode for strategic oversight. More recent funding coverage described M10’s debut title as unannounced. Without a current first-party confirmation, Project Fallen should be treated as an earlier reported project name, not definitively as the current title or a released game. (TechTimes; VentureBeat; M10)

Experienced developers and a $3 million seed round

M10’s leadership and team include experienced game-industry figures. Buttler is associated with founding Trion Worlds. Funding coverage has also described Martin Capel as a former Ubisoft game director, with credits connected to Assassin’s Creed and the original Killzone. Broader reports cite team members’ experience on major franchises, but franchise association alone does not establish an individual’s precise role on a particular title. (VentureBeat; Capsule Computers)

In March 2025, M10 announced a $3 million seed round. Earlier profiles and databases list a 2022 financing of roughly $1.3 million to $1.5 million, so reported cumulative funding is approximately $4.3 million, depending on how the earlier financing is counted. The March 2025 announcement and coverage cite investors and partners including Sui Foundation, GSR, Big Brain Holdings, Monoceros, Blockchain Founders Fund and Presto Labs. Funding is development capital and evidence of investor interest; it is not proof of player demand, a successful launch or a sustainable economy. (VentureBeat; Welcome to the Jungle; Forbes; Monoceros)

The test is whether the game earns its economy

Mohamed’s early FIFA trading offers a vivid origin story for M10’s interest in digital markets: players already assign value to scarce items and find ways to exchange them. The company’s larger bet is that a game can recognize that activity without making speculation the main attraction. That depends on the quality of the game, how its rules distribute control and value, and whether ordinary players can participate without being pushed into financial risk. Until M10’s game and economy are operating at scale, the thesis remains a promise to test—not a result.

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