Axie Infinity, an Ethereum-based gaming platform based around NFT creatures, has been making headlines in the crypto world over the past few days. The blockchain-based game and digital marketplace offer its native token (AXS), which players use to purchase, breed, and trade the platform’s token-based creatures dubbed axies.
The Crypto Behind the Social Media Frenzy
The platform’s play-to-earn model, which monetizes the breeding of new NFT creatures, has resulted in a strong community in various countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Launched by Vietnam startup Sky Mavis in 2018 as a mobile-first blockchain game, Axie Infinity has received over $13M in investment from companies such as Consensys and Animoca Brands. Celebrity entrepreneur and billionaire Mark Cuban has also reportedly injected capital into the blockchain-powered project.
The growing demand for axie has created a booming gaming-NFT economy, causing AXS prices to soar. In the last two weeks alone, the token has quadrupled in price to hit $11 and hit a market value of about $638M.
DappRadar now ranks Axie Infinity as the biggest NFT marketplace, with over 50,000 gamers moving approximately $80 million in tokens over the past week. These impressive stats mean that Axie has managed to outperform other NFT heavyweights such as CryptoPunks and OpenSea.
What Is Behind Axie Infinity’s Raging Success?
The primary reason for Axie’s unprecedented success is its self-sustaining economic model that requires newcomers to buy at least three NFT creatures to play and earn. On the other hand, the platform incentivizes players already in the game to breed new creatures and sell them for a profit.
Players use AXS tokens to trade axies or earn rewards by battling their peers. AXS holders can also stake their coins to earn weekly rewards and use their tokens to participate in governing the protocol.
The blockchain game’s play-to-earn setup has resulted in an explosion in its player base. According to a recent tweet from Sky Mavis, the platform has now surpassed 350,000 daily active users.
Axie’s growing popularity has resulted in its gaming NFTs skyrocketing in value; the cheapest creature now trades for $200, with some of the rarer ones (mystic-class) costing nearly $50K.
The platform generates revenue from axie breeding fees, axie sales, land sales, and marketplace fees. A portion of this income is placed in the game’s treasury. The treasury is governed by the community rather than the game developers.
Axie Infinity Outshines Established DeFi Protocols
The crypto community is buzzing about Axie’s recent growth, which has seen the NFT project host over $170M in trading volume over the past 30 days.
The blockchain-based battling and trading game has surpassed the revenue raked in by other well-known protocols over the past 30 days.
“Axie generated more revenue than Metamask, Pancakeswap, Synthetix, MakerDAO, and Curve COMBINED,” tweeted Jeffrey Zirlin, co-founder at Sky Mavis.
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