It’s likely that you have given Axie Infinity’s comeback some thought if you have been reviewing your cryptocurrency holdings with an eye toward solid earnings you can rely on. It is widely used and has a strong play-to-earn ecosystem. The circulating supply of its native cryptocurrency, AXS, is modest. Will a sound recovery occur during the following bull-market rally, though?
Play-to-earn mechanisms were pioneered by Axie Infinity, one of the earliest crypto projects. Its method attracted a sizable user base, which in turn helped the platform expand rapidly. Axie’s native cryptocurrency, AXS, capitalized on this expansion, and it became so popular that its value eventually reached a high of $166. But since then, strong sell-offs have prevailed, driving the price down to around $16.
The massive price drop may be seen as a bargaining opportunity by crypto whales. Now that the initial excitement over the new project has subsided, however, some may doubt AXS’s ability to spark yet another rally.
But first, for anyone who has been hiding under a rock for the past few years, let’s give an overview of what Axie Infinity is.
What is Axie Infinity?
Sky Mavis, a game developer, came up with the idea for Axie Infinity in 2018, and Trung Nguyen and Aleksander Larsen helped to start the company. The in-game cryptocurrency Axie Infinity is marketed to players as if it were fully theirs to keep and use in the virtual pet world. The fact that everything in the game is a token makes it easy for players to buy, sell, and trade it for virtual currency.
Players in Axie Infinity can collect, breed, raise, and trade Axies, digital creatures represented by tokens, in a game inspired by anime and real-time games like Pokémon and Tamagotchi. The Axies of the players can also be used in combat against one another.
As a player-owned economy, Axies can be owned, bought, sold, and traded by players, and third parties have easy access to all art assets and Axie genetic data. Because of this, community developers can create Axie Infinity Universe-based tools and content.
The game features more than 500 unique parts, including aquatic, animal, bird, bug, plant, and reptile species. Axies are divided into common, rare, ultra-rare, and legendary categories.
What is the gameplay like in Axie Infinity?
These concepts form the basis of the gameplay, and players can acquire more resources to progress in the game by
- fighting to earn Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens and leaderboard prizes
- breeding Axies to produce offspring with distinct bodily features
- acquiring and trading rare or special Axies.
Each Axie has its own unique characteristics as a non-fungible token (NFT). This is necessary to take part in 3v3 battles, finish quests, defeat bosses, and gain access to the game’s extensive backstory. Gaining experience through challenges and victories allows Axies to improve their statistics and acquire better equipment.
As an added bonus, these Axies can be bred to create new and distinct offspring that can be used in-game or traded with other players on the Axie market. In addition to having its own special card art for players to collect, the Axie’s body parts play an important role in the game.
The fact that the Axie Infinity universe engages players through its social network and earning platform sets it apart from other real-time games like Pokémon GO. Plus,
- The community has the chance to truly own the resources acquired through the games
- The blockchain’s economic structure makes it possible to build intricate player-owned economies and rewards players with higher skill levels
The idea of “playing to earn” is brought to life by all of this.
What happened to Axie Infinity? Why did it fall?
Axie Infinity’s AXS coin has experienced a year-to-date (YTD) decline of over 81% from its opening price of $93.30 on January 1 to a recent close of $17.29.
Although likely an exaggeration, some are saying the fall of Axie Infinity’s value is “The Biggest Crash in NFT History”.
In November 2021, AXS hit an all-time high of $165.37, but as of this writing, it was trading more than 90% below that amount.
Is Axie Infinity a legit NFT Game?
Yes! It’s true what they say about Axie Infinity. It’s legit!
Although turn-based combat, farming, and breeding are present, the game’s nature is much more complicated. Given that it has gamified crypto enthusiasts’ trading experiences, it can be regarded as revolutionary in the modern gaming industry. Contrary to conventional games that were only designed for entertainment and stress relief, the platform’s earning potential makes it a wise investment choice for many people, especially gamers.
Fortunately, by signing up as a scholar, you can play for free and make a respectable income. But if you want to get started and create your own team, you’ll need to invest a lot of money in three pricey Axies in a constantly shifting market. The most expensive Axie ever sold was a triple mystic named Angel that went for ETH300, or about US$120,000 at the time, in late 2020. A piece of in-game real estate sold in early 2021 for US$1.5 million.
However, you must exercise caution when managing your assets, much like you would with any other financial instrument. To be clear, we are not financial advisors, and nothing in this article should be construed as financial advice. Similar to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the price of SLP is incredibly volatile, increasing the likelihood that investors will lose money.
What are Axie Infinity Shards? ($AXS)
Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) are a community-controlled governance token in the Axie Infinity ecosystem that ensures the integrity of the treasury and the openness of financial transactions.
With Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, the AXS token is safe to use because it is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. Axie Infinity moved the NFT tokens (Axies, Land, and other in-game token items) from the Loom Network to the Ronin sidechain on Ethereum at the beginning of 2021. Ronin is an Axie Infinity-specific application sidechain that can facilitate scaling by facilitating near-instant transaction confirmations and lower gas fees.
Did all of Axie Infinity’s Players Leave?
While more erratic and perhaps uneducated users jumped out, the diehard players and bullish investors stayed. In addition, a lot of people played Axie for financial gain rather than for fun. When the good times ended, and there were too many players, it seemed that newcomers left because the rewards were so small. Meanwhile, the dedicated fan base remained to create the Axie Infinity adventure’s subsequent phase.
The Axie Infinity Hacking Scandal
The company has experienced a number of challenges in 2022, most notably a $625 million hacking scandal in March that was followed by the coin falling by 54% in April.
A CoinDesk article claims that hackers targeted the game’s power source, Sky Mavis’ Ronin Network validator nodes, and Axie DAO validators. The result was that the hackers were able to flee with 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC. The unidentified hackers removed all of the money from the Ronin bridge in two transactions.
In order to stop unauthorized transactions, Ronin continued, the chain now has nine validator nodes, and any withdrawals or deposits call for the validation of five validatory signatures. In November, Ronin gave Sky Mavis permission to sign contracts in order to meet the high demand from brand-new Axie players.
Although this only persisted until December, the attacker was able to gain access to Sky Mavis systems and use Ronin’s gas-free RPC node to obtain a signature from the Axie DAO validator. By doing this, the hacker was able to gain validation access to this highly centralized network and take control of the majority of nodes, giving them the ability to make decisions.
Where are the stolen funds now?
The stolen funds are still in the hacker’s wallet, and Sky Mavis is working with Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company, to locate them. Ronin added that all partners are currently working to ensure that users do not experience a financial loss.
In order to stop further loss, additional measures are also being taken. For instance, it now requires eight signatures rather than five to recognize a withdrawal or deposit. The Ronin Bridge has temporarily been stopped in addition to Binance turning off their bridge to and from Ronin. A similar suspension was made for the Katana DEX. Sadly, none of this has stopped their AXS token’s price from plummeting since the attack.
However, there was some relief for the AXS price in early May when it increased by 10% in a single day after the release of its token burn tool for its SLP in-game token.
Barrier to entry is incredibly high
We’ve said it before – that Axie Infinity can be said to have “turned something fun (gaming) into a business.”
Now, that’s not all bad. But, the excessively high entry barrier is one of the game’s biggest problems. Despite the fact that Axie Infinity can be downloaded for free, players must start with at least three Axies, each of which costs at least $29. Some players might be discouraged from ever starting the game because of the prohibitively high initial cost.
Axie Infinity has a free-to-play component, though, which partially resolves this problem. Free-to-play players are still not allowed to significantly advance or profit from their play.
Claims of digital exploitation
Due to the prohibitive cost of entry, there are active communities on both Discord and Telegram where would-be players can find sponsors to help them get started. Unfortunately, sponsors sometimes impose unreasonable conditions before providing any assistance to players. Axie Infinity, for one, had to address allegations that some sponsors had requested players submit nude photos in exchange for Axie Infinity prizes.
“Scholarship” practice that led to further exploitation
Another controversial practice was the so-called “Scholarship,” in which players with low starting funds (known as “Scholars”) would borrow Axies from “Managers” in exchange for a large portion of their in-game earnings. Some situations even saw a 50:50 split between Scholars and Managers.
It was widely known that people in the Philippines would leave their jobs to pursue professional Axie due to the lucrative financial rewards it offered. In 2021, when Axie was at its most popular, many scholarship “guilds” were formed, with some boasting more than 3,000 players who actively competed in a variety of games for their Managers.
When employees don’t meet their quotas, some managers threaten to take away their scholarships. Axie Infinity’s business model has been likened to “digital serfdom,” or modern exploitation in the digital domain, due to the low wages paid to Filipino employees (the average salary is $3,218).
For his part, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, co-founder, and COO of Sky Mavis, compared Axie Infinity to a digital nation, suggesting that criminals exist in any civilization. Which may be a tad tone deaf.
That said, the COO has admitted that this is an internal issue and that “several thousand” accounts have been banned from the service as a result.
How has Axie Infinity been trying to make a comeback?
Sky Mavis saw this coming and promptly set to work on a number of changes and additions to the Axie Infinity ecosystem, among them a promise to revamp the battle system and the introduction of land-based gameplay. Moreover, add resources and enable upgradeable components. What’s more, SLP would be central to these innovative new offerings.
Axie Infinity is capitalizing on its established position in the play-to-earn market by increasing its emphasis on the metaverse. The blockchain initiative is currently offering a metaverse project where users can buy virtual land and construct virtual buildings. As for the company’s attention to blockchain-based gaming, it has just launched a new product called Origin.
The fact that Axie Infinity seems determined to keep expanding after its initial success bodes well for the company’s prospects. As the Axie Infinity ecosystem matures, the cryptocurrency will gain more leverage as a result of its increased practicality.
Reasons Axie Infinity Will Make a Comeback and Rise Again
There will probably be a huge comeback of the Axie Infinity at some point in the future. Even today, it stands as the undisputed king of NFT gaming. Despite these challenges, many in the gaming community see hope for the future of Axie Infinity. There are those who think the platform’s long-term success is guaranteed by its rapidly expanding user base. The rising value of AXS tokens, thanks to the rising popularity of Axie Infinity, has led many to believe that the cryptocurrency has no real competitors. In addition, it has recently added features and partnered with organizations that will increase its ecosystem’s value and popularity, thereby increasing the AXS price. For example:
Axie Infinity Making a Comeback With Axie Infinity Builders Program
The company introduced the Axie Infinity Builders Programme in January of this year. Players and developers can now experiment with Axie’s resources thanks to this.
On top of Axie Infinity, community developers will have access to resources, promotion, support, and tools that were created specifically to assist them. A minimum grant of $5,000 in AXS is available as part of the program, and there are a total of 5,000 AXS (or roughly $80,000) in grants available.
In addition to Sky Mavis promoting the project to the community, the project team will have exclusive access to integrations like Ronin SSO, Ronin Network testnet, and Ronin Wallet. Early minigames like Flappy Axie and Axie Sushi were produced as a result of earlier creativity programs, and they helped promote community engagement in 2018 and 2019.
It’s important to note that the program prioritizes developing the Axie Infinity ecosystem over improving the base game. Sky Mavis wants to encourage the community to produce more Axie-branded games and tools. These tools include data tracking tools as well as Axie-themed minigames like chess and tower defense. These games will need to burn SLP or send AXS to the community treasury, as well as use either AXS or SLP.
Partnership with MetaMask Will Drive a Significant Axie Infinity Comeback
Axie has a partnership with MetaMask, a cryptocurrency software wallet, to enable easy transactions and marketplace navigation.
VeraESports Exposure Will Make Axie Infinity Rise Again
More recent AXS coin news includes the expansion of the partnership between AXS and the esports and video streaming service VeraEsports in February 2022, which gave Axie exposure in the world of blockchain gaming.
Official Exchange Partnership with Bit2Me will Boost Sponsored Events
Bit2Me was named the official exchange partner for Axie Infinity players in Southern Europe and Latin America in March in an effort to foster community growth and engagement. Axie will be able to promote and sponsor events in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America thanks to Bit2Me, the creator of the B2M token and the only cryptocurrency exchange recognized by the Bank of Spain.
Axie’s Much-Anticipated ‘Releasing’ Feature Arrived
The launch of a highly anticipated in-game feature was also announced by the studio. There’s hope these new features secure an Axie Infinity comeback.
Players can now release their Axies so they can live independently in Lunacia. Technically speaking, this implies that players will eliminate their own Axie creatures. Their Axies will send back unique gifts in exchange. These gifts will initially take the form of limited-edition Land items for the Lunar New Year. Players will be able to display these cosmetic items on their Land.
The owner’s wallet will also be entered into a raffle when an Axie is released into the wild, which is significant in addition to the guaranteed exclusive gift. The 111 players who won the raffle will also receive five Axie Origin Coin (AOC) tokens, ten Kitsune Mystic Land items, and one hundred CoinGecko or Ganbaru CrypTon Epic Land items.
Following these announcements, user wallets for Axie Infinity increased by almost 20%, while activity among Katana users increased by almost 40%. Additionally, the burning of NFTs had the desired outcome because Axie once more rose to the top of the DappRadar game rankings.
Is Axie Infinity still profitable in 2022?
In short-term? No. Despite the fact that Axie’s income has been steadily declining since late last year, it started to decline much more suddenly in March 2022. Axie made $184,500 on March 1st, down from $2.1 million on January 19th, according to Token Terminal statistics. Revenue on March 25th was under $10,000.
In the long-term? It’s much more likely. Axie is a titan in the NFT gaming industry, and once a bull market cycle reappears, it will probably take the lead once more. Players and holders must simply wait it out.
Will Axie Infinity’s price go up again?
We can get a glimpse of the coin’s future trajectory by looking at price predictions for Axie Infinity (AXS) from 2025 to 2030.
What Expert Analysts Predict on if AXS coins are still a good long-term investment
Possibly bright prospects exist for AXS. The foundation of Axie Infinity emphasizes the importance of the community and how it is motivated to work with the core development team to expand the network.
According to Gov. Capital, the coin could reach $208.868 in a year and $1,647.351 in five years.
By the end of 2022, DigitalCoinPrice expects the price of the Axie Infinity coin to be $20.93, with projections for the years 2023 to 2026 being $23.39, $23.74, $30.07, and $28.03, respectively. AXS could reach $71.73.2 by 2030.
WalletInvestor’s forecasting algorithm gave a negative outlook for Axie Infinity in its prediction of the price of the AXS coin. The long-term earning potential of the coin was predicted by analysts to be $3.692 in a year. The website estimated that after five years, it might be worth $0.336. For 2030, there was no AXS price forecast.
For the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, PricePrediction.net’s prediction was much more bullish, expecting the token to average $26.71, $39.20, $59.21, and $86.87, respectively. Prices could be poised to reach $556.99 by 2030. Fingers crossed this is a signal of Axie Infinity ‘s comeback.
How are Axie Infinity’s Competitors Faring?
Axie Infinity had initially been upstaged by a number of rivals, including Crypto Kitties and Decentraland. However, the time has come for these alternative play-to-earn ecosystems to profit from Axie’s disgruntled users. Popular alternatives may make use of the current Axie Infinity downturn to remodel or release fresh options, luring Axie users away from the platform.
It might be a good time for new games to be released, or at the very least to satisfy gamers’ appetites, given all the commotion going on in the GameFi world right now. Options include enhancing security, expanding gaming options, making play-to-earn options more accessible, and developing immersive games that can rival Axie Infinity. If competitors have low to no financial entry barriers, Axie Infinity might find it challenging to recover once the bull market resumes in full force.
Conclusion – is it time to abandon Axie Infinity?
It’s significant to note that the majority of AXS holders are still in the red.
However, even though investors are still worried about further potential downside, it appears that AXS is well-positioned for a long-term bullish recovery. The future is still up in the air regarding the Axie Infinity comeback, and a lot can happen along the way.
The Fate of AXS
AXS’s future is dependent on its fundamentals, despite the fact that being based on a particular game has drawbacks, the most significant of which is that players lose interest if new tasks or scenarios are not added.
While you wait for Axie Infinity’s comeback to come around, we’ve got plenty of other play-to-earn games for you to jump into. Plus, keep an eye out for the world’s first metaverse RPG for mobile.
