Where’s the Crypto Market Heading as We Near 2022? Top Most Promising GameFi Tokens

Crypto investors who pinned their faith on the prediction that Bitcoin would soar to $100,000 by the year-end now have to reconcile themselves to the reality that there won’t be a Santa Claus rally before the year is out. After it went above $69K in November, Bitcoin’s price retraced greatly and is now struggling to hold above the 50K mark, pulling the rest of the cryptocurrencies along with it.  

However, technical analysis comes into play when we cannot see a clear trend and there are no strong fundamentals to help us make sense of how the market is going to behave.

There are often repetitive patterns in price fluctuations due to the psychology of the market, which is driven by emotions like fear or excitement. The technical analysis examines chart patterns to identify these emotions and subsequent market movements to discover trends. 

The cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index fell to 27 a couple of days ago, but currently it stands at 40. Although it’s still a fear territory, this could be a solid buying opportunity. 

Source: Alternative.me

The current BTC price pattern resembles that of the consolidation phase we witnessed from May to July 2021. The weakness is likely to last until about early January or late February 2022, and then we might see a BTC rally that will take it to new heights, with ripple effects on the rest of the top cryptocurrencies.

Source: TradingView 

Meanwhile, the $68 billion GameFi industry, which is a hybrid of blockchain gaming and DeFi, is on the rise and is expected to continue its rapid growth in 2022 even amid a sour mood in the wider crypto market.

As of now, the majority of wallets in existence 1.12 million are connected to blockchain games.

Source: DappRadar 

The play-to-earn segment has been boosted by the metaverse narrative, allowing players to earn tokens for their gaming activities, which can be used to purchase in-game assets, or traded for other cryptocurrencies or fiat on exchanges. 

GameFi games can be categorized into two types:


  • Liquid mining games


  • Games based entirely on mining

In liquid mining games, users must pledge tokens or NFTs before they can begin gameplay, whereas in the second game type, players can begin immediately and receive game props or NFT equipment which can be sold at a profit.

In order for a GameFi project to succeed, it is critical that the number of active crypto wallets continues to grow, as well as the volume of transactions and the value of the game. 

Following are the top DApps in the Games category, ranked by unique wallet addresses, which continue to increase, so it makes sense that the tokens that power them would also thrive.

Splinterlands is the most popular game, with 315,447 unique wallet addresses interacting with its smart contracts over the past 30 days, and a total asset value of $664,862.

It is a collectible trading card game, with cards acting as non-financial tokens and its design reminiscent of Pokemon cards and World of Warcraft characters. 

Throughout the game, a mystical world is revealed through a great deal of storytelling. This game is built on the Steem blockchain and offers high-speed transactions. Although Splinterlands is based on the HIVE blockchain, Splinterlands’ tokenized assets can be transferred to the WAX blockchain by means of the Splinterlands WAX bridge. 

As of now, its SPS token is priced at $0.221667 and is not soaring due to the weak overall market, but the popularity of the project could lead to strong gains next year. 

Source: CoinGecko 

DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL)

DeFi Kingdoms is a game, DEX, liquidity pool, and a market for rare utility-driven NFTs, all done in nostalgia-inducing fantasy pixel art.

The number of unique wallet addresses interacting with DeFi Kingdom’s smart contracts over the past 30 days reached 286,539, a whopping 439% increase from the previous month. 

Its JEWEL token traded at $14.95 at the time of writing, up 21% for the past 7 days, and posting a 94% rise month-on-month.  

Source: CoinGecko 

MOBOX: NFT Farmer (MBOX)

This gaming platform combines yield farming and farming NFTs to create a free-to-play and play-to-earn model. The game had 200,916 unique wallet addresses in the past 30 days, up 30% from the previous month, and a balance of $175,456,016.93

As of last check, MBOX token was trading at $6.12, up 6.3% over the past 24 hours and up 19% over the past 7 days. 

Source: CoinGecko 

X World Games (XWG) 

X World Games is a themed gaming DApp on the BSC network that has an NFT marketplace. In addition to enhanced gameplay and earning mechanisms, players can acquire NFT assets which is expected to benefit them with long-term revenues generated through the game’s playing volume.

Its user base has increased by 159.72% over the past 30 days to 180,112 and the total value of assets in the DApp’s smart contracts came in at $2,909,449.32. 

The project’s XWG token traded at $0.0969 at the time of writing.  

Source: CoinGecko 

P.S. This article was initially published by Cointelegraph Brazil

Image source: pexels.com

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Crypto Gaming Booms Amid Metaverse Hype

Key Takeaways

  • October saw blockchain games make up the majority of activity in the dapp industry.
  • 55% of unique active wallets interacted with gaming dapps such as Axie Infinity and Splinterlands.
  • Mobile crypto games have also seen increased adoption on the Ethereum sidechain Polygon.




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Data from analytics platforms DappRadar and Token Terminal shows a boom in crypto gaming. In October, 55% of all unique active wallets connected to blockchain games, marking the third consecutive month that more wallets connected to gaming dapps than DeFi protocols. 

Crypto Gaming at All-Time Highs

October was a good month for blockchain gaming.

According to DappRadar, a leading decentralized application analytics platform, October saw blockchain games make up the majority of activity in the dapp industry. 55% of unique active wallets (UAW) totaling 1.19 million users interacted with gaming dapps over the past month.

The data signals the growing dominance of blockchain games, with October marking the third consecutive month that more unique active wallets connected to gaming dapps than DeFi protocols. 


Source: DappRadar

Established blockchain games such as Sky Mavis’ Axie Infinity made up more than half of all blockchain gaming users. On-chain activity soared in October, thanks in part to the game’s newly released AXS token staking feature. Over the past month, 647,000 UAW connected to Axie, up 27% from September. 

Additionally, data from Token Terminal show that transactions on Axie Infinity have also reached new highs. As of Nov. 4, transaction volume on the game’s marketplace hit a daily record of $38.2 million. 

Source: Token Terminal

Splinterlands, a play-to-earn collectible card game, has also been making waves. Despite running on the relatively unknown Hive blockchain, Splinterlands has grown its user base 3,260% over the past year thanks to the addition of the SPS token, which users can earn through playing the game.

Polygon has seen the biggest shift towards gaming, with over 70% of unique active wallets on the network playing blockchain games, compared to less than 15% in August. Mobile gaming dapps such as Animoca brand’s Arc8 are largely responsible for the sudden surge in gaming on the Ethereum sidechain. At the start of October, daily active addresses on Polygon hit an all-time high of 531,831. 



Metaverse gaming has also taken off, driven by Facebook’s recent rebrand to “Meta.” Metaverse platforms such as Decentraland and The Sandbox have seen their native tokens soar is value, while trading volumes for in-game land parcel NFTs skyrocketed on OpenSea. Additionally, The Sandbox recently closed a $93 million a Series B funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

As crypto games demonstrate their ability to attract users, other blockchains are also looking to develop their own gaming ecosystems. Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and FTX have just announced a joint $100 million initiative to develop gaming on Solana, saying that the network’s high-speed, low-cost capabilities will allow crypto gaming to thrive. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned ETH, SOL, and several other cryptocurrencies. 

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Axie Infinity Raises $860K While Their AXS Token Rises 55% In The Last 24 Hours

The Axie Infinity team is making moves. On the one hand, they raised $860K through a strategic sale of our governance token, AXS.” On the other, they announced an in-game decentralized exchange and their AXS increased in prize by 55% in the last 24 hours. Great numbers all around that would satisfy and attract any investor. And speaking about satisfied investors, their original backers were the people invited to Axie Infinity’s private sale.

Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course

Let’s digest all that part by part.

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Axie Infinity ‘s $860K Private Sale

The terms of the “strategic sale state the following:

“Axie Infinity raised $864,000 in a private sale of AXS to strategic investors in the middle of 2020. These investors purchased AXS at a 20% discount.

20% of the private sale tokens will be unlocked during the AXS public sale. The rest of the private sale tokens will be unlocked quarterly over the next 2 years.”

In the press release, they disclosed the investors:


  • Arca


  • Three Arrows Capital


  • DeFiance Capital


  • DeFi Capital


  • Sparq Ventures


  • Animoca Brands


  • Hashed


  • Dialectic

as well as angel investors:


  • Alexander John Amsel


  • Alex Svanevik (Nansen)


  • Bashylok Oleksander

The investors seem extremely satisfied. In a recent tweet, DeFiance Capital’s Zhu Su announced Axie Infinity and their Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) are the company’s most profitable seed investment by far. “Craziest thing is at the time of the round, it was so undersubbed that many people invested just to support ecosystem without any expectation of returns,” he adds for color. 

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The Great AXS 55% Rise

According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, “Axie Infinity is launching a decentralized exchange and its price rose 55% in 24h. However, its trading volume and active users are declining.” He also said it was “the highest increase among top50 crypto.” At the time of writing, the number has decreased a little. According to Coinmarketcap, AXS is “up 42.90% in the last 24 hours.

The recently announced decentralized exchange will eliminate the need to leave Axie Infinity to trade tokens. “People want to acquire and use their tokens from the same place without having to use a bridge constantly,” growth lead Jeff Zirlin told The Block That website broke the Axie Infinity meets DeFi story, saying:

“The DEX could help keep users playing the game because it will remove certain frictions that exist for players who have to move their tokens off the platform to trade them. The DEX will be built on Ronin, an Ethereum-linked sidechain purpose-built for Axie Infinity.”

In the “Strategic Sale” press release, they quote Defiance Capital’s Arthur0x, who said:

“Axie has been building relentlessly since 2018 and we are impressed by their execution so far. Their vision of combining NFT, gaming and DeFi together is extremely exciting. We are thrilled to see Axie continue to be at the forefront of innovation in NFT gaming and DeFi space.”

AXSUSD price chart for 10/02/2021 - TradingView

AXSUSD price chart for 10/02/2021 - TradingView


AXS price chart for 10/02/2021 on Gemini | Source: AXS/USD on TradingView.com

Epilogue: Our Prediction

Just three months ago, when NewsBTC first covered Axie Infinity, we predicted: 

“In the long run, Axie Infinity could add new features to its game, a new game mode, more resources. The expansion of this universe is set to provide cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology with a real-world use case that nurtures the gaming experience.”

Related Reading | Jack Dorsey Plans to Build A Decentralized Exchange For Bitcoin

They did add new features, just not the ones we were expecting. 

At that time, AXS was trading at $17,47. Each token is worth $111.21 nowadays.

Featured Image: Axie Infinity screenshot from their press release | Charts by TradingView

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Nifty news: Polyient marketplace, Ronaldinho drop, and a ‘staggering’ $4800 NFT sale …

Investment firm and development studio Polyient has unveiled an NFT marketplace with decentralized finance (DeFi) functionality.

The marketplace dubbed “PolyientX” is set for a beta release in August on Ethereum, with an official launch targeted for sometime in the Fall. The initial launch will feature NFTs from Ape In, a DeFi-enabled NFT collectibles game, and Rate Network, a decentralized NFT pricing, and rating protocol.

According to Polyient, users can stake their NFTs in a vault to earn rewards, describing it as “a unique fee share mechanism where users, not corporate stakeholders, are the beneficiaries of transaction activity on the platform.”

There’s also a new token launch method dubbed the “Initial Vault Sale” (IVS), which enables projects to leverage their supporters’ NFT assets “to mint and distribute utility and governance tokens, reward marketplace participation and build sustainable economies.”

Blockchain-based Ronaldinho

Global soccer icon Ronaldinho is launching a new NFT collection in collaboration with creative studio INFLUXO.

The former Paris Saint-Germain, F.C Barcelona and AC Milan star joins a long list of star athletes to enter the NFT sector such as boxer Tyson Fury, NFL players Rob Gronkowski and Patrick Mahomes, and skateboarding icon Tony Hawk.

The NFTs are being sold in two different drops, the first drop features seven unique “masterpiece” NFTs that depict vivid paintings of key moments in Ronaldinho’s career.

The auctions will take minimum increment bids of $10,000, and the NFTs come with a private meetup and dinner with Ronaldinho in Dubai, a roundtrip ticket to get you there and a two-day stay at a five-star hotel. It is unclear if Ronaldinho will be cooking up a storm, or if the dinner will be at a restaurant.

The second drop of “sports legend card NFTs” includes a set of six collector cards which users can purchase for an unspecified price. They will be airdropped an additional card NFT that accompanies the series, and if they collect all six NFTs plus the airdropped token, they will be entered into a sweepstake for a chance to win the “Dubai experience” from the masterpiece NFTs.

The sale is being hosted on INFLUXO and the NFT drop date reads “coming soon.”

Animoca Brands acquires blowfish

Top NFT game and property developer Animoca Brands (F1 Delta Time, The Sandbox) has acquired Blowfish Studios, an indie game developer for around $6.6 million. The acquisition also includes payments of around $19.2 million on conditional employment and performance targets.

Animoca made the announcement on July 29, and noted that it will be working closely with Blowfish to “align efforts relating to blockchain integration, fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), play-to-earn capabilities, synergy opportunities, and product launches.”

Blowfish is a Sydney-based firm founded in 2010 by Benjamin Lee, a veteran of the computer software and 3D graphics industry, and Aaron Grove, an award-winning visual effects supervisor.

The firm has published several multi-platform games such as “Qbism, Siegecraft, Morphite, Projection: First Light, and Storm Boy.”

“Animoca Brands is incredibly thrilled to welcome Blowfish, a team that significantly expands our capacity in the cross-platform games space and that has a strong interest in and understanding of blockchain,” said Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands.

Vitalik signs up for Mark Cuban-backed NFT platform

NFT platform “AlchemyNFT” announced a $6 million funding round on July 29. It was backed by Crypto.com Capital, Framework Ventures, Mechanism and billionaire entrepreneur (and DeFi rug-pull victim) Mark Cuban.

The funds will go towards a new project dubbed “AutographNFT” that enables the signing of unique digital assets such as NFTs with social network IDs. According to the firm Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin was one of the first to digitally sign his autograph at the project’s beta launch.

The Alchemist NFT: autographnft.io

The AutographNFT platform enables NFT creators to seek out popular “Twitter-verified” figures and offer them money to autograph an NFT. The platform gives the signer the option to donate all or some of their “signing” proceeds to a charity such as “Save the Kids.”

According to the listing of “The Alchemist” NFT, Buterin was paid 0.1 ETH, worth around $243, to sign the NFT.

Related: NFT-based game Splinterlands raises $3.6M via private token sale

Publicist claims NFT sale of $4800 is a ‘staggering’ sum

Public relations media releases are often full of hyperbolic jargon and puffery that paints an all too pretty picture.

But we had to laugh at a July 28 PR announcement from Kinahan’s Whiskey Co. in which the sale of an NFT for $4800 was described as a “staggering” amount of money.

“The Kinahan’s branded 3D Formula Racing Car sold to an NFT collector for a staggering $4800 following Lewis Hamilton’s thrilling win at the British Grand Prix,” the announcement breathlessly said.

While this may be exciting news for the Irish Whiskey firm, they may not realize that NFTs of questionable value have sold for much higher prices. Cointelegraph reported in February that Lindsay Lohan sold an NFT for an even more earth-shattering $15,000 on Rarible. And there were rumors some guy called Beeple or Bongo or something flogged an NFT for $69 million.

“This NFT is the first of its kind in the whiskey industry. Notice that precious word, ‘first’. There are many models of a McLaren, but if you own the first one, you own a piece of history,” the announcement read.

Roundup

Cointelegraph reported on July 28 that multinational beverage giant Coca-Cola is entering the NFT market.

The firm will hold a three-day auction on OpenSea for NFTs depicting the famous beverage, and the proceeds will be used to raise money for Special Olympics International.

Earlier this week, tokenized cats once again caused chaos on the Ethereum network after a nonfungible token (NFT) project dubbed “Stoner Cats” created by actress Mila Kunis sold out in 35 minutes.

The project’s first drop had a total of 10,420 NFTs, and activity on Ethereum sent gas prices as high as 709 Gwei ($33.67) for a rapid transaction.