After the popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi), it was time to shine for non-fungible tokens (NFT) and, to the surprise of many, NFTs took the lead and remain at the forefront with the highest volume of sales, occurred at early January 2022.
Although 2021 became the year of NFTs, GameFi apps did outperform DeFi apps in terms of user popularity. According to data from DappRadar, collected by Bloomberg:
“Almost 50% of active cryptocurrency wallets connected to decentralized applications in November were for playing games. The percentage of wallets connected to decentralized finance dapps, or DeFi, fell to 45% during the same period, after months of being the main use case for dapp “.
The P2E blockchain game Axie infinity skyrocketed and started a P2E gaming craze that is expected to continue throughout 2022. Cryptocurrency experts and video game advocates have high expectations for blockchain-based P2E games and there will surely be some sleeping giants that will dominate the sector.
Let’s take a look at five blockchain games that could be trending in 2022.
DeFi Kingdoms
The inspiration for DeFi Kingdoms came from a simple principle: the passion for investing that drew developers to blockchain technology. DeFi Kingdoms was born as a visualization of investing in a liquidity fund in which the “gardens” of the game literally and figuratively represent token pairs and liquidity mining.
As shown in the game, investors have a portion of their liquidity provider quota within a plot full of flowering plants. By marrying the concept of growth to DeFi protocols within a play-and-earn model, DeFi Kingdoms puts a twist on what “playing” a game means.
Based on the Harmony network, DeFi Kingdoms became the network’s first project to top the DappRadar charts. This could be attributed to the influx of people interested in both DeFi and blockchain gaming, or the recent rise in their in-game utility token (JEWEL).
JEWEL is a utility token that allows users to purchase NFT in game to increase base level stats, and is used for liquidity mining that gives users the opportunity to get more JEWEL through staking.
JEWEL is also a governance token that gives holders a vote in the growth and evolution of the project. In the past four months, the token’s price went from $ 1.23 to an all-time high of $ 22.52. At time of writing, JEWEL is down nearly 16%, trading at $ 19.51.
The price of the JEWEL token, which soared about 1.487% from its humble start of $ 1.23 four months ago, in September, has risen about 165% this past month alone, according to data from CoinGecko.
Guild of Guardians
Guild of Guardians is one of the most anticipated blockchain games in 2022 and is built on top of ImmutableX, the first Layer 2 solution built on Ethereum that focuses on NFTs. With the aim of providing greater access, it will function as a free mobile RPG game that will model the play-to-earn mechanics.
Like other blockchain games like Axie Infinity, Guild of Guardians game assets can be traded. The project appears to be of interest to many players and investors, as both its sale of NFT founders and the launch of the token generated a volume of almost $ 10 million.
The Guild of Guardians (GOG) tokens, which will be released in October 2021, are ERC-20 tokens known as “gems” within the game. Gems are what drive key game features, such as in-game NFT minting, interact with the market, and are available to win as you play.
In the last month, the Guild of Guardians token has performed very well, reaching an all-time high of $ 2.81. Even though the token is down nearly 50% from its all-time high, at the time of writing, some community members are waiting the possibility of staking pools and liquidity, which are characteristics that tend to help stabilize token prices.
Galaxy Fight Club
Can you imagine taking an NFT picture test (pfp) and turning it into an avatar to fight other fighters in a galaxy far far away? Galaxy Fight Club (GFC) is a blockchain game that changed its mechanism from a collection of 10,000 avatars to the first multi-brand, cross-platform PvP game where players can battle with their collection of avatars.
Focused on interoperability, GFC places unique value on its original fighters, but allows other avatars to fight for a chance to earn rewards.
The game is expected to launch on the Polygon network and will feature different themes from various partner collections such as Animetas and CyberKongz, integrating its cross-platform goal. GFC plays on the nostalgia of Super Smash Bros., except that you fight for the keys to a loot instead of simply annihilating your opponent.
GFC is currently in beta testing, and faces minor hiccups, such as the IDO delay. As of today, it’s unclear when public access will be available, but many expect it to be in the first quarter of 2022.
GCOIN
Each Galaxy fighter generates between 5 and 15 GCOINs per day, and each fighter started generating GCOINs in October 2021. If a fighter is sold, the new owner will inherit the currently accumulated GCOINs. GCOINs are likely to be valuable in the ecosystem because they are needed to power player movements within the game, forging weapons, opening loot chests, and training and selling second-generation fighters.
Despite its minor setbacks, an IDO for GCOIN has been scheduled on PolkaStarter for January 6 and 4 million tokens are scheduled to go on sale at $ 0.50 each and a maximum allocation of $ 500 per wallet. Unfortunately, the KYC requirements and the project’s whitelist have left many residents out.
According to Ado, one of those responsible for the project, “the first USD 1.5 million were bought and sold out in about 15 minutes, at which point the remaining USD 500,000, reserved only for Battle Pass holders, took another hour to fill up. “, which indicates the success of the IDO. Approximately 2,600 unique wallets own GFC fighters, with the largest wallet holding almost 2% of the entire collection.
CryptoBeasts
CryptoBeasts is a pixelated digital art game that evokes the retro feel of the original Zelda game. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, CryptoBeasts is a “peer-to-peer electronic rare egg system” (first of all, right?) These 10,000 colored pixelated eggs grant each owner a plot of land in the “Eggland” universe. of the game and a vote in the DAO.
DAO works on a hierarchy where the number of eggs a player owns determines their status and, oddly enough, each decision seems to be calculated in CryptoBeasts. The numbers are noteworthy as they can determine a user’s status, and prime number eggs offer benefits such as obtaining more of your native CBX token and also hatching rare beasts with greater force.
According to data from Dune Analytics, the top-selling rare egg was 5 Ether, valued at $ 9,085 at the time of sale. On December 31, 2021, an announcement about the gaming tokenomics triggered a spike in sales and the current entry point of 0.05 Ether is notably higher than the minting price of 0.01 ETH in June 2021.
CBX token
Although Cryptobeasts claims that it is not about “play-to-earn”, but about “fun-to-play”, it is still a blockchain game whose competitive advantage also depends on its tokenomics. The native token, CBX, is the in-game token that is scheduled to be sent to all rare egg holders.
CBX tokens can be used and earned in various ways, such as beast fighting, on plots that generate CBX daily, completing certain in-game tasks, and farming and acquiring resources.
You can do staking with CBX, encouraging HODLing a little more than expected. The token is expected to boost utilities and functionalities in the game, such as purchasing items within the game economy for breeding beasts. Like Axie Infinity, but not by chance, CryptoBeasts aims to integrate academies and scholarships to give the largest investors the opportunity to lend their assets.
Axie Infinity
In particular, Axie Infinity, the first blockchain game to run its “play-to-earn” model, has an established and highly developed ecosystem with a strong economic model. Axie Infinity is currently considered the Trojan horse for the wider adoption of blockchain games.
Axie Infinity continues to consolidate its place at the top of DappRadar’s NFT rankings, according to its data. As the most traded collection, Axie Infinity ranks above NBA TopShot, Splinterlands and WAX’s blockchain game “Farmer’s World”, with a turnover of USD 563.6 million in the last 30 days.
SLP, AXS and RON
Axies are the NFTs that are used for gaming and can be raised using SLP, the game’s utility token, and AXS, which is the governance token. It can be staked with AXS, and with over $ 1.68 billion staked, users are still getting a hefty APY even though the performance has dropped from over 200% in the beginning to roughly 86%.
The recent launch of the DEX Katana offers players the opportunity to provide liquidity using SLP or AXS to get RON.
RON is the ecosystem token and, like MATIC, will be used as the gas rates on Axie Infinity’s Ronin sidechain. Axie Infinity, in many ways, is its own digital nation with a real economy.
Like any first project on the market, it faces challenges and its recent price correction could be an attractive entry point for investors who previously did not dare to invest. With the lands yet to come, users can have the opportunity to create and generate resources that will generate other tokens.
One of the largest digital land sales to date in the NFT / metaverse industry came from Axie Infinity, one of 75 genesis parcels that sold for $ 2.3 million.
Adapting to the growing ecosystem of blockchain gaming, the Sky Mavis team has announced that it has rewritten the main engine, moving from its 2D art style to 3D. The team has also announced that “Project K”, a codename for a part of the game and Lunacia’s kingdom, will be released in phases, each focusing on different elements of the game, from gathering resources to “strategic group game”.
As the concept of blockchain gaming gains greater adoption, and the “play-to-earn” and “play-and-earn” models continue to grow, 2022 will be an exciting year for gamers, creators, and investors alike. .
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