Bitcoin and Ether are down today, but Ethverse (ETHV), The Sandbox (SAND), GameSwap (GSWAP), Yield Guild Games (YGG), and Axie Infinity (AXS) are up.
The developing part of the blockchain ecosystem’s market capitalization has grown by more than 9% in the last 24 hours and about 8% in the last 7 days, reaching $17.42 billion. The growth of this market has been helped by Ethverse, The Sandbox, GameSwap, Yield Guild Games, Axie Infinity, and other markets.
Meanwhile, about 10% of the value of around 140 tokens used in decentralized finance has been lost over the past week.
In contrast, the total value of all cryptocurrencies fell by more than 14.50%, to $2.47 trillion.
In the recent 24 hours, gaming tokens not only performed well relative to the US dollar but also versus BTC and ETH.
In the last 24 hours, the value of SAND, the game’s own currency, has gone up by more than 27% compared to Bitcoin and Ether. Also, the value of ETHV, a lesser-known NFT asset, went up by more than twice as much as the top two cryptocurrencies.
At the same time that a lot of good news was coming out of the crypto-enabled gaming industry, investors bought the most valuable cryptocurrencies in order to put their money there.
Polygon also announced a $100,000 hackathon to encourage developers to create and showcase blockchain-based games, and Andreessen Horowitz led a $5 million fundraising round for a Seattle-based blockchain gaming business called Irreverent Labs.
On the other hand, shares in WeMade, a Korean online gaming company, jumped more than 400%, giving the company a market capitalization of more than $5 billion.
The company started making money as soon as it released its blockchain-based game, MIR4. Like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox, MIR4 lets players earn cryptocurrencies by turning in-game goods into digital assets that can be sold.
Relatedly, the Axie Infinity guild CGU offers “scholarships” to newcomers so that they can join the fantasy play-to-earn NFT game.
Generally speaking, it looks like the gaming industry built on the blockchain is starting to carve out a distinct niche. Polygon’s VP of Growth, Arjun Kalsy, made the following statement:
This industry is expected to expand by leaps and bounds in the coming years thanks to the “play-to-earn” paradigm made possible by Web 3.0, in which players can earn money for their participation and in-game achievements.
