If You’d Bought $1,000 Worth of Axie Infinity (AXS) at Launch, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today
Axie Infinity has just brought in over $100 million in revenue in 30 days. Why is the game so popular?
If you’d bought $1,000 worth of Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) when the token launched in November 2020, you’d have received 6,854 AXS. As I write this, (July 23), Axie has just hit a new all-time high. Using CoinMarketCap data, at the current price of $31.35, those AXS would now be worth $214,873 – an increase of over 21,000%.
To put that in perspective, just two months ago, 1 AXS cost $3.38. The price peaked at $29.13 on July 15 and then dipped and closed the day at $23.96. But it’s been back on a tear in the last few days.
So what is Axie Infinity and what makes this cryptocurrency worth a deeper look?
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Axie Infinity basics
What it does: Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn cryptocurrency game where players can earn tokens and breed cute collectible animals called Axies.
Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn cryptocurrency game where players can earn tokens and breed cute collectible animals called Axies. Management team: Axie Infinity was developed by a company called Sky Mavis, but it aims to evolve into a community-owned organization over time. It has 40 full-time team members, and the leaders have backgrounds in gaming and technology.
Axie Infinity was developed by a company called Sky Mavis, but it aims to evolve into a community-owned organization over time. It has 40 full-time team members, and the leaders have backgrounds in gaming and technology. Date launched: AXS started trading in November 2020, but Axie Infinity was founded in early 2018.
AXS started trading in November 2020, but Axie Infinity was founded in early 2018. Market cap: $1.9 billion (CoinMarketCap, July 23).
$1.9 billion (CoinMarketCap, July 23). Noteworthy backers: Mark Cuban, Blocktower Capital, Konvoy Ventures, and Libertus.
Mark Cuban, Blocktower Capital, Konvoy Ventures, and Libertus. Availability: Unfortunately AXS is not available from major U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges. Be aware there are additional risks if you use an exchange that is not authorized in the U.S. – your account could be frozen and leave you unable to access your assets.
Why is everybody talking about Axie?
As we’ve seen, Axie Infinity has made two big price jumps at a time when many other digital currencies are stagnating or trending downwards.
Here are two of the main reasons Axie has grown so much:
- It is a play-to-earn crypto game
Play-to-earn is a relatively new gaming concept. Players earn two different in-game tokens – Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Smooth Love Potions (SLP) – which they can either spend in Axie land (aka Lunacia) or trade on decentralized exchanges for real-world money.
The Axies themselves are non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These player-owned digital collectibles can be bred, bought, and sold. The cheapest Axie on sale right now costs around $200. And the most expensive Axie ever sold went for 300 ETH (around $620,000 today). To play the game, you’ll need to buy three Axies using Ethereum (ETH). You’ll also need to have a good chunk of time you can dedicate to world-building.
- It’s brought in eye-watering revenue
Axie’s revenue has shot off the charts in recent months. Token Terminal data showed it’s the top-earning crypto app right now by a long way. It brought in $101.7 million in the past 30 days. To put that in context, the second-highest earner was PancakeSwap with $10.9 million.
That’s impressive. But bear in mind that cryptocurrencies aren’t stocks. When you buy a stock, you own part of a company and you might get revenue in the form of dividends. Owning cryptocurrencies doesn’t work that way – you own a coin, not a share of the business.
You might, however, be able to profit if the prices of AXS or SLP continue to rise. Or if you participate in the game, as Axie shares 95% of its revenue with players. Plus, you can sell the Axies you breed in the game and also buy and sell land.
As we touched on above, players profit by earning tokens. In developing countries, some Axie players have been able to use their Axie earnings to keep food on the table during the pandemic. Some have even quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to Axie full time.
Lots of coins look good in hindsight
As an investor, it’s too easy to play the what-if-I’d-bought-XYZ game. If you’d bought Amazon stock or Bitcoin at the start, you could be a millionaire today. But the trick of investing is looking forward to identify the trends that might profit in the long term.
Crypto gaming – like most of the cryptocurrency industry – still has a lot of hurdles to overcome, particularly in terms of scalability. It is an interesting space, and there are sure to be other gaming coins that snatch the headlines in the future. But, as an individual investor, you need to be plugged into that world if you want to pick the winners. You might also weigh up the benefits of investing in crypto games vs. gaming company stocks.
In terms of Axie Infinity, understanding crypto gaming would help you decide if the coin’s value can still increase. Copycats have already started to spring up, though it’s hard to see how they could replicate Axie’s success quickly. With over 250,000 daily users, Axie already has quite a head start.
Ultimately, it isn’t a great idea to buy Axie right now because the price has already increased by 21,000%. If you decide to buy, it should be because you think it can outperform other investment opportunities in the long term.
Axie Infinity Doubles in Price Since Wednesday
The governance token of the Axie Infinity platform, AXS, has doubled in price since Wednesday.
As of Friday the AXS token was trading at a new all-time high price of $30, implying a year-to-date gain of over 5,700%.
Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based trading and battling game that allows players to collect, breed, raise, battle and trade token-based creatures known as “axies,” which are digitized as their own NFTs.
According to research from TheTie, Axie Infinity has quickly become one of the highest-revenue projects on the Ethereum blockchain. Axie Infinity’s revenue is up over 17,000% since April 1 as user growth accelerated dramatically during the second quarter.
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According to research boutique firm Delphi Digital, Axie Infinity is projected to end the year with total revenue of over $1 billion. (Delphi has disclosed that it has invested in the AXS tokens and that some members of its team might also hold AXS and Axie NFTs.)
The protocol earns revenue by charging a 4.25% fee when players buy and sell Axie NFTs in its marketplace and collecting fees for breeding axies to create new ones. The fees are paid in the form of Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Smooth Love Potion (SLP).
While AXS is the governance token, SLP is the uncapped utility token used to breed new axies. “Each time users breed an axie, SLP is consumed,” DappRadar noted. Both tokens can be exchanged for fiat or other cryptocurrencies. This is how gamers based in the Philippines, Venezuela and other developing economies have been earning income via the play-to-earn economy.
Per TheTie, the game is helping Philippines-based users to earn $50 per day. That’s 66% more than the average wage of $30 per day
“It is impressive how ‘hot’ AXS has managed to remain,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at Synergia Capital, in an email with CoinDesk.
The NFT ecosystem as well as blockchain-based video games could escape harsh regulatory scrutiny because officials are more focused on decentralized finance, or DeFi, according to Vinokourov. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Dan Berkovitz said last month the DeFi markets for derivative instruments – meaning futures contracts – may be illegal in the U.S.
The AXS token has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion. The market value of the NFT-gaming segment is $4.78 billion, or just 10% of the market cap of the decentralized finance sector, per data source Messari.
Axie Infinity refreshes record high as AXS ascends 131% in just 3 days
The price of Axie Infinity’s native token, AXS, more than doubled in just three days of trading amid speculation that it is going to revolutionalize the blockchain-enabled gaming industry forever.
The AXS/USD exchange rate reached a record value of $32.69 on Friday, up 31.28% intraday, and about 131% from its Tuesday low of $14.09. That placed the pair in the list of best-performing digital assets on a year-to-date timeframe; its 2021 gains are now above 5,000%.
Axie Infinity’s massive upside moves appeared due to its rising popularity as a play-to-earn gaming service. In detail, the Ethereum-enabled blockchain project is a Pokemon-like game, wherein players adopt, breed and trade digital pets — called Axies — in the form of nonfungible tokens.
Axie developer Sky Mavis called the game “a nation with a real economy,” which allows people to shape economic policies and practice local governance in a metaverse. The virtual environment has gained traction among netizens, insomuch that its total revenue closed toward $120 million in July versus $1.92 million at the beginning of this year.
Axie Infinity revenue is close to hitting $120M. Source: Axie World
Analysts at Delphi Digital forecasted that Axie’s revenue would reach approximately $153 million by the end of July and $1.1 billion by the 2021’s close.
What is AXS?
Axie developers focus on creating a play-to-earn model. In doing so, the project rewards players for the effort and time they put in both playing and growing the ecosystem. Every functional ecosystem needs tokens to transfer value. In Axie’s case, two assets fill that role: Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Small Love Potion (SLP).
Players earn SLP through Axie’s gameplay. They can later exchange the token for fiat, enabling a system where playing time turns into a person-hour wage. Axie reported that many of its players were making $5 a day by playing Axie, but the income surged to $20 as of late.
play-to-earn is basically yield farming, only it’s prettier and it appeals to a larger base of people
that’s it, that’s the tea — 0xElle (, ) (@0xElle) July 23, 2021
Meanwhile, AXS operates as a settlement currency inside the Axie Infinity ecosystem, using trading fees, governance, and Axies’ buying and selling. As a result, its holders receive 95% of Axie Infinity’s total revenue, just like a government that receives tax revenues from its citizens.
Sky Mavis holds about 20% of the total AXS token supply.
The proposition has helped to push AXS demand higher even amid an ongoing sector-wide downtrend. Since its launch, the Axie Infinity token has raked in more than 18,000% profits for its investors.
AXS price technicals
The latest AXS rally also surfaced in the wake of a sector-wide rebound, led by Elon Musk’s revelation that his space technology firm, SpaceX, holds Bitcoin (BTC). He also committed that Tesla would resume the Bitcoin payment option for its electric vehicles once the flagship cryptocurrency switches to green energy solutions for mining.
Related: Axie Infinity (AXS) axes almost half its value following 971% bull run
Bitcoin’s rebound from below $30,000 has sent altcoins in a similar retracement trajectory, thereby benefiting AXS. However, the Axie Infinity token posted better short-term profits than its digital asset rivals, given the euphoria surrounding its gaming project.
AXS has been in a steady uptrend since launch. Source: TradingView
Technically, AXS’s latest move uphill had it break above its parabolic resistance. The cryptocurrency now holds $24.07 as its interim support while eyeing a run-up toward its next potential upside targets at $36.48, $56.57, $76.65, and so on.
Conversely, slipping below $24.07 exposes AXS to deeper downside levels at $19.78, $16.40 and $14.03.
AXS trading volume and market sentiment rise
Additionally, VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro detected a bullish outlook for AXS on Friday before its recent price rise.
In detail, the VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points, including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. AXS price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for AXS first flipped green early on Friday at 00:15 UTC. Then the AXS prices began to rise, reaching as high as 78 four hours before the price peaked at $32.14.
At the time of writing, the VORTECS™ Score for AXS has slid back down to 65, suggesting that the conditions are still favorable for more upside price potential.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.