Axie Infinity(AXS)

Developed in 2018 by Sky Mavis, a Vietnamese video game development company, Axie Infinity features amongst the most popular blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) online video games. Created on the Ethereum blockchain, it is inspired by popular gaming titles like Tamagotchi and Pokemon. Players collect, breed, manage, battle as well as trade NFT-based creatures called Axies. The game’s ecosystem is based on two ERC-20 tokens, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Smooth Love Potion (SLP), both of which currently exist on the Ronin side-chain.

While the global gaming market has an extensive variety of NFT-based video games today, only a few have achieved the kind of staggering success that Axie Infinity has. It features over 2.5 million daily players and billions worth of gaming assets traded on its native marketplace.

Furthermore, with over 500 million in total value locked (TVL) in its smart contract, playing Axie Infinity has become the primary source of income for players in many developing countries.

AXS price

Although the Axie Infinity game was created in 2018, the AXS coin was launched in October 2020 through a public token sale, with AXS price set at $0.10 per unit. A total of 29.7 million AXS were sold out of a maximum supply of 270 million, raising close to $3 million for the project. 

Buoyed up by the wider crypto market bull run and the Ronin sidechain launch in February 2021, AXS price rallied to breach $10 in April 2021. However, it soon retraced to a low of $1.8 by May 19, 2021. AXS price stayed below $5 for the next two months and registered another remarkable rally starting July 2021, which culminated in its all-time high of about $166 on Nov. 6, 2021. AXS’s fully diluted valuation reached almost $45 billion at that point.

AXS coin has been in a corrective phase since its November 2021 high. According to our AXS live price chart, AXS price closed 2021 at under $100 and dipped further below $50 in Q1, 2022. That said, with ongoing ecosystem developments and the continuously growing interest in the P2E games, AXS’s next price surge may be just around the corner. 

How AXS works

While Axie Infinity is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, Sky Mavis launched its own sidechain called Ronin, in February 2021, to avoid congestion issues on Ethereum, and to offer a seamless and cost-effective transaction experience to its players.

Ronin uses a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism to secure its network and to process transactions occurring in the Axie Infinity ecosystem. It is a reputation-based consensus mechanism that facilitates quicker transactions owing to its limited number of validators, and hence features a largely centralized model. Unlike Proof-of-Stake systems, wherein validators are required to stake a certain quantity of tokens, in Proof-of-Authority, they stake their reputation, and are handpicked based on their credibility, in this case by the Axie Infinity team. Some of these validators are well-known brands like Ubisoft, Binance, Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Stable Node and Nansen.

AXS is the main governance token of the Axie Infinity network. It is also actively used for incentivizing players, buying in-game NFT assets, paying fees for breeding Axies and staking purposes. In addition, holding AXS makes players eligible to participate in certain auctions, sales and events held by the Axie Inifinity team.

AXS news, updates and highlights

AXS price action is largely governed by multiple forces, including ecosystem advancements, market-wide sentiment, regulatory developments and security breaches.

In 2021, Axie Infinity network underwent multiple improvements like the launch of Ronin sidechain, subsequent migration of native assets to Ronin, AXS staking launch and the November launch of Katana, a decentralized exchange for Ronin. In other noteworthy AXS news, in November 2021, a plot of land in the Axie Infinity metaverse sold for a whopping 550 ETH (worth $2.5 million at that time).

A few months down the line, in late March 2022, Axie Infinity’s Ronin blockchain suffered a major exploit, dubbed as the largest in the history of DeFi, leading to a loss of $625 million worth of players’ funds. However, helped by Binance and its own balance sheet, Sky Mavis has proven its commitment to reimburse all the affected users.

Frequently asked questions about AXS

• Is it possible to mine or stake AXS?

No, you cannot mine AXS. However, it’s possible to stake your AXS tokens to earn staking rewards.

• Which are the best AXS wallets available in the market?

The Axie Infinity team encourages using the native Ronin wallet available in both desktop and mobile versions, to store your AXS coins, SLPs, as well as in-game NFT assets. You can also use any other crypto wallet compatible with the ERC-20 tokens, such as Atomic Wallet. Trust Wallet, Trezor and Ledger Wallets.

• What can I do with my AXS coins?

You can use your AXS coins to earn staking rewards, participate in Axie Infinity’s governance, buy in-game assets, breed your Axies and also participate in special sales/auctions held from time to time, by the Axie Infinity team.

• What’s the best way to buy AXS coins?

The ideal way to buy AXS is through established crypto exchanges like OKX, Binance, Coinbase, Huobi Global and others. You can also use the Ronin network’s native DEX Katana, for AXS purchases.