Smooth Love Potion(SLP)

Smooth Love Potion (SLP) is the utility token of the play-to-earn blockchain game Axie Infinity where players battle with each using creatures called Axies. The Pokemon-inspired universe was developed in 2018 by Sky Mavis, the Vietnamese game development studio. Axie Infinity went viral in 2021, adding millions of users and making headlines as the biggest NFT game in major financial media outlets like Bloomberg.  

Axie Infinity was only able to scale up successfully after Sky Mavis built Ronin, a custom sidechain to avoid Ethereum’s network congestion. Slow transactions and high gas fees hampered gameplay and hindered the game’s growth. Sky Mavis solved this issue by transferring Axie Infinity to a gasless chain tailored for the game in May 2021. 

In Axie Infinity, players collect, breed, manage, battle as well as trade NFT-based creatures called Axies. The game features a two-token model, where Axie Infinity (AXS) serves as the governance token, while Smooth Love Potion (SLP) acts as the in-game currency. Users spend SLP to breed Axies and receive SLP for winning battles with other players. 

Axie Infinity pioneered the Play-to-Earn model as we know it, putting in-game assets on the blockchain and adding financial incentives for players. Axie Infinity’s game mechanics were emulated by hundreds of other teams, thereby giving rise to a new sector in the crypto market - user-centric blockchain gaming. 

SLP price

Ассording to our SLP USD live price chart, Smooth Love Potion crypto did not see any major movements until it surged roughly 4,800% in the week when the Axie Infinity revealed its new roadmap, in July 2020. The team announced plans to build a sidechain for the game and add more gameplay elements. The number of active players tripled following the announcements. The bullish breakout was short-lived though, and SLP pared most of its gains soon. 

The price of SLP coin rallied again in August 2020 when the team revealed the kick-off of the native governance token AXS, but SLP did not set a new all-time high. Barring a few brief rallies, SLP traded sideways until late April 2021. 

The price of SLP token skyrocketed 10x on the week when the Axie team initiated migration to the Ronin network, reaching a new all-time high of around $0.4. The bullish action could not continue, however, and SLP plummeted to a local bottom at $0.08 by late May 2021. 

SLP witnessed its last major rally in July 2021. The price of SLP spiked amid growing demand for the in-game currency from players and probably speculation on Axie Infinity’s phenomenon. Listings on major exchanges also helped the coin climb higher. 

Thereafter, SLP price took a nosedive, plunging to levels that hadn’t been seen since June 2020 and trading 99.8% down from its all-time high. Similarly, Axie Infinity’s AXS governance token fell from its all-time high of about $166 in November 2022 to around $13 in June 2022. 

How SLP works

Smooth Love Potion (SLP) is an ERC-20 token for in-game purchases inside the Axie Infinity’s ecosystem. SLP tokens also serve as the major source of income for players. 

Unlike its sister token Axie Infinity (AXS), SLP can’t be used for governance purposes. Smooth Love Potion holders can’t vote on the community proposals, and can’t create posts in Axie Infinity’s forum either, as per the recent update. 

Axie Infinity players are, however, rewarded with SLP for winning competitions in the game. This is where the difference between traditional gaming and the play-to-earn movement lies. Even though Axie Infinity users need some capital to assemble a team of Axies and join the universe, they get paid for actually playing the game. Yet, the amount of SLP tokens users can earn a day is limited.

The play-to-earn model also implies that every time a player is rewarded with SLP the total token supply increases, adding pressure on its value. This can disincentivize players to continue playing the game as they earn less in the long term and may quickly cash out their tokens to avoid inflation-driven price drops. 

Whilst the supply of SLP is not capped, burning mechanisms were created to curb SLP inflation. Specific user actions destroy SLP and reduce the number of tokens in circulation. As such, Smooth Love Potion (SLP) has to be burned each time players breed new Axies. 

Players can also sell their Axies in exchange for SLP tokens on the in-game marketplace. The amount of tokens in circulation remains the same in this case as no new tokens are minted or burned. 

However, the tokenomics model of SLP turned out to be flawed. The mint-to-burn ratio was too large, with around 4x more SLP created per day than burned. This caused the token to spiral into hyperinflation amid the record rewards emission in the blockbuster year of 2021. 

The team behind Axie Infinity had to completely revamp the SLP rewards structure by the time the game reached its peak of nearly 2.5 million daily users in early 2022. 

SLP news, updates and highlights

In order to counteract the oversupply issues, Axie Infinity cut SLP emissions substantially under its game upgrade released on Feb. 3, 2022. The upgrade eliminated SLP rewards for completing daily quests and fighting monsters in the adventure mode in an attempt to sharpen users’ focus on the player-versus-player (PvP) mode. 

These restructuring measures marked Axie Infinity’s move to a high-skill game economy, but it appears that the transition did not have the desired effect. Instead, the modification exacerbated the decline of active users that started in November 2021.

The number of in-game battlers have plummeted following the upgrade activation, down from 2.176 million in the week prior to the pivot to just 0.517 million in mid-June, as per Axie Infinity’s data. Axie Infinity was also not able to strike a balance between the SLP issuance and burn, as evidenced by the token’s performance. 

In March 2022, Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge to Ethereum was exploited for more than $600M worth of assets. However, helped by Binance and its own balance sheet, Sky Mavis has proven its commitment to reimburse all the affected users.

In June 2022 Axie Infinity announced the winners of its first Builders program grantees, choosing 12 projects for the first batch. In an effort to get back the users that left the game over the span of 2022, the team is in the process of adding more community-generated content to its ecosystem and building new gaming experiences. 

It’s now not clear whether SLP would be ever able to return to its peak price levels. While the immense popularity of Axie Infinity may be gone for now, the team behind the game is actively experimenting with game mechanics to woo more players. 

Yet, it’s safe to say that SLP may continue to decline until Axie Infinity finds sustainable ways to burn the excessive supply. No play-to-earn game has deployed a largely balanced tokenomics model yet, and it remains to be seen whether Axie Infinity can pioneer a sustainable gaming economy.

Frequently asked questions about SLP

• Can you mine or stake SLP?

No, you can not mine or stake SLP. Instead, you can earn SLP by playing Axie Infinity. You’ll then be able to claim your SLP rewards and transfer them to your wallet. 

• What are some of the best SLP wallets?

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

• What can you do with SLP?

You can obtain SLP by fighting other players in the Axie Infinity universe. You’ll be able to spend your SLP to breed new Axies in the game and continue playing, or you can sell it in the open market. You can either trade your SLP for money on the Ronin-based Katana DEX, on Uniswap if you transfer your SLP to the Ethereum network using the Ronin bridge, or you can trade your SLP on centralized exchanges. 

• How to buy SLP? 

You can buy SLP on all the major crypto exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, and MEXC, among others. You can also use the Ronin network’s native DEX Katana for SLP purchases.