Looking for the next "100x coin" in blockchain games, this article summarizes the dedicated chains for GameFi and representative on-chain ecological games

Author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher

Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

Since the beginning of 2024, among the six projects launched on Binance Launchpool, four are related to gaming, namely the virtual companion game Sleepless AI, the Layer3 gaming public chain, the metaverse farming game Pixels, and the Protal platform focusing on cross-chain gaming.

Binance's continuous launch of gaming assets has revitalized the long-dormant GameFi sector, and among the four gaming projects launched, two assets are somewhat related to gaming-specific chains, with Xai being the representative of the Layer3 gaming-specific chain; Pixels is the first ecological project on the Ronin sidechain to be launched on Binance, and on February 5, Binance officially listed the native token RON of Ronin.

In fact, it is not only Binance that is increasing support for blockchain games; several gaming projects are also building their own GameFi-specific chains. On February 15, the ApeCoin community announced the development of ApeChain based on the Arbitrum developer stack; on February 22, the TreasureDAO community, dubbed the Web3 Nintendo, voted to develop Treasure Chain based on the Arbitrum ecosystem, planning to launch the mainnet in Q3 of this year.

The search for "new GameFi public chains and high-quality on-chain gaming assets" and the combination of "new public chains + new games" is becoming a new alpha in the crypto community. So, how are the representative gaming public chains and their ecological developments in the current crypto market?

EVM-Compatible Gaming-Specific Chain Ronin Network (RON)

Ronin Network, abbreviated as Ronin, is an EVM-compatible chain specifically designed for gaming applications, built by the Axie Infinity development team Sky Mavis. The platform aims to address issues such as Ethereum congestion, high GAS fees, and slow transaction speeds, providing players with a smoother and more seamless gaming experience.

However, in March 2022, the Ronin network suffered a hacker attack, where five validator private keys were stolen. The hacker used the compromised private keys to forge withdrawals, resulting in losses exceeding $600 million, making it one of the largest hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency field and the most severe security incident in the blockchain gaming sector.

Since this attack, the Ronin network had once fallen into a state of decline, and the price of the RON token plummeted from a high of $3.4, oscillating around the bottom of $0.2 for a long time.

Recently, the explosive popularity of the on-chain ecological application Pixels metaverse game and Binance's listing of the RON trading pair have brought Ronin back into the spotlight.

However, on February 23, Ronin Network faced another security blunder. A user reported on Twitter that approximately $10 million worth of RON (about 3 million tokens) was stolen by hackers and transferred through the mixer Tornado Cash.

Soon, Ronin co-founder Psycheout responded, stating that there were no issues with Ronin or the cross-chain bridge; it was merely a whale wallet that had been hacked. The hacked whale turned out to be Jihoz, co-founder of Axie Infinity and Ronin Network, who explained that his two personal addresses had been compromised, and this attack was limited to his personal accounts, unrelated to the validation or operational activities of the Ronin chain. This blunder did not affect the price trend of the RON token.

In fact, over the past year, Ronin has been continuously improving its infrastructure. To enhance the network's security and stability, reduce centralization risks, and ensure the safety of user assets, Ronin upgraded its consensus mechanism from PoA (Proof of Authority) to DPOS in April last year. After the upgrade, the number of network validator nodes increased from 9 to 22, making it more decentralized than before.

Additionally, Ronin launched the RON staking feature and initiated staking rewards, announcing the first batch of game studio partners based on Ronin, including Directive Games, Tribes Studio, Bali Games, Bowled.io, and SkyVu.

Subsequently, Ronin attracted high-quality mature blockchain game projects like Pixels, with an average of one blockchain game announcing its migration to its ecosystem each month. First, the P2E blockchain game Pixels announced its migration from Polygon to the Ronin network in October, followed by the Korean game development company ACT Games stating in November that it would migrate all its games to the Ronin Network, and the card battle blockchain game Apeiron migrated to the Ronin network in December.

In January of this year, Ronin launched the in-game item online store Mavis Store, where players can purchase on-chain and off-chain items, supporting payments in RON, AXS, SLP, WETH, and USDC, with 0.5% of the revenue donated to the Ronin Treasury.

Currently, the Ronin network ecosystem has integrated gaming aggregation platform Mavis Hub, NFT trading market Mavis Market, and other supporting products focused on blockchain games, as well as DeFi applications like the DEX platform Katana, lending products MetaLend that support gaming asset collateral, Launchpad platform Impossible Finance, and infrastructure wallets like Ronin Wallet, oracle Pyth Network, and cross-chain bridge Bridge.

According to official website data, as of February 29, the NFT asset trading volume completed by the Ronin network has exceeded $4.1 billion, with approximately 15.33 million addresses, and the Gas fee for each transaction is only $0.0012.

The native token RON is priced at $2.88, with a circulating market cap of $860 million, ranking 112th in the cryptocurrency market, and has increased by over 160% in the past three months.

Ronin Ecological Game Representatives

1. P2E Game Pioneer Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is the largest crypto digital pet breeding game on Ronin and pioneered the P2E (Play-to-Earn) model, where players can raise, breed, and trade NFT creatures known as "Axies," forming teams of Axies to battle each other.

As of today, Axie Infinity has derived several games based on Axie creatures, including Axie Classic (the original version), Origins (free entry for players), HomeLand (land construction game), Raylights (farming game for Land holders), Defenders of Lunacian Land (Axie survival game), and Project T prototype (early prototype of the Axie game).

In July last year, Axie Infinity launched the AXP (Axie Experience Points) on-chain upgrade mechanism to promote the breeding and component upgrades of Axie pets.

Players can earn AXP points by playing the Origins version, which are non-transferable and bound to each Axie, and can be used to upgrade and evolve the components or levels of Axie pet characters.

The introduction of AXP and the Axie upgrade feature has transformed Axies into dynamic NFTs that can accumulate improvements and personalization over time, marking the shift of Axies from passive character assets to digital creatures that can evolve through gaming activities. The on-chain upgradeable mechanism for NFTs will have broader applications, such as character development in games.

At the end of November last year, Axie announced the launch of official merchandise and an online store, selling badges with the project logo, shirts, hats, accessories featuring Axie characters, plush toys in Squishmallow style, and figurines worth $300, supporting both cryptocurrency and fiat payments.

At the same time, they opened up commercial copyright restrictions for 4,877 NFTs in the Mystic and Origin series, allowing Axie NFT owners to use their NFT characters as mascots for various businesses, including Axie-themed cafes, comics, restaurants, or toy series.

However, this did not attract much attention in the community. According to official data, Axie Infinity's treasury revenue in 2023 was only $3.4 million, with a DAU of 60,000.

On February 14, Axie Infinity announced the launch of the 7th season of Origins, with a total prize pool of 18,900 AXS and 1,374,051 SLP, valued at approximately $200,000.

As of February 29, the governance token AXS was priced at $9.46, with a 7-day increase of 21.4%, and a circulating market cap of $1.3 billion, ranking 77th; the in-game token SLP was priced at $0.0043, with a 30-day increase of 47%, and a circulating market cap of $170 million.

2. Metaverse Farming Game Pixels

Pixels was originally a pixel-style metaverse farming social casual game running on Polygon, which migrated to the Ronin network in October last year. In this game, players can earn token rewards by managing farms, such as cultivating land, collecting crops, wood, stone, and other resources.

On February 8, Pixels launched the 46th new coin mining project on Binance and announced the completion of $4.8 million in financing the next day, with participation from Framework Ventures, Yield Guild Games, Sky Mavis, and others.

The native token PIXEL was launched on Binance on February 19 at an issuance price of $0.04, peaking at $0.69, and has now fallen back to $0.49, with a circulating market cap of $380 million.

On February 28, the blockchain game Pixels announced the minting of pet pixel dog NFTs, which can enhance players' activity range in the game and increase inventory space, and will also play a role in future PVP modes.

The total issuance of this pet dog NFT is 3,000, aimed at players who have completed the "Key to Success" task in the game, with a minting fee of 500 PIXEL (approximately $250). As of the time of writing, the floor price of this NFT on Mavis Market is 180 RON (valued at $495).

3. Card Game Zoids Wild Arena

Zoids Wild Arena is a strategy TCG (trading card game) developed by the well-known Korean game company ACT Games. In this game, players can collect Zoids series mechanical creature cards as NFTs, supporting the use of 30 cards to build decks and battle each other for dominance.

Players can also compete in 1v1 matches, using their pre-built decks and taking turns to employ various strategies, winning by reducing their opponent's life points to zero.

In November last year, ACT Games announced that it would bring all its games to the Ronin network, with Zoids Wild Arena being the first game to migrate to Ronin.

4. Card Battle Game Apeiron

Apeiron is a card battle and deity simulation game where players take on the role of deities and engage in battles using a card-based real-time combat system.

In December last year, Apeiron announced its migration to the Ronin network and had previously completed a $10 million seed round financing led by Hashed in 2022.

On February 28, the public beta version of Apeiron Arena was released on the Epic Game Store, allowing players to download and participate in competitions to earn ANIMA airdrop points, which can be used to enhance and upgrade player character NFTs or staked in the game reward pool.

Currently, Apeiron has not issued a token.

5. Multiplayer Shooter Game The Machines Arena

The Machines Arena is a 4v4 multiplayer online shooter game where player characters are presented as virtual heroes, offering both single-player and multiplayer modes. Players will battle on a sci-fi battlefield as tanks or support heroes.

The developer of The Machines Arena, Directive Games, is a game development team based in Hong Kong, focusing on AR game development.

Currently, the game is in the closed beta phase, and players need to apply to participate.

Layer3 Gaming-Specific Chain XAI

Xai is a Layer3 network built by Offchain Labs based on the Arbitrum Nitro technology stack, specifically developed to meet the needs of Web3 gaming. It focuses on reducing Gas costs and enhancing network stability, and it is also the 43rd project on Binance Launchpool.

On February 28, Xai announced that its token XAI staking system v1 is now live, and the redemption function from esXAI to XAI is open. On the day of launch, the staked XAI tokens were valued at over $30 million.

The Xai network utilizes a dual-token economic mechanism of XAI and esXAI to maintain the balance of the ecosystem.

esXAI is non-transferable and obtained by locking XAI at a 1:1 ratio, primarily used to gain more benefits through staking, such as the V1 staking version that supports increasing staking levels by locking esXAI to enhance the frequency of XAI rewards.

XAI is the Gas payment and node reward token in the Xai network, and it is also the main token in its gaming ecosystem, serving as a payment asset for games and in-game items. The total issuance of XAI tokens is 2.5 billion, priced at $1.3 as of February 29, with a 14-day increase of 25% and a circulating market cap of $368 million.

Additionally, on February 18, Xai announced that it is researching a DAO proposal to allocate 100 million to 200 million ARB from Arbitrum for game development.

In June last year, Xai announced a partnership with the well-known game team ExPopulus to develop two games: the card game Final Form and the metaverse LAMOverse.

Currently, the Xai ecosystem has launched role-playing games like Tarochi, Final Form, LAMOverse, and origami-themed game Kashi, and has also launched products like Camelot DEX, Rarible NFT marketplace, and Web3 development toolkit Thirdweb.

On-Chain Game Representatives

1. RPG Game Tarochi

Tarochi is the first RPG game launched on Xai, developed based on the Paima platform engine, with gameplay similar to Pokémon, where players can explore, complete quests, battle, and capture monsters.

On February 11, Tarochi released the Genesis Trainer NFT, which can be used to accelerate game progress and preview new products. The NFT issuance was 10,000, selling out within 31 hours.

As of February 29, the Genesis Trainer NFT shows a trading volume of 60 ETH on the OpenSea platform, with a floor price of 0.0113 ETH.

2. Card Collecting Game Final Form

Final Form is a card collecting game developed by ExPopulus, where players can collect character cards and participate in battles to win rewards. The game is planned for release in April 2024.

3. Metaverse Game LAMOverse

LAMOverse is also developed by ExPopulus, providing players with a fully immersive and evolving universe where they can enter with a virtual identity and battle opponents for rewards. The game is set to launch in Q4 2024.

4. Action Game Carnivale

Carnivale is also developed by ExPopulus, an open-world action game set in a future century where humanity's main struggle has become the influence and control of information, and people must fight for it. The game is still in development.

ZK Layer2 Gaming Public Chain Immutable

Immutable, also known as Immutable X, was originally built using StarkEx technology, focusing on NFTs and GameFi as a zkRollup Layer2, featuring fast transaction confirmations, zero Gas fees, and high scalability. In March last year, Immutable shifted to collaborate with Polygon to develop the zkEVM network, announcing the launch of the Immutable zkEVM mainnet on January 30, which will be open to the public.

Currently, the Immutable ecosystem includes two Layer2 networks: Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM, with the main difference being that the Immutable X network does not support smart contracts. Additionally, it provides developers with relevant supporting infrastructure for developing NFTs and games, such as NFT marketplace development templates, NFT minting tools, and APIs to optimize NFT liquidity.

In December last year, Framework Ventures announced a strategic investment in the Immutable ecosystem, with the specific amount undisclosed.

According to the "2024 Annual Plan" released by Immutable on February 2, over 200 games have been launched on the Immutable network, with more than 100 based on Immutable zkEVM, and many games set to launch in 2024.

After the start of 2024, several games announced their entry into the Immutable ecosystem. Among them, on January 24, blockchain game developer Endless Clouds announced the addition of its two games, Treeverse and Capsule Heroes, to the Immutable zkEVM ecosystem; on February 3, RPG NFT game Pixelmon announced it would build on Immutable zkEVM and launch a battle arena.

According to the official website, the number of games integrated into the Immutable ecosystem has exceeded 150, with over 20 NFT and game asset trading markets, including well-known card game Gods Unchained (GODS), role-playing game Guild of Guardians, and battle game Illuvium (ILV).

As of March 1, the native token Immutable is priced at $3.22, with a 30-day increase of over 60%, and a circulating market cap of $4.47 billion, ranking 24th.

On-Chain Representative Games

1. Card Game Gods Unchained

Gods Unchained (GODS) is a strategy card game (TCG) developed by the Immutable X team, similar in gameplay to Blizzard's card game Hearthstone. The game features a temple with six different deity characters, allowing players to choose one character and build various tactical decks based on their existing card sets to reduce their opponent's life points to zero.

On February 29, the Gods Unchained game launched its early access version on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

GODS is the game token for Gods Unchained, with a total supply of 500 million, used for upgrading card levels and community governance voting. As of March 1, it is priced at $0.37, with a circulating market cap of $100 million and a 7-day increase of 35%.

2. Battle Game Illuvium

Illuvium (ILV) is a collectible and role-playing (RPG) game created by the brothers Kieran and Aaron, founders of Synthetix. In the game, players need to collect NFT creatures called Illuvials and form a team composed of Illuvials to compete in various modes.

The Illuvium ecosystem mainly includes three games: the open-world exploration mode Illuvium Overworld, the RPG battle mode Illuvium Arena, and the land management mode Illuvium Zero.

Illuvium Arena is an auto-battle game mode where players can form teams and compete in various modes, such as survival competitions;

Illuvium Overworld: an open-world adventure where players explore alien landscapes, capture beasts called Illuvials, and collect resources to enhance Illuvials' skills;

Illuvium Zero is a city-building game focused on strategy and city management, allowing players to build and manage digital complexes and profit from resources;

On February 14, Illuvium announced plans to launch the Illuvial Hunting game version of Illuvium: Overworld in Q2 2024, also known as the Illuvial hunting adventure game, enhancing the player's experience in the open world.

The game token for Illuvium is ILV, which can be used for community governance voting, decision-making on protocol revenue, and profit distribution, with a total issuance of 10 million. It is currently priced at $118, with a 7-day increase of over 25%, and a market cap of $740 million.

3. Card Battle Chain Game Shardbound

Shardbound was originally a PVP card battle strategy game launched by Spiritwalk Games, developed by the game studio Bazooka Tango. In March last year, it announced a partnership with Immutable to launch a blockchain game version, with over 80,000 registrations to date.

4. Fighting Shooter Game MetalCore

MetalCore is a fighting game themed around mech warriors, developed by Studio369. Players will control combat mechs or vehicles like planes and tanks to battle in a vast sandbox map for resources and loot, with plans for a public test before Q2 of this year.

The game completed a $15 million token and NFT sale financing in March 2022, led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Delphi Digital, with participation from Immutable, Animoca, and Yield Guild Games (YGG), Merit Circle, Avocado, and others.