Against The Sentiment: AXS Skyrockets 55% to New ATH as Axie Infinity’s Income Surge
While Bitcoin remains price bound and Tether borrowing rates are declining, NFT sales went parabolic in the first half of 2021, and some continue to thrive in a place of mainstream cryptocurrencies. The NFT marketplace is currently being dominated by a token related to the online game Axie Infinity, known as Axie Infinity Shards.
Demand for Axie Infinity Shards
Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) has increased almost 400% in price in less than one month, with a market cap peaking at over $1 billion on July 10th, according to CoinGecko.
AXS recorded its all-time high just earlier today, as the cryptocurrency touched $19.63 following a 55% daily increase. AXS was trading for approximately $0.5 only less than a year ago.
An analysis of Axie Infinity’s revenue versus its fully-diluted market capitalization shows that the market cap is rising alongside Axie’s income.
The fact that this is taking place during a somewhat Bitcoin bear market may demonstrate Axie Infinity’s thrivability despite poor market conditions, as it suggests that people are actually trading and investing in AXS rather than merely speculating on its price.
The token’s 30-day trading volume is now over $260 million, almost totaling the volume of NBA Top Shots, CryptoPunks, and OpenSea combined.
People are already using the money earned from trading AXS to purchase real-world commodities and necessities, such as this 22-year old who just bought 2 houses and this man who just bought a plot of land. What’s more, people are earning their AXS simply by playing the token’s native game, Axie Infinity.
Axie Infinity Explained
According to its whitepaper, Axie Infinity takes a universe and gameplay model inspired by Pokémon and combines it with a blockchain-based technological design. Players “battle, collect, raise, and build a land-based kingdom for their pets” and are rewarded with Axie Infinity Shards for their contributions.
In turn, AXS can be staked to earn in-game rewards, play the game, and also give holders the power to participate in governance votes.
Of course, AXS can also be traded on exchanges such as Binance AVATrade, and most recently – added by Kraken, for fiat or other cryptos, alongside another NFT from the Axie universe known as “Small Love Potions (SLP).” Thus, playing the game can be a legitimate source of income, and people are quickly catching on to that fact.
Axie Infinity is now responsible for both the most highly traded gaming token on the market as well as the largest NFT sale to date after someone purchased $1.5m of virtual land within the same game.
