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In 2021, play-to-earn (P2E) gaming was one of the hottest areas in the crypto market, and given the Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club’s recent moves, the crypto gaming industry may continue to take the lead in 2022.
Axie Infinity (AXS) was the first P2E game to garner worldwide attention and demonstrate the potential of P2E. P2E gaming is showing more and more potential as the protocol prepares itself for the next major launch.
According to TradingView, the price of Axie Infinity had soared 56.5% over the last ten days when a rise in its 24-hour trading volume on March 24 brought AXS to a daily high of $69.82.
AXS/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
On March 14, before the latest price increase, AXS started to show a bullish outlook, as detected by the VORTECS™ Score from Cointelegraph Markets Pro. The VORTECS™ Score is an algorithmic assessment of past and present market climate based on various data factors such as trading volume, market sentiment, price fluctuations, and Twitter activity.
VORTECS™ Score for AXS. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for AXS became positive on March 14 and reached a high of 78 roughly 24 hours later, before the price started a 52.32% surge over the next nine days.
The approaching debut of Axie Infinity Origin, the stable growth of active users and AXS stakes, and the growing popularity of the Ronin sidechain that allows Axie Infinity gaming, are three reasons for the increasing AXS’s price.
Axie Infinity: Origin Is Coming!
The most prominent development underway helping to strengthen AXS’s future outlook is the impending launch of Axie Infinity Origin in the coming weeks.
https://twitter.com/philipla/status/1506337410149326852
According to a recent Delphi Digital report, Origin is an entirely reinvented version of the well-known Axie Battles game.
Origin will include new game features to enhance the overall player experience, including free starting Axies to entice new players, a reworked storyline to add depth to the player experience, and active cards for the eye and ear body parts.
Additionally, the update will have such new in-game items as runes and charms that will serve as Axies power-ups and require users to burn the platform’s native SLP token.
The Number Of AXS Users And Investors Is Rising.
According to Dune Analytics statistics, the soaring price of AXS has also been boosted by the continually growing Axie Infinity user base, which has already surpassed 207,209 total users.
Total user count of Axie Infinity. Source: Dune Analytics
While the rate of new users joining the ecosystem has slowed in tandem with the overall bitcoin ecosystem’s activity, the rise is still considerable, and signals continued popularity.
Non-gamers have also been enticed to invest in AXS via the Axie Infinity platform, which now offers a 73% staking reward.
As seen in the chart above, almost one-third of the AXS circulating supply is presently staked on the protocol, resulting in a total daily payout of 50,516 AXS.
The Ronin Network Is Expanding Continuously
A third reason boosting Axie Infinity is the rise of the Ronin network, an Ethereum (ETH) sidechain built for Axie Infinity by Sky Mavis that is quickly becoming the de facto NFT scaling option for crypto games.
While Axie Infinity is the only game presently operating on Ronin, the network has continuously ranked in the top three in terms of total value locked (TVL) compared to other Ethereum bridges, with roughly $3.4 billion in value locked on Ronin.
Total value locked on Ethereum bridges. Source: Dune Analytics
According to Delphi Digital, that will soon change, as third-party developers will introduce applications to Ronin, including more than 1,000 apps from teams aspiring to build on Ronin.
This may result in an influx of new users to the Ronin ecosystem, which may boost Axie Infinity when new users check out the network’s top-performing projects.axie-infinitys-axs-price-saw-a-50-surge-ahead-of-origin-launch