The Web3 gaming sector looked extremely promising last week but lost momentum as the whole market is at a crossroads and sentiment is at levels last seen in the bear market.
TL;DR
- GameFi showed strong growth in January
- Ronin Network’s Forkast Prediction Markets launches
- Animoca Brands supports OpenZk Network
- Yuga Labs sells Meebits IP to focus on Otherside
- Gibraltar court freezes 450M PLAY tokens
Introduction
The Web3 gaming sector looked extremely promising last week but lost momentum as the whole market is at a crossroads and sentiment is at levels last seen in the bear market. There are some exciting games on the horizon, though, like World of Dypians that could possibly kickstart a GameFi Supercycle!
Bitcoin is starting to feel like a scene from Groundhog Day—everyday when we open the chart we are at $96K.
Market Overview
The GameFi market cap remained unchanged over the past seven days, closing at $14.77 billion.
The mini bounce we had was again rejected, but at least it has not failed yet. Maybe it's time to change the HOPIUM dealer!
The only gaming token from the top gainers over the last seven days that is not ded is Undead Games…simulation?
Source: CMC
According to DeFiLlama’s Narrative Tracker, GameFi was ranked 15th but at least outperformed Solana. Well, after their $LIBRA and Meteora meltdown, who didn’t?
Top Coin Movements
It feels like the top GameFi tokens, as well as the whole market, literally have no idea where they want to go. Sideways sucks so bad and is a slow drain on token prices.
Source: CMC
Top Gainers:
- FLOKI (FLOKI): +8.45%
- WEMIX (WEMIX): +4.27%
- Baby Doge Coin (BabyDoge): +4.18%
- Ronin (RON): +3.61%
- Binary X (BNX): +3.02%
Top Decliners:
- Echelon Prime (PRIME): -17.62%
- SKALE (SKL): -9.29%
- GoMining (GOMINING): -8.60%
- SuperVerse (SUPER): -7.87%
- ApeCoin (APE): -5.99%
Web3 Gaming Activity This Week
Ronin Network’s FORKAST Prediction Markets go live and you can predict, earn, and stake to unlock Loot Boxes.
Animoca Brands became an early contributor to OpenZk Network.
The Fableborne mint was a huge success and ended up being 160x oversubscribed.
GameFi’s adoption does not have a day without positive gains.
- LOL’s UAW soars by 43.47% as they collaborate with Voltix AI.
- Pixudi gains 4.05% while they partner with Camp Network.
- Sweat Economy rises by 2.81% and soon with NEAR Protocol’s Chain Abstraction you'll pay gas fees on any chain using just one token, SWEAT.
- World of Dypians is up by 1.71%. Their gameplay and graphics look sick!
- PlayEmber gains a modest 0.869% as they are unbothered, moisturized, and happy in their lane.
Latest Blockchain Gaming News
GameFi in January Showed Strong Growth
In the six-month period from August 2024 to January 2025, blockchain gaming saw tremendous grassroots growth, with daily on-chain activity tripling compared to the previous year. The sector recorded 7.3 million daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW), showing a 386% year-over-year increase.
Source: DR
Web3 gaming remained a key player in the decentralized application (DApp) ecosystem, reducing the engagement gap with DeFi to just 1%. A key trend was the increasing integration of AI into gaming.
Source: DR
Leading gaming blockchains like opBNB, Matchain, and Aptos saw strong activity, while emerging networks gained traction. Notable games such as World of Dypians, Age of Dino, and SERAPH: In The Darkness introduced new features and reward systems.
Yuga Labs Sells Meebits
Yuga Labs has sold the intellectual property (IP) rights of the Meebits collection to Meebit Company as part of its strategic shift toward focusing on Bored Ape Yacht Club and the development of the Otherside metaverse gaming project, a key priority in recent years that has delivered underwhelming results.
CEO Daniel Alegre previously stated that after an internal restructuring and workforce reduction in October 2023, the company would highlight Otherside’s growth while strengthening brand partnerships.
This approach also led to Yuga Labs acquiring Proof Collective and its Moonbirds NFT collection, which it intends to integrate into Otherside.
Neon Machine Settles Lawsuit
Neon Machine has settled a lawsuit filed by former investors in 2023, allowing the company to fully focus on developing its Web3 first-person shooter, Shrapnel. The dispute came from a disagreement over a token sale led by former CEO Mark Long, who has since left the company.
With the legal matter resolved, Shrapnel is set to launch on the Epic Games Store in 2025. The game integrates blockchain technology via the Avalanche network. The team has been hosting early access events throughout 2024, building a growing community ahead of its release.
Gibraltar Rocked by Play Token Freezen
The Supreme Court of Gibraltar has frozen over 450 million PLAY tokens as part of an ongoing legal dispute between Ready Makers Inc. and its Gibraltar-based subsidiary, Ready Maker Ltd. The court order requires the preservation of these digital assets, representing over 46% of the token’s supply. Over 439 million tokens have already been transferred to a court-appointed custodian.
The lawsuit alleges that former COO Christina Macedo improperly took ownership of Ready Maker Ltd. and its assets, including the $PLAY token. Macedo denies the claims, calling them baseless. This legal action follows a prior ruling by the Delaware Court of Chancery, which had ordered Ready Gibraltar to restore Ready Games' access to its technology infrastructure.
What You Can Do Now
- Focus on quality over hype: look out for games that people play for fun rather than just for earning.
- Check for real utility and in-game integration: projects where tokens and NFTs have multiple use cases within the game such as staking, upgrades, and crafting, tend to be more sustainable.
- Evaluate team experience and transparency: teams with a proven track record in gaming or blockchain are more likely to deliver.
- Assess community activity and growth: high player retention and active communities (Discord, Twitter, Reddit) show that a game can attract and keep players.
- Keep an eye on World of Dypians, as the game looks promising.This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
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This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
