Crypto gaming roars back to life. Top tokens surge up to 27% this week, hinting at a potential GameFi comeback after months in the dip.
TL;DR
- GameFi market showing signs of recovery, up nearly 13% this week
- 19 out of 20 top gaming tokens gained value, led by WEMIX at 27.20%
- Most active games: Pixels, BoomLand, Sweat Economy
- GombleGames exploded with an 827% increase in active wallets
- Key developments: Apple-Circle partnership, HTC's no-code game creator launch
Crypto Gaming 7-Day Recap
CoinMarketCap’s 7-day stats for 15 to 22 August 2024 are in and it looks like the beginning of a redemption arc for the top gaming tokens, while those silly meme coins are continuing to sink.
- After bottoming out post-Black Monday, the decentralized gaming industry is showing some signs of life again. The last week or so has seen a nice little rebound, and the market cap has clawed its way back from $15.7B to the $17B mark at the time of writing.
Still down overall, but hey, it doesn’t feel like Left4Dead anymore.
- We’re still down for the last month, being at $20.8B in late July, and taking that nasty nosedive in the beginning of August. But don't count it out yet.
GameFi Active Users and Volume
- According to DappRadar, Unique Active Wallets (UAW) remain steady at about 4.1 million, however, volume ranged between $20m and $6.7m this week.
If we look at the last 30 days, we can see Black Monday (Aug 5) being a huge outlier, as panicked crypto holders sold the bottom and the smart ones snapped up firesale tokens.
GameFi vs Other Sectors
- The DeFiLlama narrative tracker saw a great bounce for crypto gaming this week after it suffered a 28% drop in the previous period. It’s up nearly 13% when measured against the top 22 crypto narratives such as DeFi, and prediction markets, and ended the week in the 6th spot!
Top 20 GameFi Coin Movements This Week
This week was a sea of green for the biggest crypto-gaming tokens. The top 20 tokens bounced back strong after last week’s dismal dips, and most tokens pumped over the last 7 days, with 19 out of 20 gaining value.
WEMIX led with a 27.20% increase (after the gaming platform launched a new funding project this week) with Floki, BinaryX and Beam all posting 20+ percentage gains, while only Notcoin was down and basically broke even (-0.23%).
However, the YTD% column shows we have a long way to go. Only 3 tokens show positive year-to-date returns: launchpad BinaryX (420.62%), FLOKI (272.64%), and Telegram’s TapFi game Notcoin (25.72%), which has only been around a few months. The rest have significant losses, ranging from -1.67% (Chromia) to -64.01% (WEMIX).
This means that we’ll need a few more big green weekly candles before we can start getting excited about putting to bed a difficult year for most crypto gaming and Play-to-Earn tokens, with only a few standout performers bucking the overall downtrend.
Top Coins by Total GameFi Market Cap
Game-on Tweets
Most Played Games
According to DappRadar, the following games have had the most active user account wallets over the last 7 days. Several of these games don’t have a token yet.
GombleGames exploded this week with an 800%+ gain in new wallets, with a 3x the last 30 days. Further down the totem pole, MotoDEX also doubled its users this week.
Latest Blockchain Gaming News
- Apple and Circle partnership: Apple will allow USDC to be integrated into its apps, which could bring a huge inflow of crypto money into gaming on Ethereum.
- HTC Launches No-Code Game Creator in Viverse Metaverse: HTC has rolled out a no-code game creator within its Viverse Metaverse, enabling users to build and deploy games without any programming knowledge, thereby democratizing game development in the metaverse.
- Sui and Yield Guild Games Join Forces: Sui partners with Yield Guild Games (YGG) to enhance decentralized gaming, focusing on player ownership and scalable blockchain integration.
- Stratton Studios Works With PGA Tour for Web3 Golf Game: Stratton Studios is teaming up with the PGA Tour and Chain Games to launch "PGA Tour Rise," an innovative Web3 interactive golf game that integrates blockchain technology with traditional sports.
- Peter Molyneux Uses NFT Land Sales to Fund New Project: Game developer Peter Molyneux is leveraging NFT land sales from his previous blockchain game to fund his next project.
- Web3 Gaming's Future Mirrors Roblox: The future of Web3 gaming could follow Roblox's user-generated content and community-driven approach, moving away from simplistic tap-to-earn models that currently dominate.
What You Can Do
Gaming’s finally heading in the right direction again and with next month’s expected rate cuts and election race heating up, as well as a slew of conferences hitting Singapore such as Token2049, Solana Breakpoint and MemeCon, September could be a good month for crypto and its most neglected corner of gaming. I’ll most likely be there to see for myself.
Here’s what you can do:
- Play the games: Nothing beats hands-on experience for spotting the next big thing. Who knows, you might even have fun while doing "market research."
- Diversify across chains: Top games are spread over Ethereum, Ronin, Polygon, Solana, and more. Don't put all your eggs in one blockchain basket.
- Watch for game-changing partnerships: The Apple-Circle deal could be huge for Ethereum games. Keep your eyes peeled for similar power couples in the industry.
- Explore no-code game creation: With HTC's new no-code game creator, you could be the next GameFi mastermind. No coding skills required - just bring your imagination and maybe an energy drink or two.
- Stay informed but cautious: The sector's looking up, but most tokens are still in the red for the year. Do your homework before diving in. Remember, FOMO is not a valid investment strategy.
- Participate in early testing: Join playtests for upcoming games. It's like being a food critic but for pixels and blockchain instead of fancy restaurants.
- You can also use CoinMarketCap to track the portfolios of gaming studio giants like Animoca Brands and Nakamoto Games, so you can get exposure to well-funded new games early.
Remember, in GameFi, sometimes the best investors are the ones with the highest scores. So level up your knowledge, and may RNG be kind to your portfolio!
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