PancakeSwap Launches Crypto Gaming Hub—And You Can Earn CAKE

Decentralized exchange (DEX) PancakeSwap has launched a new platform to expand further into blockchain gaming. The PancakeSwap Gaming Marketplace went live Tuesday and initially features two games themed around the exchange and its whimsical branding, but the company aims to encourage other developers to create games for the ecosystem.

The company said in an announcement that the marketplace will allow gamers, developers, and the PancakeSwap community to "play, build, and connect." It comes after the launch of PancakeSwap's first GameFi title Pancake Protectors, developed with partner Mobox, which rolled out back in May.

Pancake Protectors, a tower defense game with CAKE token rewards, has seen over 25,000 daily players at peak, according to PancakeSwap. The gaming hub launched with another game that includes CAKE rewards called Pancake Mayor, which is published by BinaryX.

PancakeSwap said that the marketplace will give game developers access to the DEX's sizable user base, claiming that there are "1.5 million potential monthly players ready to embrace your creations." The platform is reportedly designed to make it easy for studios to integrate CAKE and PancakeSwap’s own NFTs for monetization and earnings options.

The DEX was originally launched on BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain), but has since expanded to support several other blockchain networks, including Ethereum and scaling networks including Polygon, Base, and Arbitrum One.

According to data from CoinGecko, PancakeSwap’s BNB Chain exchange (V3) logged the fifth highest token trading volume of any DEX over the past 24 hours with about $247 million worth, with the V2 protocol adding another $57 million to that tally and the Ethereum V3 DEX hitting about $25 million in volume during that span.

Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Andrew Hayward.