‘Play-to-Earn’ Gaming Token Behind Axie Infinity Jumps 13%

By Liam J. Kelly

The bulls are back, giving the AXS crypto gaming token a major boost. Over the past 24 hours, the native cryptocurrency that powers the popular "play-to-earn" game Axie Infinity has shot up by over 13%. 

AXS is the game's governance token, which will eventually allow holders to vote on different changes or make proposals about how to improve the game. 

The token is currently trading at $72.35, according to CoinMarketCap. 

Axie Infinity was one of the first successful crypto games to leverage cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to enhance its gameplay. 

The game itself is simple: Users mint Axies as NFTs (Pokémon-esque virtual creatures) and then battle them against other Axies to earn an in-game token called Smooth Love Potion (SLP). Users can then use these SLP tokens to "breed" more Axies and continue playing. 

The Axies, AXS, and SLP tokens all have real monetary value too, hence the phrase play-to-earn. 

To the layperson, it's a bit intimidating, but that hasn't stopped the game from becoming hugely popular in places like the Phillippines and Indonesia, where players are making a living using money earned from playing. 

What's behind the AXS rise?

The primary motor behind the recent move in price appears to be fueled by an announcement made today. 

The Axie Infinity team outlined plans for giving its community of AXS token-holders control over the project's roughly $1 billion treasury. With so much money at stake, the Axie team explained how it would hand this control over in a "stepwise" process, which can be boiled down to "progressive decentralization." 

However, the ultimate goal is enabling full governance that is both "substantive and meaningful," the post continues. 

By holding a token, users will eventually be able to change the game's tokenomics, use the treasury to invest in new initiatives, or increase staking rewards. And gaining influence over these potential changes means scooping up the game's governance token. The envisaged plan thus explains part of the reason behind the rise in AXS' price. 

The price also appears to be reacting to an upcoming revamp to the Axie Infinity game. 

Slated for Q1 2022, Origins, the update's name, is expected to go live "by the end of the month," according to Axie's product lead Philip La. 

"To clarify, we're still aiming to get Origin out by end of the month. It's cutting close but our engineers are working non-stop to polish and fix bugs," tweeted La on Tuesday. "Shipping a very complex and quality product is hard. Engineers out there may empathize with this. We're pushing!"

According to an announcement post made in February, the update will improve the game's graphics, game design, and storylines.

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