Axie Infinity NFT sales are rising in the middle of the “Play-and-earn” transition.

Axie Infinity is largest single NFT project of all time in terms of trading volume, but it has fallen on hard times in recent months between a failing games to earn money and a $ 622 million hack to the Ronin Network Bridge. However, there are small signs of life that indicate that the top Ethereum The NFT game may make a comeback.

Over the past week, Axie Infinity NFT sales have increased by almost 198% over the previous seven-day period, per data from CryptoSlam. Admittedly worth $ 1.38 million NFTs is a small fraction of what Axie sold last summer as it regularly topped $ 100 million in weekly sales, but it is still a remarkable jump from week to week.

Jeff Zirlin, co-founder of Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis, tweeted last Thursday that around 22,000 axes had been sold in the last 24 hours – an increase from 7,000 sold in a 24-hour span a few weeks before, he suggested.

He added that downloads of new Origin version of Axie Infinity– which implements a new combat system, visual upgrades and other improvements – was on the rise, and that 90% of Axie owners had invested their NFTs to earn AXS token rewards. The landtaking function was launched on 30 June, and the count has increased to 91% as of this writing.

“Nature is healing,” Zirlin added.

An NFT is a blockchain token that serves as proof of ownership of an item. When it comes to Axie Infinity, NFTs represent things like unique Axie monsters that users bring into battle, as well as virtual lands that players can customize and monetize in the future.

Axie Infinity has faced significant challenges since near the end of 2021, when the prices of AXS and SLP tokens collapsed in the middle of a failing games to earn money. The Ethereum-based game, which runs on the custom Ronin side chain, implements a number of changes to make its symbolic reward model more sustainable. However, both token prices are still significantly down.

AXS is currently priced at around $ 14 per token, according to CoinMarketCap, down 91% from the peak price of almost $ 165 set in November, and 22% just last month. The SLP token, meanwhile, is valued at almost $ 0.004 – a 99% fall from the July 2021 peak of almost $ 0.40, and down almost 20% over the last 30 days.

On top of the financial problems, the bridge that connects Ronin with Ethereum the main network our hacked in March and utilized for $ 622 million by ETH and USDC stablecoin. North Korea’s infamous state-sponsored hacker group Lazarus was established as the culprit by the US Treasury Secretarywho sanctioned wallet used in the attack.

Sky Mavis reopened the bridge in late June and fully refunded users if cryptocurrencies were stolen, although the value of ETH has fallen significantly since the hack due to a broader correction of the crypto market. The developer raised $ 150 million in additional funding to help reimburse fuel, and is still working with police to recover stolen funds from the hack.

IN a blog post yesterday, Sky Mavis Game Product Lead Philip La wrote that media reports about the game’s declining token and NFT awards present “misleading stories” about the game. He pointed to the ongoing transition from the previous one play to earn version of Axie Infinity for the new “play-and-earn ”Original version.

Origin is available to play in a soft launch format that does not yet offer token rewards. Sky Mavis also plans to expand the game to official mobile app marketplaces, as Origin does not require NFTs to play due to new free-to-play starting monsters. He wrote that Sky Mavis also actively hires and continues to build the Axie ecosystem through grants and other initiatives.

“The game still exists with major improvements that are rolled out regularly, and we will continue to come out with more games that apply all the learning we have had over time,” La wrote. “The story that we are in an existential state and running out of time is false.”

Whether Axie Infinity’s short-term NFT sales growth will become an ongoing trend – and whether the game can recapture the huge buzz from 2021 – remains to be seen. But Sky Mavis is apparently still building with such a turnaround operation in mind.

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