Axie Infinity (AXS), the second-largest crypto game token by market capital, surged 22% to over $72 after developer Sky Mavis outlined plans to improve community governance in the eponymous game and progressively decentralize its economy.
Reaction to the news was largely positive, helping AXS reach a two-month high. The token also saw trading volumes surge to nearly $2 billion. Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity is one of the most popular play-to-earn games. The game revolves around minting Ethereum-based NFT creatures, and battling with them.
Axie Infinity to bolster community governance
In an official blog post, the developer said it intended to implement measures that will eventually unlock AXS’ nearly $2 billion treasury to the community. It laid out a three-phase plan for moving the game into a fully-decentralized model, which will increase staking rewards and encourage community participation.
The proposal also included plans for AXS burning cycles to maintain stability- a move that is expected to largely benefit the token’s price.
Sky Mavis is also set to roll out a large-scale update to Axie, called Origins, by the end of March. Anticipation of the update has also supported AXS in recent weeks.
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. Shipping a very complex and quality product is hard. Engineers out there may empathize with this. We’re pushing!
Gaming tokens in the spotlight
Recent forays by top crypto exchange FTX, as well as PUBG developer Krafton into the crypto gaming space has seen tokens rally in the past week. AXS is sitting on a 7-day gain of 44%, and is the second-best performer this week.
Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection also said it was developing a metaverse game. The NFT giant also launched a token, ApeCoin, which has rapidly shot up in the ranks among popular gaming tokens.
