Axie Origin: A Competitive New Business Model
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Axie Origin: A Competitive New Business Model
An overview of what we have learned with the game economics
A more dynamic business model
A month and a half after the season 1 official launch, we have some valuable insights to share about the opportunities the new Axie Origin economy has brought and some risks to avoid. A more dynamic and competitive gaming environment has been created, once SLP became less important in the game as other tokens like AXS/runes and charms were prioritized.
Axie Infinity now has a more balanced economy, in which SLP is naturally burned as it can improve the gameplay when burned to craft runes and charms, and today it is already possible to notice a scenario with more stability and predictability for players, especially for the best ones or those with a greater willingness to acquire meta teams. Today, players play for fun and they're more competitive players rather than casual ones.
By the way, with the runes and charms introduction, SLP has changed its role to become a strategic in-game asset rather than an earning token. Let's see why it is happening now!
SLP burning exceeding SLP minting
For several months people were expecting SLP to rise up again but the new economy is starting to position SLP more as a strategic in-game currency for exchanging it and getting new assets instead of using it for earnings purposes. Actually, it is being used as a key element to preserve the gaming economy.
SLP burning is now exceeding SLP minting, due to the introduction of runes and charms crafting. Jihoz addressed this topic during the AxieCon conference in Barcelona, revealing a 3:1 ratio between burning vs. minting.
Burning tokens is a common mechanism used to balance the economy of the game ecosystem. By burning tokens, it reduces supply, which curbs inflation. A burning event ensures that the reduced supply will mean that the remaining tokens could see their value rise.
It seems that the ultimate goal of the new game is to increase the number of users with a balanced economy, with expectations that can be fulfilled in the short and long term.
Actually, the current ratio between mints and burns is 4 SLP burned for every 1 minted showing clearly the economy getting more stable:
Quite soon, it’ll be officially permitted to buy and sell Axies automatically on the marketplace. This will also bring benefits to all community members who want to boost economic activity and liquidity.
Granting SLP for crafting
We have learned that using SLP to craft is very important for most builds to be competitive. Also, we learned that the prices of runes and charms in the first weeks of the season were higher and started to become cheaper after 2-3 weeks. Today, mystic runes are the most stable in price as we saw in the first 2 seasons, so that should be the goal for whoever is interested in crafting and selling runes and charms.
I will share more details about it at the end of this content, so keep reading!
Supply vs. demand
The change in the meta teams of Origin together with AXS prizes for competitive players has impacted the prices of some Axies in the marketplace. Since the beginning of season 1, Axies like tanks which are plants that generate healing and armor effects are getting difficult to be found. Other examples of current rare and expensive supply as below:
Axies with pocky cards (the Axie below costs today $262 USD)
Perch Pocky Seaslug
Tank Axie with Square Teeth (today there are only 8 available in the marketplace with a cost that goes from $300 to $2.6k USD)
Body parts like Kotaro's eyes that applies the death mark effect (current price goes from $90 to $655 USD)
As mentioned in the last edition, while there is a constraint of demand for basic teams, there is a lack of supply for those who play better and are qualified to reach the top of the ranking.
On the other hand, those who know how to combine old Axies with V3 cards, can make the best use of their supplies and build teams that will reach the challenger.
Today there is great idleness of NFTs, as the current user base requires less than the actual base of existing Axies. This phenomenon has brought opportunities for NFT holders who have idle Axies as some low-value from V2. Those Axies when combined with others from V3 and with runes and charms, can become worth much more. A simple Axie can easily start to value much more with the combination of a couple of cards.
For example, the beast below had a set of cards that didn't work well for V2. The eye and ear bugs made it a bad Axie (40 speed) - too slow to be competitive. Nowadays it is a meta Axie with high damage when combined with the Cottontail, Confident, Innocent Lamb, Kotaro?, Little Branch, and Ronin. The current cost of this Axie is $297 USD.
Also, we learned that top players don't need to be educated about supply. They want to try their own new combinations by creating new possibilities with more flexibility. Building teams became the most fun, creative and strategic activity in Origin.
Crafting Runes and Charms findings
We encourage all users to craft runes and charms by using their own earned SLP. We even incentivize with SLP rewards by offering bonuses to craft more runes and charms. Below are some findings we got with sharing SLP for crafting with our players:
Crafting and selling runes and charms at the beginning of a season yields better outcomes than doing it at the end of the season;
Using SLP to craft is important for players to get full sets of runes, and especially charms (up to 6 charms per Axie). If they only use free charms, they will be at a big disadvantage;
Encouraging crafting runes and charms is important as well as devising a process to sell them;
Mystics bring better outcomes overtime
;The longer the season goes the fewer value runes and charms should have. A Bubble Past which is an Aqua charm was $25 at the start of the season and is now $12;
Moonshards and SLP earnings are both variable based on rank stage, but generally, moonshards are earned at a rate of greater than 10:1;
Important to promote a balance in players using their own runes and charms versus selling them;
Finally, there is an important fact that deserves to be mentioned!
AXS unlock as a community mitigation
Recently, 21,543,000 AXS ($215M) were unlocked. Advisors unlocked 2,501,750 AXS ($25M), and Private Sale unlocked 1,997,500 AXS ($20M).
It has been unlocked 4 times in the past, on November 4, 2020, May 3, 2021, October 30, 2021, and April 28, 2022. Based on historical tracking AXS price may drop on some occasions after unlocking.
Even if tokens are unlocked it does not mean they are in circulation immediately. According to the unlock schedule, there could be 151M tokens in the market, but there are only 102,6M in circulation.
While some say it could be another possible downsize, according to Sky Mavis's announcement on Twitter, most of the unlocked tokens from staking, p2e, ecosystem funds, and advisors are left in the vesting contract or follow a separate issuance. Axie world championship and seasonal rewards come from p2e allocation, for example.
Based on the same Sky Mavi's announcement on Twitter, besides the advisors and private sale sharing, a representative portion of those tokens has been used as a reward system for players with the aim of adding value to the Axie Infinity community making it sustainable over time.
It is important to follow the next steps, but it is also relevant to mention that Axie Infinity AXS as a governance token has the role of influencing the allocation of capital within the community treasury, addressing a direct influence on AXS holders.
1 Tip a Day
(for the next 15 days)
The in-game economy shows a more stable ecosystem;
SLP Mints and burns ratio showing an economic balance trend;
SLP became less important in the game as other tokens like AXS/runes and charms were prioritized
;Predictability for players, especially for the best ones or those with a greater willingness to acquire meta teams;
Players play for fun and they're more competitive rather than casual ones;
Axie official trading on the marketplace will boost economic activity and liquidity quite soon;
Crafting and selling runes and charms at the beginning of a season yields better outcomes than doing it at the end of the season;
Mystics runes bring better outcomes overtime;
Using SLP to craft is important for players especially to get full sets of charms;
Good supply options getting rare and expensive in the marketplace;
Pocky cards, Tank Axie with Square Teeth, and Kotaro's eyes getting rare but very useful for climbing the leaderboard. Try to get the most similar combinations as possible;
There are still opportunities for NFT holders who have idle Axies as some low-value from V2 to be combined with V3 and runes and charms;
Top players don't need to be educated about supply, they only want to have flexibility on NFT choice;
October 25th: AXS unlock
Even though previous unlocks made the price decrease, AXS as a governance token has the role of influencing the allocation of capital within the community treasury.