After the release of a new in-game season and a significant NFT sale, Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network has been steadily increasing in popularity. According to CoinGecko data, RON, the native token of the Ethereum-based Ronin Network, unexpectedly surged to an almost two-year high of $2.89, representing a 5% increase in a single day and a significant 57% surge over the previous 30 days.

The momentum and increase in users of Ronin Network

Recently, Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain created especially for cryptocurrency games, has seen an upsurge in momentum and user base. The popularity of Pixels, a communal farming game that moved from rival Ethereum scaler Polygon last autumn, is partly responsible for this upsurge. The play-to-airdrop program in the game, which gives top players incentives in PIXEL tokens, has greatly aided in the increase in Ronin users.

The Part Played by Axie Infinity in the Ronin Token Boom

Two noteworthy occurrences inside the Axie Infinity ecosystem are responsible for the most recent surge in the value of the RON token. Tuesday marked the start of the seventh in-game competition season for Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity and the original designer of Ronin in 2021. Season 7, dubbed “Epic Era,” offers significant awards, such as around 13.7 million SLP tokens and 18,900 AXS, which add up to a combined value of about $175,000.

The trend was maintained when, early on Wednesday, an extremely rare NFT monster from Axie Infinity sold for 105 Ethereum, which at the time was around $246,000. Co-founder of Axie Infinity Jeff Zirlin revealed on Twitter that the Agamogenesis Axie NFT in question was first sold for 6 ETH in 2018, at a time when that sum was valued at approximately $3,300.

The Amazing Success of Axie Infinity in 2021

It is impossible to overestimate Axie Infinity’s success in 2021—the NFT-based monster-battling game brought in millions of active players and billions of dollars in NFT trading activity.

In early 2022, the play-to-earn economics of the game encountered difficulties despite its extraordinary success, and the Ethereum bridge connecting the Ronin network was compromised for an astounding $622 million. However, Sky Mavis accepted responsibility for the event and reimbursed the impacted Ronin users. Since then, Sky Mavis has been progressively adding more independent game studios to the Ronin network, resulting in an evolution of the Axie ecology.

The recent spike in the price of the Ronin token demonstrates the delicate relationship between blockchain-based games, NFTs, and their corresponding tokens. Axie Infinity’s success and Ronin’s increased popularity are examples of how blockchain technology has the potential to transform the gaming industry, create new business models, and support a thriving ecosystem around decentralized gaming platforms. In the upcoming months, it will be interesting to see how these events play out as the gaming and blockchain sectors continue to intersect.