Axie Infinity, arguably the most popular play-to-earn opportunity out there, has seen activity on its smart contracts spike with the launch of the first Ronin-based decentralized exchange. The game attracted more than 375.000 unique active wallets in the past 7 days, with a clear peak after the launch of Katana.
Katana DEX was officially introduced only several days ago. Still, the Sky Mavis team is already reaping the benefits of this new launch. In the past seven days, activity for Axie Infinity spiked more than 25%. Upwards of 375.580 players interacted with the game. Additionally, Axie smart contracts recorded more than 3 million transactions, which generated upwards of $672 million in trading volume.
Furthermore, the Axie Infinity marketplace attracted 272.899 traders in the past week, who generated upwards of $203 million in trading volume. This represents a 57% increase in the user base week-on-week. All of the top five most expensive purchases on the marketplace for the past week happened after Katana launched. Impressively, out of the top five, the cheapest purchase was for 8.8 WETH, or more than $40.000.
Katana DEX boosts Axie Infinity
While at first glance, it might seem that a DEX cannot have such a significant impact on a blockchain-based game. However, the case with Katana is a little more nuanced. Since Axie Infinity moved to the Ronin sidechain in May, game activity has exploded. However, one main struggle remained for players, who still had to go through Ethereum-based exchanges to secure much-needed in-game tokens like AXS and SLP.
With Katana DEX, the Sky Mavis team has officially closed the cycle and allows players to stay entirely on Ronin for all trading activity related to the game. This is a significant step forward in making Axie Infinity more accessible. Ethereum still has notoriously high gas fees for transaction processing, which effectively hampered players from enjoying an affordable play-to-earn experience.
With Katana, transactions are now processed on the Ronin sidechain at a fraction of the cost. Players can easily purchase AXS, SLP, and WETH with fiat thanks to the integrated Ramp service. You can also easily swap between your in-game assets and USDC. Last but not least, the staking and pooling features allow players to earn passive income from their AXS and SLP.
Ronin now hosts a complete ecosystem
Initially Sky Mavis introduced the Ronin sidechain as a solution to high gas fees on Ethereum. However, Sky Mavis is now working towards a whole ecosystem of dapps. Of course, Axie Infinity remains the central and most important dapp on the chain. However, with Katana DEX, the team has now opened up a whole new experience for players.
By the looks of it, Sky Mavis is on a mission to make Ronin a complete ecosystem of Axie Infinity-centered dapps. This somewhat unconventional approach has attracted the community’s attention, effectively strengthening their dedication to the game. Sky Mavis is on a revolutionary path, both in terms of the gaming industry and in terms of community-building and player satisfaction.
DappRadar will continue monitoring Axie Infinity and the whole Ronin ecosystem. You can easily track it yourself too, as the Ronin sidechain is now fully integrated on the DappRadar Rankings page. Check out the handy links below to learn more about Axie Infinity, Katana, or the in-game assets you can swap, pool, and farm.
