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The rise of play-to-earn gaming and games intertwined with DeFi and NFT mechanics has become wildly popular, and MOBOX NFT Farmer is one of the rising stars. These dapps attract record numbers of users, but they also provide an onramp to less savvy crypto and blockchain users who want to leap into web3.
MOBOX has become a regular entry in the DappRadar top ten charts on BNB Chain and across all networks and categories. Showing the strength of the NFT infused play-to-earn dapp and its broad appeal more clearly.
MOBOX: NFT farmer arrived on the BNB chain at the start of April 2021. It described itself as a unique infrastructure that builds on the growing DeFi ecosystem and combines it with gaming through NFTs. Using liquidity pools, yield farming, and NFTs, the GameFi infrastructure finds the best yield strategies for users and also generates unique NFTs that can be used across multiple games. This gives MOBOX users the ability to play for free and earn in a single process.
Moreover, MOBOX is a game dapp where players can stake liquidity provider (LP) tokens or stablecoins to obtain rewards in the form of yield farming tokens called KEYs. KEYs can later be used to unlock NFTs and, thus, be used as playing characters or staking assets in the MOBOX platform. MOBOX is the true representative of the GameFi movement. NFTs play an essential role in this ecosystem, as users need the MoMo NFTs to become active in the MOBOX ecosystem.
MOBOX and the BNB Chain
MOBOX: NFT Farmer launched on BNB Chain, then known as BINANCE Smart Chain. As a blockchain solution, BNB Chain suits the needs of MOBOX well as it’s EVM compatible and has multiple consensus layers and hubs to other blockchains. At the same time, the native BNB token facilitates cheap and fast transactions on the BNB Chain. Two major ingredients for any blockchain game to succeed.
Fundamentally, the team behind MOBOX built a decentralized exchange and NFT marketplace with a gamified layer over the top to attract users who perhaps wanted to benefit from the wonders of decentralized finance but were not quite sure how. Adding a gamified layer to proceedings means that users are onboarded through challenges and fun experiences, learning the intricacies of investing, yield farming, and NFTs.
At the start of the rise of GameFi
Mobox launched in April 2021, right around the time we reported that the blockchain industry grew 158% year on year, reaching 1 million in daily unique active wallets across all chains, driven mainly by gaming activity.
BNB Chain was the second most active blockchain, increasing its user base by 61% in April 2021. At this point, DeFi dapps were still responsible for 96% of all the blockchain activity on the BNB Chain. Still, the network was making clear steps to diversify into GameFi and NFTs, with the arrival of their own NFT Marketplace, play-to-earn games, and GameFi dapps. Gaming on Binance Smart Chain was still in its infancy but grew from basically nothing to 1,238 daily active wallets by the end of Q1 2021.
At this stage, the landscape was shifting radically, and MOBOX was ready to take off, along with the rest of the GameFi movement. Specifically propelled by buoyant NFT sales and a thirst for token utility and passive income opportunities.
Getting Started
In its first month, MOBOX attracted a substantial audience of just over 44,000 unique active wallets, an average of around 1,500 per day that completed more than 181,000 transactions, driving $23.1 million in transaction volume in April 2021.
Unique active wallets connecting to MOBOX then climbed to 152,000 in May, a daily average of 4,900, or three times more than April’s figure. Transaction volume leaped to more than $116 million, almost five times that of April, as users started to purchase NFTs and interact more with the DeFi mechanics that allowed them to add to liquidity pools and yield farms and earn from time spent in the MOBOX platform.
The platform started to plateau, and June and July results ran similarly to that of the previous two months. Nonetheless, a steady performance indicated that MOBOX had found the right formula to attract and retain users.
MOBOX climbs the DappRadar Rankings
At the end of July 2021, we issued a report focusing on gaming growth on the BNB Chain. Games on BNB Chain, offering a play-to-earn or financial incentive, were becoming increasingly popular. CryptoBlades, My Defi Pet, Mobox, and DungeonSwap saw their user base increase significantly. MOBOX secured third place in the DappRadar weekly rankings at that stage. With close to a 30% increase in unique active wallets, the NFT farming game platform steadily grew its user base.
In terms of volume, MOBOX was enjoying the benefits of NFT trading, processing close to $10 million in NFT sales volume in July. The combination of NFTs and play-to-earn mechanics was a winning one, as MOBOX steadily kept its ground among other blockchain games.
Then came August 2021, and the beginning of a play-to-earn and GameFi revolution, as investors, traders, and the wider crypto community rushed to find the next Axie Infinity and arguably the next significant gaming token to go on a run. This shift would see 1.54 million daily UAW on average interacting with a dapp and 49% of those interacting with a blockchain-based game by the end of Q3 2021. The road to mass adoption was becoming more apparent, and it indicated gamified finance to be the vessel the industry had been searching for.
MOBOX was perfectly positioned and had a few tricks up its sleeve to keep the momentum going they fought so hard to achieve in Q2 2021. As seen below, MOBOX doubled the number of unique active wallets connected to it and the number of transactions in Q3 2021. The main driver of this activity was MOBOX’s official introduction to Binance Launchpool.
Serious growth for MOBOX
We reported on August 20 that MOBOX had seen a significant uptick in unique active wallets in the past 24 hours. One of the main drivers for this increased activity was MOBOX’s official introduction to Binance Launchpool. MOBOX attracted 170% more users in the aftermath of the announcement, boosting the total number of visitors to over 28,900.
Binance Launchpool represented a serious booster opportunity for MOBOX, as it allowed users to stake their BNB, MBOX, and BUSD into separate pools to farm MBOX tokens over 30 days. Additionally, as one of the most significant initiatives put forward by the Binance ecosystem, MBOX’s introduction to the Launchpool significantly increased exposure for users who were not yet familiar with the NFT game.
Another critical factor in the surge in users on MOBOX in August was a series of raffle events the platform announced. Raffle prizes included unique MOMO NFTs as rewards, and as the signup deadline for raffles approached, more users started interacting with the platform.
Now things started to get interesting regarding the native token of MOBOX, MBOX. Brought about by increased MBOX trading activity that began to impact the price of MBOX positively as more value became locked in smart contracts and the platform’s attractiveness grew.
The MBOX token price started to climb from relatively modest beginnings as soon as the activities above launched. MBOX rose from $1.98 on August 18 to $9.77 on August 28. An increase of more than 393% in just ten days. Now, alongside a growing gaming community on BNB Chain, investors started to pay attention to MOBOX. Interestingly, MBOX’s price action was tied to the NFT raffle, as players needed MBOX tokens to enter.
All this, coupled with a surge in overall interest in GameFi and play-to-earn dapps on BNB Chain, set the scene for MOBOX to take it to the next level in September 2021. This happened after already showing real promise since launching just five months previously. However, the real challenge was to stabilize the number of daily users and avoid causing incentivized activity spikes whereby a fickle, reward-led community may emerge. Instead, MOBOX turned to more gaming mechanics to engage and retain its users.
The month it all changed
Daily active wallets leaped 172% from an average of 11,133 per day in August to more than 30,000 per day in September. More importantly, despite peaks and troughs caused more organically by the platform’s mechanics, the number of wallets interacting with MOBOX remained stable with a more general upward trajectory.
After a record-breaking month in August, MOBOX generated $65.4 million in NFT trading volume. September proved even more successful as the platform almost doubled its NFT trading volume to more than $109 million.
Even though MOBOX was now among the most used dapps in the broader ecosystem, the GameFi platform never showed up in the NFT collection rankings until the end of December 2021. On December 30, we reported that in a 24-hour period, NFT trading had increased 359% to $9.26 million, more NFT trading than Axie Infinity or Bored Apes, which was enough to earn MOBOX first place in the rankings.
The root cause was a new season of TokenMaster starting, inviting players to use their MoMo NFTs to earn MBOX tokens. Even more interesting is that players could rent a MoMo from the MOBOX NFT Marketplace. This allowed new players to join in and get a taste of MOBOX without a steep entry cost. Thanks to the sales boost, the MOBOX marketplace outperformed other prominent NFT marketplaces in December 2021, including the Axie Infinity, by considerable margins.
After a strong entry, sustained evolution, and peaking in December, MOBOX had firmly established itself and the BNB chain as a platform for GameFi. The game category on BNB Chain improved substantially in 2021, and it’s fair to say that 2021 saw the Gamification of DeFi or GameFi become an essential part of the Binance-branded network. Moreover, MOBOX established itself as one of the most played game platforms in the industry. The GameFi dapp attracted over 27,000 UAW on average per day in Q4 while generating $531 million in NFT sales.
2022 – The year of GameFi?
After such a strong year for both gaming and NFTs, the industry waited with bated breath to see if the trend would continue into 2022. NFT trading on MOBOX calmed considerably in January compared to the highs of December. NFT trading volume fell to $52 million in January, almost a third of December’s $145 million figure, continuing to fall further to $26 million in February and is currently $16 million for March.
However, despite falling NFT trading volumes in the first three months of 2022, the number of unique active wallets connecting to MOBOX increased in January 2022 by more than 2,000 per day, taking the daily average up to around 29,000 daily users from 27,000 in December. While NFTs may have hit a wall, players were still engaged with MOBOX and its mechanics.
Update to innovate
On January 25, 2022, we reported on the launch of Season 1 of the Mobox edition of Chainz Arena, a card trading and battling game that allows players to create custom decks and face opponents to win rewards, which subsequently boosted activity on the platform.
Chainz Arena had been a part of the Momoverse for some time. However, the new season brought essential changes to rewards. Starting on January 25th, Season 1 Chainz Arena players received MOMO coupons for playing. Every 1 MBOX consumed in Chainz Arena brought players a 0.15 MBOX coupon reward with coupons credited to the players in the next season. Additionally, the new season launched new characters into Chainz Arena. Nine new hero characters became available for players to choose from in Season 1.
The Mobox community anticipated the launch of Chainz Arena Mobox Edition Season 1. To celebrate, the MOBOX team decided to provide an additional 1,000,000 MBOX tokens to the initial pool reward. This further boosted excitement among gamers, who consequently flocked to try out the new season.
To further pad out the MOBOX offer the platform also introduced a new game mode in March 2022 called Moland Defense. Not only did the reveal of the tower defense game increase activity, but it also positively impacted the price of the native MBOX token. The announcement via the official MOBOX Twitter channel doesn’t reveal much other than informing the community to stay ready for the incoming alpha test alongside a short sneak peek video.
The announcement on March 9 caused a spike in activity on the MOBOX platform as new and old players headed in to see what the excitement was all about. In the 24 hours after the announcement the number of wallets connecting to MOBOX shot up more than 120% to almost 24,000. Those wallets completed 32,850 transactions, driving more than $390,000 in volume through the dapp’s smart contracts.
World and macro events take a toll
The conflict in Ukraine has exacerbated a negative trend in the crypto market, which was already suffering from a three-month bearish trend from November 2021. Following this sentiment, game dapps lost 13% of the daily usage registered in February. 1.1 million Unique Active Wallets (UAW) connected daily to a blockchain game on average, accounting for 49% of usage in the broader blockchain industry in February.
However, although attention shifted away from blockchain games in the short term, game trends and patterns signal that the outlook for this category is bullish, the amount of capital invested in game projects and infrastructure keeps growing. At the same time, the top play-to-earn and GameFi dapps across different blockchains have established a stable player base. MOBOX has retained a top ten spot and looks set to fight it out with other dapps as we progress further into 2022.
Interest in blockchain games keeps rising, as proved by the $720 million invested in February. With this, investment in this category in 2022 amounts to almost half of the total capital raised throughout 2021. In the same way, virtual worlds are experiencing a consolidation phase after the Meta hype cycle, solidifying even further the status of these types of dapps.
MOBOX: NFT Farmer in summary
After a strong 2021, the future of play-to-earn looks even brighter. The significant amount of capital raised certainly provides teams with additional ammo to continue developing and enhancing their current products. But perhaps more importantly, the masses are starting to realize the power of NFTs and play-to-earn games.
MOBOX has solidified its position within a competitive space, and it will be fascinating to see how they evolve the platform to retain and attract users. MOBOX made considerable strides in 2021, rubbing shoulders with arguably more established dapps such as Axie Infinity and Splinterlands.
On the other hand, there are specific challenges to tackle. The retention of users will be critical for MOBOX to keep expanding. The gameplay needs to be improved, but AAA games will help. The resistance of traditional gamers is also an obstacle to overcome. For example, the announcement of Ghost Recon NFTs was not taken positively by their player base, showing that there is still resistance on that side.
Without question, 2021 taught us that blockchain games are here to stay. The play-to-earn movement shifted the paradigm of traditional games allowing players to monetize their playing time, and became one of blockchain’s main headlines. On a planet with over 2.4 billion gamers and an unstoppable road towards a digital society, GameFi and dapps like MOBOX will become a key ingredient in blockchain’s march toward mass adoption.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
