Axie Infinity – Vietnam’s short-lived pride in the world’s crypto-gaming industry

Axie Infinity could be considered Vietnam’s most successful online game in history with worldwide attention, but its downfall has left much regret and disappointment.

Nguyen Thanh Trung, CEO and founder of Sky Mavis.

Hoang Vinh, a white-collar worker from Hanoi, spent most of his free time after work playing games. One year ago, he found out about Axie Infinity and has been committed to the game since.

The gameplay is quite simple. Players raise and fight cute-looking digital monsters called Axis. But the selling point was the “play-to-earn” model, according to which players are rewarded for their efforts with cryptocurrency tokens called Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), and later exchanged for real money.

At its peak, each AXS was traded at US$164, and then later stabilized at around $65-70.

“Players can earn a lot of money without having to spend a dime, and that is very attractive,” Vinh told The Hanoi Times.

Given the huge benefits for players, Axie Infinity soon became a phenomenon not only in Vietnam but also around the world.

Axi Infinity was once valued at around $3 billion, with a market capitalization of $10 billion, and a total transaction value of $2 million per day.

It was not a distant dream at that time that many saw Axie Infinity would be the beginning of Vietnam's quest to become a superpower in the world’s crypto-gaming industry, which is still in its infancy.

But then came an unexpected turn and that fateful day was on March 23, 2022, when hackers took away $620 million worth of cryptocurrency from the game – the biggest heist in crypto history.

Later, many blamed Sky Mavis, the game developer, as they ignored the necessity to adopt protection measures amid the rising number of players.

Before the hack, each AXS was traded at $70 but then kept declining to around $13 per token. At present, the market capitalization is around $1 billion, or one-tenth of the peak, and many predicted the figure to further decrease in the coming time.

The game interface.

The damage was severe for both Sky Mavis and players. At the time when the game was launched, players only need to spend $50 to purchase game items and earn $20-30 per week. The high profit kept luring players and spent around $1,000 to have a steady stream of returns.

Statistics revealed that 80% of Axie Infinity’s players are investors and pro-gamers, those who considered playing the game as a job rather than a hobby to kill time.

“In early March 2022, I invested over VND1 billion ($42,700) into the game, but after it was hacked, everything suddenly collapsed as AXS’s value was in a free fall. This means all of my money is now gone,” Vinh said.

Many share Vinh’s sentiment at discussions on Axie Infinity game on social networks and forums online, with the common theme being to quit and turn to new play-to-earn games that are being launched every day.

Grim future

At present, no one would bet on the recovery of Axie Infinity, even Sky Mavis seems to have no clue on how to revive the game.

Rumors emerged online that the developer would launch a new version that includes free-to-play elements to attract new players. But Nguyen Thanh Trung, CEO, and founder of Sky Mavis refused to give a clear timeline on the launch.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Zirlin, another co-founder of Sky Mavis, said this would help cleanse the market from gamers who only play for money, much to the displease of the remaining base of players.

Blockchain expert Dinh Van Hoang said the recovery of Axie Infinity seems to be far away, as players have now lost confidence, not to mention their huge financial losses.

“A major part of the success of Axie Infinity came from its timing, as the crypto-gaming industry was still in its inception. Now, the market is full of play-to-earn games with even better money-making mechanisms,” Hoang added.

“It is almost impossible for Axie Infinity to come back,” he said. Axie Infinity, while its success is short-lived, is still no doubt left its marks on the world’s gaming industry and is an inspiration for many local gaming developers in the hugely promising crypto-gaming industry.