Traders are tracking the fate of a new Ethereum-based crypto asset that just hit the scene.
Axie Infinity (AXS) immediately rose to a $10 million market cap upon its launch on Wednesday.
The project is inspired by the trading card and video game phenomenon Pokémon, allowing users to collect digital pets and earn AXS through skilled gameplay as well as by helping to power the network.
Players can hold custom, tokenized plots of land as well as trade blockchain-backed items with players around the world. The coin has corrected since its debut as it enters price discovery mode, with the project now holding a $6,927,044 market cap at time of publishing, according to CoinGecko.
The coin debuted on Binance Launchpad and is backed by the crypto research firm Delphi Digital.
“Delphi Ventures has invested in Axie Infinity’s upcoming governance token (which we played a big role in designing).
[On October 28th] our team purchased 5 Axies for 473.5 ETH worth ~$159k at that time. Recent market moves may have pushed some to the sidelines but we saw the recent turmoil as an opportunity.
An opportunity to spend a lot of money on digital battle pets. While this may appear to be a confusing impulse buy at first glance, spurred on by the recent hype around NFTs, it’s actually a purchase we’ve been patiently waiting to make ever since we started Delphi.”
The project has launched well after the market for decentralized finance (DeFi) assets hit its top.
DeFi volume has plummeted over the last month according to Dune Analytics, moving from a record $8 billion in September to about $3 billion at the end of October.
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Yuganov Konstantin