Axie Infinity is the single largest NFT project of all time in terms of trading volume, but it has fallen on hard times in recent months between a failing play-to-earn economy and a $622 million hack to its Ronin network bridge. However, there are small signs of life that suggest that the top Ethereum NFT game might be mounting a comeback.
Over the past week, Axie Infinity NFT sales rose nearly 198% over the previous seven-day period, per data from CryptoSlam. Granted, the $1.38 million worth of NFTs is a small fraction of what Axie was selling last summer when it regularly topped $100 million in weekly sales, but it’s a notable week-over-week jump all the same.
Jeff Zirlin, co-founder of Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis, tweeted last Thursday that some 22,000 Axies had been sold in the previous 24 hours—a rise from 7,000 sold during a 24-hour span a few weeks prior, he suggested.
He added that downloads of the new Origin version of Axie Infinity—which implements a new battle system, visual upgrades, and other enhancements—were on the rise, and that 90% of Axie land owners had staked their NFTs to earn AXS token rewards. The land staking feature launched on June 30, and the tally has risen to 91% as of this writing.
“Nature is healing,” Zirlin added.
An NFT is a blockchain token that serves as a proof of ownership for an item. In the case of Axie Infinity, NFTs represent things like unique Axie monsters that users bring into battle, as well as virtual land plots that players can customize and monetize in the future.
Axie Infinity has dealt with significant challenges since near the end of 2021, as its AXS and SLP token prices collapsed amid a failing play-to-earn economy. The Ethereum-based game, which runs on the custom Ronin sidechain, is implementing a number of changes to make its token rewards model more sustainable.