Games based on blockchain have had a terrible year. Tokens for digital games have, on average, lost 75% of their market value this year.
Even the most prominent cryptocurrency gaming tokens are no longer popular. Year-to-date, the value of the native tickets of DecentraLand (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND) has decreased by 78% and 85%, respectively.
Every month, it appears to become worse. SAND’s market value decreased by 8% during the previous 30 days. The AXE token price and SLP token price both fell by 10% and 15%, respectively, for Axie Infinity. WAX on the blockchain fell 12%.
40% of Axie Infinity players have stopped playing since the Ronin bridge hack in March, according to a DappRadar analysis.
The fall has been covered by Protos recently. The collapse of play-to-earn games, virtual real estate, and the metaverse were all previously covered by us. Nevertheless, investors are investing money in cryptocurrency gambling. After all, the industry is still in its infancy and is expected to grow to trillions of dollars by 2030.
Despite the bear market, venture capitalists continued to invest $2.5 billion in blockchain gaming in the second quarter of 2022. To concentrate on blockchain gaming investments, creator monetization, and the development of digital asset infrastructure, A16z established a new $4.5 billion “Crypto Fund 4”.
With $748 million invested in blockchain gaming and metaverse properties in August 2022, venture capitalists appear optimistic about the sector’s future.
Fractal’s gaming platform established fractal Developers in Solana to assist those creating blockchain-based games. It contains APIs for creating in-game marketplaces and introducing a sign-in mechanism for non-custodial wallets.
A chain being developed by Mythical Games will work with Ethereum Virtual Machines. CEO John Linden stated that the company had been working on a test net version but had been holding off until the Merge because Ethereum fees were too high.
The company’s first software-as-a-service, Omniverse Cloud Services, was introduced by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Huang referred to it as a forum for creators of metaverse properties, including artists, developers, and businesses.
Several Crypto Games Are Thriving
The BNB-based gaming platform MOBOX asserts to run six games with 3.5 million players who have registered. In August, it announced growth, opened a digital asset market, provided Coinbase Wallet users free in-game loot, and agreed to a minor sponsorship arrangement with Polkastarter Gaming.
In September, Benji Bananas claimed a more than 100X increase in monthly transactions and a 15X rise in monthly active users.
Since its brand makeover in June, SplinterLands has finished three billion battles and reached 168,000 daily unique active wallets. It disclosed that the Major League Soccer Players Association intended to host a play-to-earn virtual soccer match using SplinterLands.
Despite the lack of good news in the crypto gaming sector, it is more significant than Defi. Blockchain games have more active players than Defi apps. In September, 885,431 on-chain users participated in games; added 402,965 active users to Defi apps over the same period.
A widow, who had recently lost her husband and brother to brain cancer, fell victim to online seduction and was duped out of £53,000 ($60,400) by making fake cryptocurrency investments. Her building society, comparable to a credit union, initially refused to reimburse her, but after she sent a letter to a newspaper, they were forced to give in.
In a Telegraph article, the unidentified 50-year-old widow and single mother described her experience with a cryptocurrency scammer. She said she had given the man who claimed to be falling for her the enormous sum of money.
The impact this deception is having on her has been more challenging to deal with than losing her husband to brain disease, she stated.
After Nationwide, a building society declined to get involved. The Telegraph approached a financial ombudsman with her story of a “wicked fraud” taking advantage of “tragic circumstances.” It ruled in her favor and ordered Nationwide to pay the widow’s damages.
The widow made a cryptocurrency investment.
The UK widow was prepared to rediscover happiness in the fall of last year. Her spouse passed dead from the same condition in 2020, and her sibling died from it in 2019.
She signed up for an internet dating service and connected with a guy she called “caring.” After a few video calls, she started to feel something for him.
Then, in November, the individual asserted that he was associated with a company’s growth into cryptocurrencies. Additionally, he talked about how his new position as marketing director required him to find possible investors as part of his duties.
A UK “Tinder scammer” who lost access to his Bitcoin risks an additional two years in prison.
In the UK, cryptocurrency scams are widespread, and many con artists develop romantic relationships with their victims.
He asserted that it was challenging to locate financial suitors. He enquired in December as to her interest in investing. She claimed to be cautious with money and needed time to consider her options.
He began to persuade her by sending her emails with forged signatures attached to real company names and investment firms to make them appear credible. It worked; she made an initial investment of £2,000 ($2,300) before making an additional investment of £51,000 ($58,300) a few weeks later.
He subsequently stopped responding to her calls and texts, canceled their meeting, and deleted his WhatsApp profile photo. She asked her buddies for assistance. They recognized right away that she had been duped.
Constructing society declined to assist.
After Nationwide declined to assist in getting her money back, she went to a newspaper columnist. The statement read, “We intervened when the consumer initially started making payments out of character, and she was provided a warning for this type of scam before each transaction.
The Telegraph columnist thought that this refusal was unreasonable for some reasons, though:
The building society was aware of her vulnerability due to her husband’s passing.
Only one “glossed over” phone call was made to her by Nationwide to verify her transactions.
Money was sent to her cryptocurrency account, which led the society to assert that there was no proof of a hoax.
The Telegraph requested that everyone reimburse the writer due to the sophistication of the fraud and her tragic circumstances. They refused, arguing that the widow should have taken additional steps to stop the scam.
In London’s financial area, cryptocurrency thieves target smartphones.
The Financial Ombudsman Service, a UK regulator with authority to resolve disputes, was approached by the newspaper with the identical issue. It made the widow the victor and ordered Nationwide to make good.
Nationwide declared: “We do not believe we should be held accountable based on our preventative actions. However, we accept the Financial Ombudsman’s finding that she is the winner.
She has been demanded to pay £53,500 to Nationwide and 8% interest.
