August 2022, BitMetis

Author:BitMetis; RealresearchDAO; DimondHands

Data Source–Footprint Analytics; Dapp Radar; Tradingview; Dune

This monthly report aims to provide a comprehensive and accurate market macro trend, allowing Gamefi enthusiasts to have a better grasp of the current Gamefi market. It is believed that the bull market belongs to Gamefi in the near future.

Gamefi Market Overview

• In August, with the increasing interest rate in U.S. and preparation for the ETH 2.0 merge, market fear has eased, and the trading volume and MAU in Gamefi have improved

• Top gaming projects are basically growing in stability, but StepN's decline worsened.

• The overall market size is still much smaller than that in the beginning of this year ($736 million), which may be related to the decline of the global economy. And the liquidity depletion in Gamefi still exists

• Currently, the tokenomics design of most new games still follows the old tradition of Axie Infinity's dual token system + NFT

1. 58 Newly Released Gamefi Projects, An Increase of 3.43% MoM

This month, 58 new gamefi projects were released, the number of gamefi projects stood at 1748, up 3.43% MOM, rebounded slightly compared to the increase of 2.54% in July.

Nearly half of the new games (25) were launched on BSC, attracted by its large user base. Polygon had 10 new games in August, the low gas fee and high transaction speed are natural advantages. Besides ETH with 7 new games and WAX with 6 new games, other chains were stagnating in the birth of new games.

2. Monthly Active Users Down 6.46% MoM, New Users Up to 318.4K

Although the total active users still decreased this month, down 6.46% MoM, the rate of decline slowed down and showed an improving trend. Meanwhile, the number of new users was 318.4K, up 19.83% MoM, which is the first increase in the past six months.

BSC remains the leader, and Polygon is gaining ground with its carbon-negative solutions

3. 28.37% Increase MoM in Trading Volume, The Sandbox Is the Major Contributor

The monthly trading volume in August was up to $340.52M, an increase of 28.37% MoM. The Sandbox was the major contributor with $137M trading volume, up 127%, taking up 40.29% of the total. Aixe Infinity is also worth mentioning, counting 39.11% of the total.

The spike in trading volume on Aug 9 were mainly from The Sandbox and Axie Infinity.

4. 24 Funding Rounds with $529M, Up 24.47%

This month, we see several financings with large amounts of money: Limit Break with $200M funding invested by Buckley Ventures, FTX, Coinbase Ventures, etc, and there are 5 financing rounds above $40M.

So many large financings show the optimistic attitude of investment institutions towards the macro market environment.

Game with Best Performance

Here, we mainly refer to two metrics: MAU and Trading Volume.

Top 10 Projects in MAU:

Top 10 Projects in Trading Volume：

Unlike July, there was no new project like Solitaire Blitz in August with both outstanding user and volume growth, and the project itself is gradually unsustainable. While Trickshot Blitz, another Dapp game from Joyride, has seen impressive user growth this month, the trading volume is mediocre at $294.53k (+140%), making it difficult to compete with the big names. The Sandbox opened Alpha Season 3 for free on Aug 25th, attracting numerous players to join in, the MAU surged 141.72%, while its trading volume was still able to maintain a high rate of growth under such a large volume, deserving of the best game of the month.

Analysis of Trending Games

Axie

1. Active Users

Slightly in decline but kept stabilizing overall.

2. Trading Volume

A considerable increase in monthly trading volume.

3. Token Holder Analysis

Top 10 Whales hold 93.87% of the total AXS.

4. AXS/ETH Trading Pair

AXS had a poorer performance for most of the time in August

StepN

1. Active Users

Monthly Active Users down 42.54%, daily active users keep decreasing.

2. Trading Volume

The performance of shoes in the marketplace remains poor in August with low daily trading volume. The rise on August 18 was mainly due to the partnership with Atletico Madrid club, which brought much traffic.

3. Token Holder Analysis

Nearly 92% of the GMT are still reserved by the Stepn team.

4. GMT/SOL Trading Pair

In the first half of August, the price of GMT rose overall, and then began to fall sharply.

The SandBox

1. Active Users

Overall daily active users were stable at 500-700 in August, but after the opening of Alpha Season 3 freely for everyone on August 24, DAU rose above 1,700, then falling back above average two days later.

2. Trading Volume

Trading volume was able to maintain a high rate of growth under such a large volume

3. Token Holder Analysis

Top 10 Whales hold 80% of the total SAND.

4. SAND/MATIC Trading Pair

The price of SAND began to fall in the second half of August.

MOBOX

1. Active Users

MAU grew slightly in August, and the DAU changed a lot. On the August 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th there was a big influx of players and the DAU reached above 1.5W, which usually stays at about 5K.

2. Trading Volume

A large increase in monthly trading volume.

3. Token Holder Analysis

Top 10 Whales hold 91% of the total MOBX

4. MOBX/BNB Trading Pair

Poor token performance compared to BNB

Gods Unchained

1. Active Users

A slightly increase in MAU, the DAU was stable at around 1.3K

2. Trading Volume

Despite the rise of transactions, the monthly trading volume was down by 33.28%, indicating that the influx of new users did not lead to more asset investment

3. Token Holder Analysis

Top 10 Whales holde 96% of the total GODs.

4. GODS/IMX Trading Pair

The price of GODs performed well in August, exceeding IMX in the second half of August.

Generally speaking, the above 5 hottest games in Gamefi, besides StepN, are steadily developing and showing a trend of growth in terms of basic data.

StepN has stumbled after highlight in the first half of this year, and the continuous decline has driven away more and more players, the attempt to revitalize on ETH seems to be a complete failure.

Among the five games, Whales always hold most of the governance token, which is bad for the development of the game’s ecosystem. To be more specific, such unhealthy token distribution will have adverse effects for both community governance and token price.

It’s also worth mentioning that most of the games' governance tokens are underperforming due to macro factors.

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