NFT & Blockchain Gaming Weekly (22/12/2023)

Ubisoft’s pixel-based ‘Warlord’ NFTs generated over US$4.5M in sales. Sandbox transitioned its marketplace from Ethereum to Polygon. NFT Trader was hacked, with high-value NFTs stolen.

Chart of the Week

Prominent game developer Ubisoft introduced ‘Warlord’ NFTs as part of its 2024 game release: Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles. These NFTs, representing pixel-based avatar-style heroes, have generated over US$4.5 million in sales. Holders of Warlord NFTs will have access to future in-game character mints and the privilege of minting five Champions Tactics characters in the future.

New Project Spotlight

NFT Collectibles

[Live] Crypto Eden

Featuring four intricate pieces, the ‘Crypto Eden’ collection celebrates the crypto world as one of the most magical ‘fruits’ of imagination in the modern world. Each human creation — whether art or technology — is considered by the artist Katya Rozz as a beautiful materialisation of ideas, feelings, and aspirations.

[Upcoming] SMILER – Crypto.com Exclusive Drop‘SMILER – Crypto.com Exclusive Drop’ features the emblematic hero from the collaboration between the shooter game Citizen Conflict and Crypto.com NFT. Never to be minted again, Smiler is a scarce badge of honour for collectors and a ticket to unchartered gaming arenas, distinct skins, elite tournaments, and more.

NFT Metrics

Blockchain Game Metrics

The following table shows selected top games by weekly volume in USD:

Gaming Token Performance

The total market cap for gaming tokens now stands at $19.05 billion, dropped by -0.47% from last week.

News Highlights

• Virtual gaming world The Sandbox transitioned its digital marketplace from Ethereum to Polygon, aiming to reduce fees and enhance user experience. This move allows users to mint assets at a lower cost and sell their creations, earning royalties on resales. As part of the transition, The Sandbox Marketplace is unveiling over 100 new digital artworks created by 30 artists from The Sandbox’s Creator Fund programme.
• Renowned auction house Sotheby’s generated $450,000 in sales from auctioning ‘BitcoinShrooms’ NFTs. The collection features pixelated artworks created by an anonymous artist known as Shroomtoshi.
• Yuga Labs introduced a new wrapper called ‘CryptoPunks 721’ for the popular CryptoPunks collection. It allows the early NFTs, which were created before the widely used ERC-721 standard, to be traded and utilised more effectively. Wrapped CryptoPunk NFTs can benefit from the advantages of ERC-721, enabling actions such as borrowing against the asset.
• A hacking incident occurred on the NFT trading platform NFT Trader, where compromised old contracts resulted in the theft of high-value NFTs, including Bored Apes, Art Blocks, World of Women, and VeeFriends. The founder of delegate.cash and a 16-year-old coder identified the faulty code and helped remove the exploits. Users are advised to revoke any allowances linked to the compromised contracts to protect their assets.

Recent Research Reports

• Exploring the Future of Blockchain Gaming: Trends and Opportunities: A comprehensive review of the blockchain gaming industry, the state of the gaming market, current challenges and opportunities, and what lies ahead for on-chain games.
• Research Roundup Newsletter [November 2023]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring trending market insights in November, charts of the month, and our exploration of new developments within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
• 2023 Year Review & 2024 Year Ahead: 2023 has been an eventful year for the crypto industry. In this report, we curate the top crypto events and trends of 2023, followed by our outlook for 2024.

Recent University Articles

• A Guide to Ethereum’s ERC-4337 Standard and Account Abstraction: Explore Ethereum’s ERC-4337 standard and the concept of account abstraction, plus the potential to revolutionise smart contract wallets.
• Cosmos (ATOM) — What It Is and How It Works: In this article, we discuss Cosmos, a blockchain ecosystem that aims to revolutionise how blockchains interact with one another.
• What Is Aptos (APT)?: In this article, we discover how Aptos is designed to tackle blockchain’s challenges and make it scalable, safe, and cost-efficient.

We’re all ears.

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Authors

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

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