What if you could make stacks of cash playing a fun game online? Sounds great, right? Well, with Axie Infinity, it’s a reality. In fact, this game has changed the lives of entire villages of people in the Philippines, giving them a new alternative to making money.
Axie Infinity has already been around for a while. Sure, the golden days of the game are behind it. Still, it promises gamers a chance to make good money by joining the Axie infinity ecosystem. Axie Infinity offers you one of the best examples of ‘play-to-earn’ gaming, a new culture sweeping the internet by storm.
The advent of blockchain tech and decentralized systems created an entirely fresh ecosystem in the digital assets space. Play-to-earn gaming models offer a new way for web 3.0 users to build their digital net worth using unconventional methods.
If you are wondering how to buy the AXS Crypto token, read on for our recommended exchanges and read below for more information about the game and it’s native tokens AXS and SLP.
Where to Buy Axie Infinity AXS
This section is our top picks of where and how to buy the Axie Infinity Shards Crypto token. We chose these based on our experience of using them and considered fees, security, payment options and reputation.
- eToro: Our Top Pick & Easy to Use Platform
- Binance: Largest Crypto Exchange with Low Fees
- Coinbase: Highly Regarded and Easy to Use for Beginners
- FTX: Great Exchange for Newbies & Advanced Users
Visit The Top Pick
eToro USA LLC; Investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal.
eToro: Easy to Use
eToro is a great easy to use exchange to buy this crypto. The platform is a social trading broker that allows investors to buy, sell and convert over 80 cryptocurrencies.
This exchange features a simplified user experience that makes it easy for investors with zero knowledge of crypto trading to find their way in the trade market.
With a minimum deposit of $10, depending on region, investors can easily buy and sell digital assets. One major feature that makes crypto enthusiasts trust eToro is its seamless array of deposit channels, including bank transfers, direct crypto deposits, debit/credit cards, and e-wallet solutions like PayPal.
eToro allows fee-free deposits on all payment channels and zero charges for account opening or management. However, a standard fee of $5 for all withdrawals and a 1% flat fee on all completed trades are charged. Investors are also charged a $10 inactivity fee monthly if they fail to trade on the platform for a year. eToro has many features that make it one of the biggest social trading networks.
One of the most impressive features is the CopyTrader option. This feature enables investors to learn how to buy different crypto coins and tokens by finding experienced traders on the platform and copying their successful trade strategies to profit whenever they do.
For security, before signing up, eToro requires traders to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for added protection to their accounts. eToro also features advanced encryption and masking technologies to secure all users' accounts.
This broker operates in 140 countries and is licensed and regulated by top financial institutions like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CYSEC), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Pros
- Purchase Crypto with minimal costs.
- Regulated by top financial institutions
- Wide range of deposit methods
- 1% flat fee on crypto trades
- Seamless account opening
Cons
- $5 Withdrawal fee
eToro USA LLC; Investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal.
Binance: Largest Crypto Exchange
Binance is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trade volumes. Cryptocurrency investors can enjoy full access to trade over 600 crypto assets, including big movers like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most of the top cryptos. With a minimum deposit of $10, investors can instantly start investing their crypto of choice.
Besides its large inventory of crypto assets, Binance also offers the lowest trade fees in the market. Binance charges 0.1% on all trades, and there’s an option for this figure to be further discounted by 25% for investors who hold Binance Coin – the exchange’s native token.
Funding your Binance account is seamless and straightforward. The exchange supports several deposit channels, including bank wire transfers, peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, credit/debit cards, and payment processors.
However, unlike eToro – deposits are not always free. For instance, Binance charges customers a standard fee of up to 4.50% on all crypto purchases made with debit/credit cards. Crypto deposits, on the other hand, are free.
This popular crypto exchange features a detailed learning curve and advanced trading tools, making it more suited for well-experienced traders and not beginners.
In terms of security, Binance offers the best security integrations. This broker features two-factor authentication (2FA), whitelisting, and advanced data encryption to protect customer funds and data. Also, Binance utilizes cold storage to store a vast majority of its funds, and the exchange also operates an insurance fund that protects customers in the event of an attack.
Pros
- Lowest trading fees in the market
- High liquidity on most cryptos
- Advanced trading tools
- Large crypto inventory
- Wide range of deposit channels
Cons
- Not beginner-friendly
Coinbase: Simple & Easy for Beginners
Coinbase is another great alternative best suited for newbie investors keen to learn how to buy this crypto. This platform is known for its reputation and simplified trading features.
The US-based platform allows investors to purchase, trade, and stake over 10,000 supported blockchain-based assets. To begin investing, investors must first register an account, which takes around 10 minutes. Coinbase allows users to invest a minimum investment of $2, which is one of the lowest prices in the crypto industry.
This exchange also integrates seamless deposit channels, like wire transfer, crypto deposits, debit/credit card, and e-wallet solutions, as well as fiat currencies like USD, GBP, and EUR available for cash out. Coinbase charges a standard fee of up to 3.99% for all debit card crypto purchases. However, investors enjoy 4% cash back bonuses whenever a Coinbase debit card is used to purchase crypto assets.
In terms of trading fees, users are charged between 0.5% and 4.5%, depending on the selected payment method, type of cryptocurrency, and total transaction amount.
One of the standout features that distinguishes Coinbase from other brokers is its versatility in terms of services and products offered to retail and institutional investors, ranging from exchange-based wallet and cashback visa cards, staking passive income, and asset hubs.
For security, the US-based exchange integrates 2FA verification as an added security layer to investors’ usernames and passwords, crime insurance that secures digital assets from theft and fraud, and many more. Coinbase is also licensed and regulated by top financial agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), and Financial Crimes and Enforcement Network (FinCEN),
Pros
- Simplifies trading tools, perfect for beginners
- Wide selection of crypto assets
- Lowest minimum deposit in the industry
- Offers Coinbase debit card with 4% cashback bonuses
Cons
- High fees (and usually, a complex and unclear fee structure)
FTX: Great For Newbies & Advanced Traders
FTX features highly-efficient trading platforms in desktop and mobile formats. Whether an investor is a newbie or an experienced investor, this platform provides all they need.
FTX integrates a user-friendly interface and basic/advanced trading tools to over 300 cryptocurrencies available for spot trading and the strongest bases of coins to give investors the perfect trading experience.
There is no minimum deposit amount to get started with FTX. Although all deposits are completely fee-free, investors will be charged a fee of $75 for every withdrawal less than the $10,000 value mark. More so, all deposits made by bank transfer may take 3 to 5 business days to reflect.
In terms of fees, FTX has standard maker/taker fees. The maker fee ranges from 0.00% to 0.02%, while taker fees range from 0.04% to 0.07%. Bank wire, fast bank deposits, debit/credit cards, silver exchange network (SEN), and signature SIGNET are all options for deposits.
For security, FTX features a two-factor authentication (2FA) protocol, withdrawal address and IP whitelisting, chain analysis to monitor any suspicious activity, sub-accounts with configurable permissions for added protection, and a self-maintained insurance fund. FTX functions in several countries, and its spin-off - FTX.US - tenders to all US-based traders' needs. FTX is also regulated in the United States of America.
Pros
- Multi-asset trading
- Dual platforms - Desktop and Mobile
- Liquidity for all assets
- Great trading platforms
Cons
- User-interface may be intimidating for newbie traders
What Is Axie Infinity?
With Axie Infinity, essentially, you’re playing a Pokémon-style game, collecting rewards in the native cryptocurrencies supported on the platform. You can trade this crypto on exchanges for other crypto assets, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, or cash out into the fiat currency option available on your exchange.
So, is Axie Infinity worth playing? Can you make millions with the game? What can you expect from starting, and how does it all work? Let’s take a deep dive into the world’s most popular P2E game.
The NFT space erupted in 2020 and 2021, bringing a new wave of digital assets to the attention of crypto enthusiasts across the globe. The advent of NFT tech took the market by storm. Projects like ‘Crypto Punks’ and ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club’ became international successes, drawing billions of dollars into the crypto ecosystem.
However, before there were Crypto Kitties and Crypto Punks, there was Axie Infinity. This NFT-based blockchain game, built on Ethereum, was already humming away in the background in 2018. Axie Infinity was quietly amassing users while presenting a new opportunity to gamers that would soon become an international phenom.
Inspired by the legendary Nintendo Pokémon series and Developed by Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity has risen to be the pinnacle of the Play-to-Earn’ (P2E) blockchain-based video game category. Axie Infinity players purchase NFTs of basically-designed designed monsters, known as ‘Axies.’ Players battle Axies against each other to earn the platform’s native cryptocurrency as rewards.
The Axie Infinity ecosystem leverages ERC-20 assets, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), and Smooth Love Potion (SLP) for DeFi applications and financial utilities on the platform. This novel blockchain-enabled concept of earning and trading digital assets through gameplay ignited an entirely new digital assets ecosystem, defined as ‘Play-to-Earn.’
Axie Infinity runs on the Ethereum blockchain using the Ronin sidechain. This configuration enables the Axie Infinity admin team to minimize network latency and mitigate the issue of transaction delays.
The game focuses on Pokémon-style player battles between Axie monsters. Users can play against other users on the platform or against AI-controlled teams.
One of the unique features of the Axie infinity universe is that all its in-game items have on-chain representation as NFTs.
As a result of this design, players can monetize gameplay and profit on NFT trades with other Axie Infinity players. Players can link these cryptographically-unique tokens with blockchain-built content comprising Axie monsters and its complex land plots populating the Axie Infinity universe.
However, unlike traditional in-game items, The NFTs on Axie Infinity confer ownership on the buyer, with all NFT holders receiving on-chain proof of digital asset ownership and authenticity. NFT owners may also trade or sell in-game assets with others in the Axie Infinity universe.
The Two-Token Model in Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is the first blockchain-based P2E game offering users a two-tier crypto token rewards system. Axie Infinity utilizes two tokens, ‘Axie Infinity Shards’ (AXS) and ‘Smooth Love Potion’ (SLP), to reward players.
AXS is Axie Infinity’s native governance token. All AXS holders create the decentralized organization, shaping the platform’s development through their governance proposals.
Governance tasks performed by the AXS development team and approved by the AXS stakeholders include activities like allocating spending of treasury funds or general management decisions involving the day-to-day operations of the Axie Infinity platform.
So, AXS holders symbolize the ultimate expression of Axie Infinity’s decentralized nature and its forward-looking aspirations.
SLP & AXS Tokens
The AXS and SLP digital tokens used on the Axie Infinity platform are ERC-20 Assets running on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can earn AXS and SLP directly through the platform, swapping SLP for AXS to gain governance rights in the ecosystem.
Users earn ‘SLP’ through their gameplay. SLP rewards vary depending on the outcome of the game. Users can trade SLP on some exchanges, and it’s also the in-game currency for purchasing in-game options, like breeding rights on monsters. All SLP and AXS are available for public viewing and verification on-chain via Etherscan.
What are the Use Cases for AXS?
As mentioned, the primary use case for the AXS token is for platform governance in the Axie Infinity ecosystem. It’s also a part of the breeding process for creating new Axies for the game. The AXS token also forms the framework for the admin team to build a staking protocol into the game, allowing users to stake their AXS to earn a proportionate amount of the inflation in AXS.
Regarding the governance of the platform and the accumulation of AXS by users, Sky Mavis expects that it will no longer have majority control over governance votes by as soon as October 2023. The team believes Axie Infinity will transition to a fully decentralized platform in late 2023. AXS holders can also use their holding to purchase land lots in the game.
Understanding AXS & SLP Tokenomics
The gaming applications for AXS and SLP are revolutionary, and the DeFi-NFT functionality and applications are impressive. However, like every other token out there, SLP and AXS are subject to the laws of tokenomics. Let’s have a look at what makes them tick and the risks they present to users.
The price action of AXS and SLP continues to fall, and some users and pundits think Axie Infinity is nothing more than a house of cards ready to collapse. The issues involving SLP in the past play to these predictions.
However, the Axie team seems dedicated to seeing the project through to success. Every time there was an issue with SLP in the past, the admin team managed to turn things around and recuse the Axie Infinity ecosystem from collapse.
The price indeed fell from incredible highs in May through September of 2021. However, the price stabilized in the second quarter of 2022. While it’s just a fraction of what it traded for at its high, SLP remains a traded and valued digital asset.
The Axie Infinity ICO
The Axie Infinity digital asset ecosystem burst onto the scene with its Initial Coin Offering (ICO), launching through a lottery system on Binance Launchpad in October 2020. Binance recorded user BNB balances for seven days from October 27th, 2020.
On launch, the AXS ICO had a hard cap of $2,970,000, with 29,700,000 AXS accounting for 11% of the total supply allocated to Binance Launchpad. AXS opened with an ICO price of $0.10, and the max allocation p/ticket was $200 in BNB.
The early investors into AXS saw huge gains during the 2021 NFT mania, with the token topping a staggering $157 price in early November. However, like everything else in the NFT space, it has declined steadily throughout 2022.
AXS price action seemed to stabilize around the $14 price handle, but there could be room for more downside. However, despite the reduction in earnings, Axie Infinity retains its title of the most-played P2E game in the industry.
Some early investment partners in the Axie Infinity universe include tech VC giants like Kyber Network, MakerDAO, Ubisoft, HTC, Samsung, and Binance.
How to Play-To-Earn with Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity gets the credit for coining the ‘Play-to-earn’ gaming space. It was a completely novel concept at its inception, bringing to life an entire genre of P2E games, like CryptoBlades and many others.
Since its inception, no other P2E game has put so much effort into platform development, focusing on the user experience. So, how does Axie infinity work?
Users start by buying monsters (Axies) and breeding them to create teams of three. Users can play the storyline mode of the game or battle other Axie teams in a Pokémon-style faceoff.
Each Axie monster is an on-chain ERC-721 NFT asset. Each has unique characteristics the player can use to build a strategy around their gameplay. Each Axie monster has four primary fundamentals, Health, Morale, Skill, and Speed.
The better the qualities of the Axie, the more it’s worth on the open market. Players can choose to breed and sell their Axies directly through the game. When a new player decides to buy Axies, the breeder receives the AXS.
Axie Infinity users earn an income in AXS or SLP tokens and asset trading in-game. New players must borrow three Axies for another user or purchase them from the marketplace to qualify for playing the game.
The prices of Axies varied widely during the early days of the game. Some Axies were selling for up to $400 or more at the peak of the NFT mania in late 2021. Axie #1046 sold for 300 ETH during the height of the 2021 mania. However, the recent destruction of SLP and AXS price in 2022 means these assets lost a lot of value from the all-time high.
One of the complaints surrounding Axie Infinity in 2021 was the cost of starting an Axie team preventing the average player from participating in the Axie Universe. However, since the crash, these assets dropped significantly in value, lowering the barriers to entry for new players.
The most lucrative strategy on Axie is breeding other Axies. Breeders can make a huge income by breeding and selling new Axies on the platform. In the game’s early days, breeding was so popular that many users didn’t even bother playing the battles or storyline game.
The second most-profitable option on Axie infinity is battling other users or the platform AI. These 3-Axie battles pit you against another team. Users use their Axies special moves to overcome each other and emerge victorious. The battle’s winner receives SLP, which they can use for breeding, in-game purchases, or exchange into AXS.
Axie Infinity Scholarships
During the game’s early days, people were quick to amass huge numbers of Axies. As the game established itself and the 2021 NFT mania began, many people wanted to get involved with the Axie infinity universe. However, at an average entry cost of $1,000 at the time, it was out of reach for many aspiring players.
As a result, the admin team introduced the ‘Axie Infinity Scholarship Program.’ Established users with too many Axies and insufficient time to play them can farm them out to ‘scholars.’ The scholars loan the Axies from the ‘manager,’ receiving a portion of the SLP generated by their gameplay.
Scholarship rates can vary. However, some managers pay their scholars up to 50% of the SLP profits. As a result, being a scholar didn’t cost the newbie anything to start playing the game. They can start saving SLP to purchase Axies and begin their journey in the Axie infinity universe.
Wrapping Up
Axie Infinity might not offer the same huge rewards it did during the 2021 NFT and crypto-mania. However, it’s a proven way to earn income online, playing a fun game. The game continues to expand its userbase, despite the downturn in crypto assets during 2022.
The Axie Infinity management team continues to develop and refine the game for the user experience. Users continue to see additional features added to the Axie Infinity universe, improving their gameplay and the opportunities available in the game.
Overall, Axie Infinity represents the pinnacle of P2E gaming, and we don’t see anything taking its throne in the near future. Download it for yourself and experience the wonderment of getting paid to play online games.
