In the beginning, there was Bitcoin. This was the pioneering cryptocurrency, although at the time, there were plenty of critics who assumed it was pioneering straight into a black hole. Surely nothing could replace fiat currency – and certainly not a decentralised token that was untested, volatile, and completely digital.
Only Bitcoin did take off, and even more than that, it brought another 13,217 cryptocurrencies along with it. There is no doubt you will have heard of some of them. Some of the most popular include Ethereum, Dogecoin, Solana, USDT, to name just a handful. Some have very specific purposes, some were just created for fun – we are looking at you, Dogecoin – and some were used to completely rewrite certain industries.
Speaking of the ones that are changing industries, it would have been hard to imagine back in 2009 that there would eventually be something called a Bitcoin casino. In 2024, however, bitcoin casino sites are flourishing, allowing players to use crypto tokens to play anything from poker, roulette, blackjack, and more. And apart from the iGaming industry, cryptocurrency has found its way into the gaming industry.
Across the Ethereum network, in particular, crypto gaming has become incredibly popular, with a number of crypto games that are entirely decentralised. The games themselves revolve around what is called a ‘play-to-earn’ model. This is where you play through a game and progress, completing levels and quests, and are then rewarded with in-game currency as a reward for your efforts. Imagine getting paid for playing the new Baldur’s Gate 3 – it is like that, only without the top-notch video game developers… yet.
Top Crypto Gaming Coins
With these games in mind, what are the most popular crypto tokens being used in gaming today? Well, this kind of depends on the game itself. Dencentraland, for instance, is one of the most popular crypto games in the market right now. It is based on the remarkable Ethereum blockchain, which basically acts as a whole-world estate agent. Similar to how a new-build estate would be fashioned, it allows people to buy virtual land with their cryptocurrency and then develop the land and sell it for a profit, just as would be done in real life.
The token itself is MANA and is usually used for in-game transactions. As much as it sounds like this coin should be flying, it has not quite spread its wings just yet – it is currently sitting at $0.49 at the time of writing. In terms of crypto coins, it is still in its early stages and has yet to mature, but it is by far one of the most established gaming crypto coins in the market at the moment.
Another top game in the market is known as Axie Infinity, which, funnily enough, was inspired by one of the biggest franchises in gaming: Pokemon. In the same way as the popular Nintendo classic, this game lets players own, trade, and even battle their own creatures with one another. The coin used in this case is AXS, yet another Ethereum token that might not be doing as well as MANA, but is still on the way up.
Conclusion
To summarise it all, gaming tokens are a lot more popular than you would expect – to the point where a lot of traditional games are starting to implement them. Of course, we have just said that both AXS and MANA are not exactly flying, but the crypto gaming space is still in its very early days.
As more crypto casinos appear and more games start implementing crypto tokens – and more backing is given to future metaverse gaming development – their worth is only set to rise.
This is also true of the lesser popular gaming coins right now, such as IMX, FLOKI, GALA, and BEAM, all of which have a low value, but huge potential to do well in the future. As ever, we are just going to have to keep gaming and find out!
