Gamers on the Ronin sidechain were treated to an epic loot drop this week in the form of free PIXEL tokens worth millions of dollars.
The new play-to-earn crypto token PIXEL went live on Monday, seeing huge demand right out the gate. According to data from CoinGecko, the price jumped nearly 23% on day one, propelling the market cap to over $441 million. With a circulating supply around 771 million tokens, PIXEL is already valued as a top 200 cryptocurrency.
PIXEL is the native token of the hot new blockchain game Pixels – think Stardew Valley meets Animal Crossing on the blockchain. Gameplay revolves around building up a virtual farm, collecting pets called Floffys, and engaging in fun social features with other players.
The game launched last year on Polygon but switched over to Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain tailored for gaming dApps. Moving to Ronin supercharged growth, boosting daily active users from 20,000 to 700,000 in recent months.
And Ronin gamers just lucked out big time thanks to PIXEL’s launch strategy. Both Binance and Pixels itself ran special campaigns rewarding Ronin users with free PIXEL token airdrops.
Binance offered 350 million PIXEL tokens through its Launchpool program. Users just had to stake BNB or Binance’s FDUSD stablecoin to collect their share.
Meanwhile, Pixels announced an airdrop of 20 million PIXEL tokens for Ronin users staking RON, Ronin’s native token. The retroactive rewards were based on RON staked dating back to Jan. 10.
The airdrops paid off handsomely, with PIXEL surging 22.7% in its first day on the market according to CoinGecko. Some lucky Ronin gamers literally woke up to millions in their wallets.
And it wasn’t just the PIXEL price popping. Ronin’s native token RON also pumped 17% over the last week, hitting a two-year high around $3.49 earlier in February.
The entire episode demonstrates the insane wealth creation happening in blockchain gaming right now. Play-to-earn models are changing lives, especially in lower-income countries where earning even a few dollars a day in a game can outpace local wages.
And gamers are still earning and accumulating tokens before the games fully take off. Ronin network growth shows no signs of slowing down.
Pixels has already proven one of the biggest drivers of Ronin adoption. When Pixels migrated from Polygon last fall, Ronin users exploded basically overnight – from 20,000 to 200,000 in the first month.
As more gamers flood in for the play-to-earn opportunity, demand for utility tokens like RON and PIXEL will continue benefiting early adopters.
Of course, the crypto bear market lurks in the background threatening to derail momentum. But blockchain gaming seems to be on its own cycle, with demand boiling over despite broader industry turmoil.
So opportunities remain strong for enterprising gamers willing to brave the volatility. With the right token picks and staking strategies, they can change their lives while simply playing games they love.
It does seem like the modern California Gold Rush happening before our eyes. And the PIXEL launch shows the massive value created for those who move quickly. For Ronin gamers, it was like striking Bitcoin gold.
