Cryptocurrency Price Check: 2022 the ‘Year of GameFi’
Cryptocurrency prices were mixed on the first Monday of 2022 as analysts focused on a number of major topics for the sector.
At last check bitcoin was up slightly to $47,236, while ethereum was up 2.1% to $3,825 and dogecoin was off slightly to $0.172782.
Winston Ma, managing partner of CloudTree Ventures, said he saw a future for GameFi, a combination of gaming and decentralized finance within a single ecosystem.
“If 2021 can be considered to be the year of DeFi and [nonfungible tokens],” he said, “it is almost certain that 2022 will be the year of GameFi and the Metaverse.”
Ma is author of “The Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.”
The prime watershed moment for NFTs that followed the metaverse narrative is through GameFi protocols, Ma added.
Huobi Research issued a report last week that said the number of GameFi games has skyrocketed since the summer.
As of early December, the report said, GameFi’s weekly active users have reached a record 9.21 million.
Ma cited Axie Infinity, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing play-to-earn games, surpassing more than $1 billion in sales with over one million daily users.
Axie Infinity is an NFT-based online videogame developed by a Vietnamese studio, Sky Mavis, which uses ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, Axie Infinity Shards and Smooth Love Potion.
“Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, has said that the company is open to blockchain-based games that support cryptocurrency and blockchain-based assets,” Ma said.
Regulatory oversight is expected to increase in 2022. David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser Lesperance & Associates, said that “the scramble to find headquarters for crypto exchanges continues.”
He noted that FTX was looking at the Bahamas and Valereum negotiating the purchase of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange.
In September, FTX moved its headquarters to the Bahamas from Hong Kong. The following month, Valereum reported its intention to acquire the Gibraltar Stock Exchange.
Last week, Valereum said it had agreed to acquire Juno Group, a Gibraltar-based company that helps establish and administer trusts, manages money and creates enterprises.
“Whether these jurisdictions will put in place the necessary legislative infrastructure to satisfy both the exchange’s needs and the regulatory requirements of jurisdictions as diverse and the US, EU, UK, etc. only time will tell,” he said.
“Until the ‘great regulatory shakeout’ is finished, crypto enthusiasts need to assess exchange risk along with specific cryptocurrency assessment.”
