Blockchain Gaming Dapps Still Building Despite FTX Crypto Crisis

The last week has been a bad one for the Web3 industry. The knock-on effects of the FTX crisis have not been limited to the centralized exchange alone. Crypto prices have tumbled and confidence in the NFT market has been shaken. Experts were even worried that the Solana blockchain, of which FTX was a major financial backer, might fail. But Web3 is a big industry and there are plenty of dapps still building and still attracting users.

Highlights

• FTX is a centralized exchange that has been in turmoil this week as news broke of  customers raced to withdraw their funds and the platform’s native token FTT sank in value. 
• Total value locked in the Solana blockchain dropped 66.6% to $347.77 million. The native token SOL lost 53% of its value and the number of validator nodes dropped off massively.
• Despite the problems, DappRadar data shows user numbers are up for plenty of gaming dapps, proving that the Web3 ecosystem is larger than just crypto and finance.

Builders will keep building

Everyone in Web3 has been affected one way or another by this week’s events at FTX. At the very least, people’s confidence in the industry will have been shaken, and they’ll be wondering what these events could lead to.

Fortunately, the likes of Star Atlas CEO Michael Wagner has his sights set far into the future. Even though his game is built on Solana, he clearly still believes that the network is the best place for his platform to grow.

Star Atlas’s co-founder Pablo Quiroga doubled down on Wagner’s sentiments with his own post in support of Solana. This message from one of Web3 gaming’s most promising platforms shows they’re not too shaken by what happened at FTX.

The Sandbox, another huge player in the Web3 gaming and entertainment industry, just announced yet another new partnership that promises to help the platform continue to grow.

The Kuniverse is a collaboration with ex-Manchester City and Barcelona soccer star Kun Aguero. The Argentinian striker joins a long list of famous people who have helped curate their own special corner of the metaverse. Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Gordon Ramsay and many more have joint ventures inside The Sandbox.

The Kuniverse is live now and ready to explore.

Gamers will keep playing

Lots of the biggest titles in the Web3 gaming space have seen increases in the number of unique active wallets (UAW) interacting with their dapps compared to last week.

Alien Worlds, which regularly tops DappRadar’s Games Rankings, added 30.55% more UAWs compared to the week before. 391,900 UAWs connected to Alien Worlds over the past seven days.

Trickshot Blitz, a popular pool-based game, has seen an 11.45% increase in the number of UAWs connecting with its dapp. More than 130,000 wallets connected to the game. You can read how to play and win Trickshot Blitz and start playing yourself.

Casual mobile gaming in general has had a good week. Solitaire Blitz, Era7: Game of Truth and Arc8 by GAMEE all had increases in their UAW connections. UAW connections for Arc8 by GAMEE went up by 415.22% to 36,490.

These statistics only show a week of data, so we don’t have enough information to categorically state that no dapps will be affected by what happened at FTX. But a week is a long time in Web3, as we’ve seen from the events over the past few days. So it’s heartening to see that many sections of the industry are still operating, growing and creating.

Metaverse will keep expanding

It isn’t only gaming and builders that are continuing to push forward despite the market turbulence. Users are still trading metaverse land as they look for bargains while crypto prices are down.

The numbers of collectors and fans who bought and sold Otherside land has gone up week-on-week. 28.34% more people traded their Otherside real estate this week, up to 1,019 traders. Sales counts also went up, by 3.6%, to 1,527 sales.

Floor and average price, along with market cap and trading volumes have all gone down, in dollar value. This is, in part, a result of the decreased value of ETH. Otherside land prices are calculated in the Ethereum cryptocurrency. Because that has fallen in price, so has the dollar value of the land.

Buying and selling for real estate and in-game items for The Sandbox reached $375,870 over the past seven-day period. People are still interested in being part of the virtual world and putting themselves in a good position today for when the game gets even more popular in the future.

Looking at the data in the graphic above, it looks like a gloomy sea of red but there are two extenuating factors. Firstly, as with trading for the Otherside, all crypto prices have dropped off hugely in the past few days, so market caps (measured in dollars) appear to have fallen. 

Secondly, The Sandbox has just finished its Alpha Season 3, so it’s only natural that traders and sales counts will be down in what is a slight lull period for the platform. 

What we’ve seen over the past week is undoubtedly bad for the Web3 industry. But it’s also a chance for other areas of the space to grow, outside the shadow of money and finance. If creators can make space that people want to visit for reasons other than profit, we could see them grow into sustainable and truly useful platforms.