Has the thought ever crossed your mind that it would be great to sell in-game assets for our world’s currency seamlessly? Probably, especially when you have already gone through the entire game, collected the best items, and you just have nowhere to spend the endless money that was so lacking at the beginning of the game.
The answer to this is Web3, which combines technology and economics, allows you to create and tokenize unique content and puts control in the hands of users. All crypto enthusiasts are aware of these advantages and do not ask how to earn cryptocurrency by playing games, and have long been familiar with many play-to-earn cryptocurrency or so-called P2E projects.
Instead, they ask what games can I play to earn cryptocurrency today? Among other promising Web3 companies, what P2E projects are really well developed, show stability in the market, and offer interesting opportunities? You will get the answers to these questions today.
Whether you are a professional crypto investor who wants to de-stress but not waste your time, or a crypto beginner who wants to have fun with crypto – you can play games to earn cryptocurrency, and here you will see the best options and details about them.
The Sandbox (SAND)
- Year Established: 2011 (re-launched as a blockchain project in 2018)
- Founders: Arthur Madrid, Sebastien Borget
- Jurisdiction: Hong Kong
- Technology: Ethereum
- Assets: SAND
- Exchangeable for External Assets: BTC, ETH, USDT, and others
- Market Cap (SAND): $679M
- Fully Diluted Valuation: $853M
- 24H Volume: $62M
- Total Value Locked (TVL): $0
- Circulating Supply: 2.39B
- Total Supply: 3.00B
- Max Supply: 3.00B
- Scandals: No
- Key Features: Sandbox mechanics, in-game creation, voxel-based environment
Let’s start with one of the oldest projects, a ‌limitless world that fans of Minecraft will find extremely familiar, due to the voxel graphics, and sandbox mechanics in which you can create anything. The developers of The Sandbox launched their project just two years later, but in 2018 relaunched it on Ethereum, adding several Web3 concepts like metaverse and NFT to the classic sandbox game.
Now, we can say we have a Web3 version of Minecraft, but in which all created user-generated content and every game asset is unique and truly owned by its creators thanks to NFT, that you can keep inside the game, sell on NFT marketplaces or add your collection with on your favorite wallet.
For creating complex scenes, objects, and more, The Sandbox offers even more convenient built-in tools, VoxEdit and Game Maker.
VoxEdit is an in-game 3D voxel editor that allows you to create characters, objects, and entire worlds that can later be tokenized.
Game Maker is a level editor that allows you to write logic without programming, unlike in Minecraft, add objects created in VoxEdit, customize objects and characters behavior, add tasks, missions, quests, and so on.
The basic SAND token is involved in a huge number of gameplay processes. To begin with, although you can create characters and any other game objects in VoxEdit without using SAND, you need land where we can place them. Accordingly, you can buy land with SAND, and you can also rent it from other players.
This creates the most complete in-game economy with a balance of supply and demand and provides additional ways to earn SAND, but not only to buy it.
To earn SAND the game offers:
- Trading unique characters, objects, and stages on The Sandbox Marketplace
- Tokenize created game assets and sell them on third-party NFT marketplaces
- Building and selling in-game quests, scenes, and spaces and monetizing access to them
- Rent out your own lands to other players for their game scenes
- Participate in games and events that are regularly hosted by the developers
- Stake SAND to support the operations of The Sandbox network
- Reward participation in DAO, as well as partner programs and promotions
Like other Ethereum-based projects, it too has experienced a big downturn after peaking at SAND $7.23 in January 2022 to $0.28 now, but for many, this is no reason to discount the project, and even some see it as a return to normal value.
Furthermore, many believe that the trend for metaverse virtual spaces are just waiting to truly peak, so they see long-term potential in the project and take it as seriously as buying actual land in an undervalued area.
Also, this is an established, very large project in which everyone can find something different, from content creators to gamers wanting to own game assets and investors looking for good early-stage opportunities, and it could also be one of the best games you can play to earn cryptocurrency.
Decentraland (MANA)
- Year Established: 2017
- Founders: Ari Meilich, Esteban Ordano
- Jurisdiction: Argentina
- Technology: Ethereum
- Assets: MANA
- Exchangeable for External Assets: BTC, ETH, USDT, and others
- Market Cap (MANA): $593.2M
- 24H Volume: $47.6M
- Circulating Supply: $1.87B
- Total Supply: $2.19B
- Scandals: Minor issues related to land scams
- Key Features: Virtual reality world, user-generated content
Another project that created a metaverse on Web3. But Decentraland is more focused on the addition of virtual reality and the creation of unique virtual spaces.
It is the project for creators of unique digital content, where they can host digital art exhibitions and unconstrained media scenes, while fully owning them. It is also a project for businesses, which allows them to create unique business spaces, hold business meetings and presentations.
Decentraland offers its users:
Decentraland is divided into lands with related unique LAND tokens. Users can develop their lands, build objects on them, hold meetings and events, and trade LANDs.
The main token is MANA, which participates in all in-game purchases that users can earn by creating and selling content, and services or renting their lands to other users.
Users can also exchange MANA for other cryptocurrencies, or purchase it to expand their capabilities in the game and participate in decisions on the platform developments.
Of course, Decentraland also experienced its ups and downs around the same time as the other projects, namely dropping from a record $5.20 in November 2022 to $0.31 now. And yes, this is the second of three projects that came before the NFT boom and survived their dramatic crash. It is not a guarantee of the project’s future success, but proves that it has a sustainable mission, vision, and technology at its core.
Many have a vested interest in its success, as it too offers an incredibly broad opportunity for content creation and ownership, especially in the belief that the true virtual reality boom is yet to come.
Is a bit more focused on creators in the common sense, and on the business sector and its activities, which sets it apart from other P2E projects. But if you are interested in a P2E in virtual reality for your art or business, then this could be one of the best games you can play to earn cryptocurrency.
Axie Infinity (AXS)
- Year Established: 2018
- Founders: Aleksander Larsen, Trung Nguyen
- Jurisdiction: Vietnam
- Technology: Ethereum
- Assets: AXS, SLP
- Exchangeable for External Assets: BTC, ETH, USDT, and others
- Capitalization (AXS): $797.8M
- Fully Diluted Valuation: $1.43B
- 24H Volume: $43.9M
- Circulating Supply: 150.6M
- Total Supply: 270M
- Max Supply: 270M
- Scandals: Significant hacks in 2022
- Key Features: Collect, breed, and battle unique creatures
One of the biggest and funniest P2E projects. Its specialty is that it offers an entire game world filled with mythical Axies characters. Players can create their own Axies, each unique by possessing their unique genes that determine what they look like, and what abilities they have. Players can crossbreed these creatures forming new ones, with new unique looks, abilities, and rarity.
All of this is later needed in the arena, where they can fight other players, or rather their Axies, thus earning in-game tokens Smooth Love Potion (SLP). They are used to creating new Axies, and later they can be exchanged for other crypto assets on a wide number of crypto exchanges.
In addition, there is another in-game token Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) for participation in game events and tournaments, which players can use to manage the platform, participating in decisions on its development.
As it is not difficult to guess, Axies themselves are NFT tokens, which can also be sold on the NFT marketplaces, and the price of which depends on the rarity index we mentioned earlier. Of course, the project is built on Ethereum and managed by smart contracts, but the project uses sidechains to enhance transaction speeds and reduce costs, allowing for a smoother gaming experience. By the way, it’s not the only solution for numerous DeFi applications, but Ethereum is still the king here.
This project is noteworthy because even with the fall of the AXS main token from a record $157.8 in November 2021 to $5.33 today, as well as major hacks in 2022 – the project retains a large active community, a well-designed in-game economy, and an attractive gameplay. If you are looking for a quality and attractive time killer, but still want to play games to earn cryptocurrency, then this could be a great option.
Conclusion
So now you have a list of really noteworthy games you can play to earn cryptocurrency that have been on the market for quite some time, gained value before the peak of NFT, and maintained value afterward, showing strong user interest and community support.
Whether you want a Web3 sandbox, a Web3 media space, or a Web3 time killer, each with a well-thought-out game economy, engaging gameplay, and sustainable potential – you will find in this list the best representatives to date.
