The GameFi market experienced a cooling period this week, following a strong start to January. This trend was marked by significant price swings in Axie Infinity (AXS) and another blockchain game's decision to abandon its Web3 integration entirely.
As of January 16, the total GameFi market capitalization saw a decrease of approximately 2% week-over-week, settling around $9.35 billion. This comes after a period where the market more than doubled in value over the preceding 30 days, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Axie Infinity Pivots, Triggering Volatility
On January 14, AXS, the native token of Axie Infinity, experienced a surge, reaching a market capitalization of approximately $230 million. This represented a roughly 50% increase compared to its value two days prior, according to CoinMarketCap data.
However, this rally proved to be short-lived. By January 15, AXS retraced more than 14%, reversing a significant portion of the earlier gains, as indicated by CoinMarketCap data. As of January 16, AXS was trading with a market capitalization of approximately $208 million.
These price fluctuations followed a Discord panel held on January 13, during which Axie Infinity's co-founders revealed a substantial restructuring of the project's tokenomics. Axie co-founder Jihoz stated that the game would commence transitioning AXS rewards into a new app token, known as bAXS, as part of a broader overhaul planned for 2026.
“A good day for AXS, but the true story here is the structural changes to supply that we’re making this year,” Jihoz wrote in a January 14 post on X.
Under the new system, bAXS will be earned through gameplay and will have utility for spending, staking, or selling. Initially, this token will be bound to user accounts.
These changes represent the first of several "big swings" that Axie Infinity intends to implement in 2026, as mentioned by co-founder Cruise during the panel discussion.
World of Dypians Retraces
In parallel, smaller-cap gaming tokens encountered difficulties in sustaining their momentum.
World of Dypians (WOD), which was among the top performers during the GameFi rebound in early January, has seen a decline of nearly 40% over the past week, according to CoinMarketCap.
The week prior, the market capitalization of WOD more than doubled, surging from approximately $9 million on January 8 to over $20 million on January 9, as reported by CoinMarketCap.
In a January 14 post on X, the World of Dypians project announced the integration of Grok as an in-game assistant designed to guide players through gameplay.
“This is not a simple chatbot layered on top of a game,” the developers stated.
“Grok becomes a real-time AI layer inside the world, designed to guide players through gameplay, exploration, events, mechanics, and progression without breaking immersion.”
Pixiland Drops Web3 Features
On January 15, Pixiland: Age of Heroes, a strategy game developed on the Ronin Network, announced its decision to exit Web3 entirely and transition to an exclusively Web2 model.
The project has ceased crypto payments, NFT minting, and token rewards, citing prevailing market conditions and regulatory challenges as reasons for this shift.
“Due to ongoing market volatility, increasing regulatory uncertainty / compliance requirements, and limited remaining resources, sustaining the Web3 model long-term has become extremely challenging,” Pixiland stated in a January 15 X post.
Existing wPixi tokens are being converted into an in-game currency, and NFTs will be convertible into off-chain collectibles. The project's Web3 dashboard is slated for shutdown on March 1.
The Ronin Network is also the platform for Axie Infinity, with both Ronin and Axie Infinity being developed by Sky Mavis.
As of January 16, the Ronin (RON) token is trading at a market capitalization of around $108 million. This represents a decrease of more than 90% from its 2024 highs, which exceeded $1.1 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The prices of other core GameFi tokens, including Render, Immutable, Gala, The Sandbox, and Decentraland, remained largely unchanged by the end of the week.
By the Numbers
Total GameFi Market Cap: $9.35B
Top 5 GameFi Tokens by Market Cap
- Render (RENDER): $1.15B
- Stacks (STX): $660M
- Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL): $645M
- Immutable (IMX): $545M
- Floki (FLOKI): $475M
Most Visited GameFi Tokens
- Masters of Trivia (MOT)
- Render (RENDER)
- WeMix (WEMIX)
- Verasity (VRA)
- Baby Doge (BabyDoge)
