Metaverse Cryptocurrencies Enjoy Bullish Week Despite Axie Infinity's Ronin Hack

Though "play-to-earn" game Axie Infinity's Ronin sidechain suffered one of crypto's largest-ever hacks this week, investors are still pouring money into gaming, NFT and metaverse cryptocurrencies. 

This interest can be seen in the steady rise of cryptos like Enjin Coin (ENJ), Flow (FLOW), Gala (GALA), The Sandbox (SAND), and Decentraland (MANA), all five of which have mounted hefty increases in the past week. 

Enjin Coin has risen more than 11% in the past day and a whopping 19% in the last seven days, according to CoinMarketCap. The project lets game developers easily add scarce digital goods in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to their games. It also offers a social network akin to Discord that lets users form guilds and even host digital stores. 

The native cryptocurrency behind Flow has ridden a 15% increase over the past seven days. Flow is a blockchain project developed by Dapper Labs, the team behind CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shots. The firm built out its own blockchain to meet the specific standards of the NFT space, notably scalability bottlenecks. 

Gala Games has also had a strong week, posting 10% gains in that period. The project made up part of the first wave of crypto-centric gaming companies, essentially adding blockchain-based in-game items to popular games similar to Farmville. 

Metaverse gaming network The Sandbox is currently trading at $3.71, up 5.7% in the last 24 hours and over 10% in the previous week. Its native token, SAND, powers the game's DIY digital world, with users spending the cryptocurrency to buy, build and sell various pieces of the gaming world. So, instead of gamers earning from playing, builders beyond The Sandbox team itself are also incentivized to create.

Finally, Decentraland, perhaps the least bullish of the bunch, has nevertheless jumped over 7% in the last seven days. Its native token, MANA, underpins what is essentially a virtual real estate market in the metaverse. MANA is the ERC-20 token used for transactions, while LAND is the project's native NFT representing digital plots of land.

All five of these cryptocurrencies have seen a steady rise beginning last week. Market leader Axie Infinity, and its native tokens AXS and SLP, have faced choppier waters, however.

Axie Infinity suffers massive hack

The crypto game that ushered in the "play-to-earn" space suffered one of the industry's largest hacks this week. 

The attacker targeted Axie Infinity's layer-2 sidechain, Ronin, making off with 173,600 Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) and 25.5 million in stablecoin USDC. The attack occurred on March 23 but wasn't disclosed until six days later. 

Following the attack, the project's native AXS token plummeted more than 11%, falling from $72 down to $62. It's since made back some of those gains and is currently trading at $66—still up over 6% in the last week. Its Smooth Love Potion (SLP) token, which players earn for winning in-game battles, faced a similar struggle. 

 NFT Revolution

Hacker Drains $622M From Axie Infinity’s Ronin Ethereum Sidechain

Ronin, an Ethereum sidechain developed for the hit NFT game Axie Infinity, has been targeted in a hack that saw an estimated $625 million worth of cryptocurrency drained from its bridge. Developer Sky Mavis announced the news today, writing that the exploit took place on March 23 but only discovered earlier today. The attacker used “hacked private keys” to execute the exploit, per the team’s report, and thus was able to forge transactions to claim the funds. All told, the attacker took 173,600 W...

The SLP token slipped from $0.0248 down to $0.0196, marking a fall of nearly 21%. Since then, it's mounted a recovery and is now trading at $0.02119, up 4.7% on the day and 2.2% on the week.