Supply-side Asset Liquidity

The market for in-game assets is rising steadily, with over 30,000,000 of in-game assets of the top blockchain games having already traded hands. These assets have a combined value of over $4b, the bulk of which are from Axie Infinity. Hundreds of new blockchain games are slated for release this year, further adding to the expected growth in trading volume for the assets that fuel these games. Despite this activity, the industry is still facing supply-side liquidity limitations.

The table below shows the 25 leading blockchain gaming guilds that have publicly available information. This data shows us two things: the overwhelming demand for scholarships and sufficient capital within the ecosystem.

Eleven of the guilds are yet to hold their public funding round; despite this, the guilds listed have already raised a combined US$532 million just last 2021 to expedite their growth. However, they are only achieving a utilization rate of 9.61% in their scholarship programs. These guilds have a combined potential base in excess of 900,000 players, but only 89,935 scholarships are in operation across the 25 guilds.

With 836,000 guild members not yet actively generating yield, guilds are in the difficult position of deciding whether to take their own assets out of play to breed or to acquire new assets. While not all capital raised will be dedicated to growth, the acquisition capital figure represents the available capital that each guild could spend on assets today to ensure that each guild member could be transitioned into a scholarship program. On average, guilds have US$1,503 of capital available per unutilized guild member to maximize yield generation, excluding treasury and community tokens.

The figures above do not take into account that the average public funding round, for those that have already had public sales, is US$27.1 million. Based on the average raise value, the remaining 11 guilds could add a further US$300 million of capital into the acquisition capital pool.