- AXS drops under $55 despite positive news and Katana DEX relaunch.
- Origin will evolve with future updates to balance battle mechanics.
After a week of teasers and promotions, Axie Infinity Origin launched with limited early access. The current version may undergo changes to better balance powers and potential game scenarios.
The game, once a leader in P2E activity and earnings, is battling multiple problems, most lately the hacking of the Ronin-Ethereum bridge.
Ahead of Season 21, Axie Infinity tried to repair its reputation by raising $150M in a funding round and pledging some of its own treasury to recover losses and relaunch the bridge.
What is New in Axie Origin
Over the past month, Sky Mavis revealed the renewed game art, with new cards for body part attacks. In addition to the current battle game, Axies can be upgraded with Runes (a one-off upgrade) or Charms (applicable to attack and defense body parts).
The other big addition are starter Axies, for players that do not want to acquire NFT items from the open market. Starter Axies turn Origin into a type of free-to-play game to be tested before aiming for rare or overpowered characters.
Axie Infinity Origin is available for download and can be played immediately without owning crypto assets. At the same time, the floor price is relatively low with more than 380K Axies available for auction. Still, top rare Axies go on auction for as high as 300 ETH asking price.
AXS Slides on Overall Market Setback
Despite the good news, AXS fell under $55. The expectation of Origin did more for the AXS market price compared to the actual launch. AXS slid to $54.47, down more than 17% in a week as most play to earn tokens also lost positions.
Smooth Love Potion (SLP) stabilized around $0.022, now becoming its usual off-season level. Ronin (RON), the native asset of the Ronin network, has limited price discovery after the recent reopening of the Katana exchange. RON inched up to $1.92 after dipping to the $1.70 range.
