NFT Bull Market on the Way, How to Screen "Most Potential" GameFi Projects

AXS +8.61%

In July, Axie's single-day revenue completely surpassed "Honor of Kings," becoming a bombshell in the crypto circle. Subsequently, GameFi projects emerged one after another, leaving investors dazzled. An NFT-related crypto bull market seems to be waving at us... So, how should investors screen excellent GameFi projects? On August 20, OKX Intelligence Bureau invited REX, Head of Chips Department at investment firm Volatility Technology, and Bluce, Head of NFT Sector, to discuss "How to Screen GameFi Projects" with institutions and investors.

I **, Why Focus on GameFi**

Starting from last year's DeFi Summer, the DeFi sector has continuously emerged with various investment opportunities, but after several months of excitement, the actual returns achievable were quite limited. On the other hand, starting from the end of last year, Ethereum's congestion problem became very serious, with gas fees costing at least $100, becoming one of the biggest pain points for investors. So, where will future large numbers of new users and funds go?

Before May 2021, the overall market and DeFi's excellent data always dominated investors' attention. But since the second quarter, NFT games have grown rapidly, with the GameFi sector led by P2E (Play to Earn) game Axie Infinity becoming more active than ever before. Accompanied by the amazing rise in AXS price, it also thoroughly ignited the blockchain game concept, and the term GameFi began to appear frequently on the internet. At this point, industry insiders have clearly felt that GameFi may bring disruptive changes to the entire blockchain game industry.

REX stated that Volatility Technology believes blockchain games can lead a wave, and the P2E model brings something different to the entire blockchain game sector.

Before delving into the profound impact GameFi brings to the industry, let's first recall the familiar DeFi. DeFi's underlying logic is disruptive to the entire global financial system, but it must be said that if DeFi's fire hadn't been ultimately ignited by Liquidity Mining, the entire industry's progress would have greatly slowed.

Now we realize that P2E is most likely the spark that ignites GameFi . This model will greatly advance the blockchain game industry into a high-speed development period, and in this process, we will see major changes and developments in the entire game ecosystem. In REX's view, future mainstream blockchain games will all introduce P2E mechanisms, otherwise they will most likely fail to achieve better development.

The following diagram summarizes some characteristics of DeFi's liquidity mining and GameFi's P2E.

GameFi and DeFi also have something very similar: in the early stages of development, many people scoffed at them, simply and crudely considering them fund schemes that are unsustainable. But later, DeFi proved its significance to the world, opening a new era of blockchain. As for GameFi, we believe its characteristics will inevitably bring changes to the entire game industry and will move towards prosperity step by step.

So, faced with many newly emerging GameFi projects, as investors, how can you identify the quality of these projects and judge their development trends in the early stages? In this regard, REX stated that as investors, you must observe more, record more data, and not jump to conclusions easily. In the GameFi field, the game's economic design model is the part that needs the most attention.

II **,Axie's Success Ignites GameFi**

This time, the play-to-earn model is not only changing the gaming world, it's also allowing blockchain to quickly enter ordinary people's lives. At the same time, it's accelerating the introduction of game mechanics into the DeFi and NFT fields. We see a trend: the next generation of crypto assets will simultaneously maximize financial attributes, playability, and meme characteristics.

Below, using Axie Infinity as an example, Volatility Technology shares the success logic of today's hottest GameFi project.

First, Axie Infinity's team Sky Mavis was established in 2018. From project inception to alpha version launch took one year. After launching in 2020, they operated diligently for a year and a half before welcoming the current explosion. From the founding team's background, most of them have experience in the game and blockchain industries. Additionally, from the game's economic model design, playability, Axie sprite game attribute design, and art design details, Axie can be considered a superior work, definitely not a perfunctory product that simply wraps a DeFi gameplay in a web game shell.

**The most important point is the economic model design, which can determine the life or death of a game project. **Axie Infinity's economic model was designed by the team together with the well-known venture capital Delphi in the industry, spending a lot of time. The team's ability to create bubbles and regulate the economy is very good. Friends who have played the game should know that Axie Infinity's economic circulation is similar to the cycle of a real-world economy, and has strong regulatory room. The project team can better control the healthy development of the game .

Axie Infinity's economic model includes 4 main elements: in-game asset tokens, including dual tokens (AXS and SLP); NFT assets, including Axie sprites and land.

• First, SLP is an uncapped game token issued by Axie Infinity. You can earn SLP rewards when winning battles. At the same time, this token also has a consumption model. For example, breeding Axie sprites requires consuming SLP. Additionally, we found that there are now many market makers in the Philippines who have opened channels for exchanging SLP for fiat currency. At this point, in the Axie Infinity economy, SLP effectively plays the role of currency in the real economy. It can be issued without limit and will generate inflation. At the same time, it has production and consumption models, so SLP can well simulate the economic cycle in the game . Currency issuance is actually very particular. If an economy develops rapidly but doesn't have corresponding currency issuance, it will also hinder economic development.

• The second economic element is AXS . AXS is the project's platform token. It has a total limit, with a cap of 270 million. This token also has reward and consumption models in the game. It can be traded on secondary market exchanges or engage in trading , which is similar to external investment. A large number of users flock to the market to buy AXS . AXS corresponds to GDP in the real economy. When an economy prospers and everyone earns money, GDP will inevitably develop rapidly, and the corresponding AXS unit price will also show an upward trend.

• The third economic element is Axie sprites. The number of Axie sprites is also unlimited, gradually produced through breeding. But breeding Axie sprites requires consuming SLP, meaning its breeding has costs. **Axie sprites in the game are equivalent to productivity tools, earning money through breeding and battling, similar to "population" in the real economy. **In real life, when a child is born, a lot of money needs to be spent during the growing process, but after this child grows up, they can work to earn money and can also obtain some extra income through investment. From this, we can see that Axie Infinity's simulation of the real economy is very well done.

• Finally, Axie Infinity will recently launch a land project. The total amount of land is limited, and land is also a productivity tool that can generate cash flow. **We don't yet know the specific gameplay of land, but for now, land is definitely something that carries bubbles. If there are bubbles in the economy and everyone exchanges tokens to dump, the entire game will collapse; but if there are scarce resources like land, it can carry some bubbles. **This is also very similar to the real economy. Land real estate in the real economy is like a reservoir. It can carry those over-issued currencies. If these over-issued currencies don't enter the reservoir but continue to circulate in the economy, it will cause serious inflation, and the entire real economy will also collapse.

Overall, Axie Infinity's economic model design is very ingenious, well simulating some structures of the real economy , allowing new players to continuously pour in. Moreover, old players will feel that SLP and AXS have many similarities with algorithmic stablecoins. Why algorithmic stablecoins haven't become popular in the DeFi field, one of the well-known reasons is the lack of application scenarios—they don't have a powerful consumption model. However, SLP and AXS in this small game world have their application scenarios directly built and solidified . It's natural for players to use SLP and AXS. Now SLP can basically be used directly as currency in some areas of the Philippines, which is very convenient.

This also involves an Axie Infinity token economy issue. May-July was the high-speed development period of this game, with a large number of new users and capital pouring into Axie Infinity. At this time, SLP and AXS both rose, with SLP increasing tenfold in July alone. During this stage, many people predicted SLP might fall, but actually, during this stage, SLP was also slowly growing, while the inflation from token over-issuance was also growing. At this time, some players might exchange SLP for Ethereum or US dollars because the payback period is too long, which would cause SLP's price to plummet, accompanied by inflation. **From July to August, SLP's over-issuance exceeded 10 times, facing collapse risk, which is also unfriendly to players and capital. **So, on August 9, the project team adjusted SLP's inflation mechanism, directly cutting it in half. Since then, SLP's inflation rate has come down, while the token consumption mechanism continues to operate.

In summary, in the past period, SLP's production was far higher than consumption, with a particularly high inflation rate, so SLP's selling pressure was particularly strong. But recently, SLP's consumption and production may be able to reach a good balance. We believe that Axie Infinity's economic and monetary policies have been adjusted quite successfully, and this economy can continue to operate well.

SLP price trend since May 2021

III **,Reconceiving Game Guild YGG**

This time Axie Infinity's explosion also brought popularity to YGG (Yield Guild Games). The emergence of this game guild is indeed eye-catching.

Game guilds bring many off-chain users to GameFi games, teaching many users with absolutely no relevant experience how to play games and trade tokens. Compared with DeFi, at that time many industry insiders also needed to spend a lot of time to get started. But now many elderly people in the Philippines are playing Axie Infinity, which is enough to show that YGG's work is done very well. YGG now holds NFT assets from many game projects and rents these assets to those who can't afford these NFT assets, letting them play games and then sharing revenue. **Currently YGG's sharing ratio is: game users receive 70% of revenue, community managers get 20%, and YGG only takes 10%****, **this is YGG's business model.

Regarding YGG guild, REX proposed four points. First, he believes that YGG is a bridge connecting on-chain and off-chain, a new species in the industry . As a bridge, YGG can enjoy the growth of three markets: first is the NFT market, second is the DeF i market, and third is the game market **. **So in its development process we can imagine that YGG, relying on its future massive on-chain NFT assets and off-chain game player numbers, can build a game-centric platform. This platform will have a very strong position in the entire blockchain game ecosystem.

Second, YGG is the机枪 pool in GameF i, and this model involves off-chain business operations. Imitators can easily copy, but building scale advantage requires time . YGG is similar to YFI in DeFi. YFI pools funds to mine and distribute dividends, while YGG pools users' time for play-to-earn and then distributes dividends. But this model is very easy to replicate, yet YGG has already built some early scale advantages, so I believe its future development will be faster than copycats.

Third, currently, YGG tokens can be viewed as ETF index funds for the blockchain game industry . Because YGG now not only holds Axie Infinity's NFT assets, but also holds assets from many other game projects. Some of these games haven't even officially launched yet and are currently in development and testing stages. As a game guild with high visibility in the GameFi industry, YGG has the ability to obtain these games' NFT assets in advance and participate in testing these games. In the future, YGG will gradually expand these advantages. Although these assets aren't worth much now, once the projects launch and users pour in, and guild members start operating, their appreciation may be more than 10 times. For YGG's competitors, this cost is unimaginable.

Fourth, YGG's business model has a moat . Compared with real-world labor companies, traditional labor companies are light-asset companies, only responsible for connecting companies and job seekers, charging intermediary fees. This business model indeed has no moat, but YGG is different. First, YGG is heavy-asset operation, with massive NFT assets as productivity tools that generate cash flow. Second, YGG can connect on-chain and off-chain worlds. Off-chain tests community managers' ground promotion capabilities, while on-chain tests asset operation capabilities. As the traffic entry point for most people's first on-chain experience for the foreseeable future, YGG will share the revenue brought by this massive traffic.

Therefore, summarizing, currently YGG possesses four core competitive advantages:

1. Has already built visibility and IP, possessing early scale advantage.
2. Participates in early testing of various games, purchasing game NFT assets in advance. YGG's cost in this area will be far lower than competitors.
3. Community managers' ground promotion capabilities are very strong, which is particularly evident in the Philippines and Vietnam.
4. First to complete capitalization, which will allow YGG to participate in higher-dimensional competition.

YGG's business model is actually very simple, but why is this simple model being hyped so high now? REX believes that firstly because of the bull market, secondly because of Axie Infinity, and partly perhaps because capital sees YGG's position in the entire blockchain game ecosystem and the greater imagination it can bring to the future. REX predicts that YGG may have four profit models in the future:

1. Social digital assets and network traffic gathering place: YGG has crypto assets and network traffic in hand, and can become a social platform.
2. Build a game-centric platform: Relying on its future massive on-chain NFT assets and off-chain game player numbers, YGG can build a million-user-level social platform centered on games.
3. Preferred sales distribution channel and community operation promotion center: Massive user numbers and strong promotion capabilities can gain favor from capital.
4. Build its own metaverse : With so many users and NFTs, YGG can build its own metaverse project.

IV. Analyzing YGG from On-Chain Data

So, as institutions or ordinary investors, how to confirm whether a project is worth investing in, when to buy and sell, can be judged through analyzing financing situation, token distribution, and chip analysis.

**First, pay attention to project financing, including how many rounds of financing completed, financing institutions, financing time, and financing amount. **The lead investor is particularly important. A good lead investor can bring traffic and popularity to the project, and even participate in the project's economic model design and iteration. We can also treat the project team's past successful experience as an important observation point. Additionally, pay attention to financing timing and amount. For example, in bull and bear markets, different projects' financing amounts vary. In bull markets, many projects' valuations are high, while in bear markets many projects' valuations are low. Through this point, we actually need to stay calm towards projects in bull markets, while in bear markets we might find treasures through learning.

Taking Yield Guild Games (YGG) as an example, simply analyze its financing situation. In March 2021, YGG announced raising $1.325 million in seed funding, with most funds used to purchase sprites. In June 2021, YGG completed a $4 million Series A financing led by Bitkraft Ventures, with well-known institution Animoca Brands among participants. On July 27, 2021, Yield Guild Games launched the public sale (IDO) of its token YGG on SushiSwap, with 25 million tokens snapped up in just 31 seconds, raising a total of $12.496 million USDC. Only 32 addresses succeeded in the grab, with public offering cost at $0.5. On August 19, YGG announced $4.6 million in strategic financing (completed before YGG token sale), led by venture capital firm a16z.

**Second, make a preliminary judgment on the project's initial circulation through token distribution and release rules. **Taking YGG as an example, analyzing its initial circulation from official data, mainly these three parts: the project team unlocked over 14.8 million tokens in the first month, seed round unlocked 26.5 million, public offering round released 25 million, totaling 66,302,083 tokens.

YGG token lock-up and release rules

YGG token distribution ratio

It should be noted that project team tokens are often very fuzzy regarding whether they're unlocked or not. Making investment decisions based on this fuzzy data is far from enough, so next we need to do deeper analysis and tracking of these chips.

**Third, mark and track on-chain addresses of project teams, investment institutions, exchanges, retail investors, and other token holders. **First, according to genesis distribution records, determine the detailed addresses of project teams and investment institutions, and tag them. Taking YGG as an example, the Ethereum chain shows only 32 addresses participated in the snap-up. Track and analyze these addresses up and down. Through recording and analysis, we found that scientists participated in YGG's IDO. The two addresses with the largest snap-up volumes showed group buying behavior (collecting USDC from different addresses, then sending YGG to different addresses after grabbing YGG). There are also some whales who built YGG positions on-chain. These important addresses also need to be recorded. Additionally, we need to monitor changes in exchange balances, which may mean circulating portions.

In summary, through statistics, Bluce found that from various platforms, YGG's circulating market cap is $70-88 million, with circulation ratio around 7.02%-8.8%. Calculated at the market price of $1.1, the valuation is actually $77-96.8 million. After excluding project team and investor addresses (assuming project team and investor tokens don't circulate in the short term), YGG's actual circulating market cap is only $27.46 million, with a ratio of about 2.75%, and circulating market cap is only about $30.2 million (calculated at $1.1 market price). If calculating an over $80 million valuation at current prices, it's actually quite high.

Of course, overall circulation needs continuous tracking of project team and institution unlocking. Judgments on unlocking and circulation of different addresses will affect the project's circulation estimate. After completing preliminary chip analysis and marking, you can derive buy recommendations from a chip perspective.

V. How to Find GameFi Projects

Currently, the entire NFT industry can be divided into digital encrypted art, NFT trading platforms, NFT financial assets, NFT public chains, and NFT games. Each sector has leading projects that investors can focus on. For example, the metaverse we often talk about, currently popular hot projects are Decentraland, Sandbox, Cryptovoxels; The currently hottest GameFi game sector, with games represented by Axie Infinity, may emerge in large numbers from the second half of this year to the first half of next year. The GameFi field has also spawned game guilds like YGG, which are also investment targets.

Additionally, there are some public chains that carry NFT trading. We can focus on DFINITY, Flow , Immutable X, Efinity, etc. Of course, there are also some NFT financial assets that aren't popular yet, such as Uniswap's v3 market-making assets. These NFT financial assets are all ERC-721 standards and have also spawned some ecosystems. For example, there are already professional market makers in this field.

The above is an overview of the entire NFT industry. Below, let's specifically look at how to find quality projects in the GameFi field. First, in the early information collection stage, everyone can obtain public information on some websites, such as playtoearn.net, Dappradar, Discord, Telegram groups, Twitter, Chain News, and other platforms. Additionally, you can listen to opinions from some investment partners or friends in the circle.

REX's team recorded all 40+ quality games found on the market and conducted deep investment research and tracking analysis. Through the experience of tracking Axie Infinity, REX believes that analyzing a GameFi project requires focus on the following points:

1. Project team information : If founders have blockchain industry experience and game industry experience, you can basically confirm this is a very potential team.
2. Partners and investors : If well-known venture capitals participate in investment, it will also add considerable visibility and credibility to the project.
3. Community influence : If the project has high community influence on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other platforms, it can be considered that this project's initial launch will be relatively smooth.
4. Project white paper : The white paper will introduce the entire game's token distribution mechanism, including whether it's a single-token or dual-token system. Through some experience from the Axie project, we believe that a dual-token system may be a method that can better simulate the entire real economy cycle.
5. Game economic model : This is the most important point. You must go through the game's economic model once to confirm whether there are problems with the model's logic.
6. Game guild participation : From the Axie project, YGG's support is very important. So if there's participation from game guilds like YGG, this project's credibility and attention in the circle should be relatively high.
7. Project business model : That is, how the project team makes money. These profit methods directly reflect in the project's token and platform token value.

Based on the above criteria, Volatility Technology has currently screened out some projects as follows: Decentraland, Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, Derace, Mist, Gold Fever, Nine Chronicles, My Neighbor Alice, Aavegotchi, My Defipet, Immutable X, Enjin, Efinity, Ultra, Flow ; Additionally, there are some projects with YGG support that everyone can focus on: Axie, Illuvium, ZED RUN, F1 Delta Times, Guild of Guardians, Star Atlas, Splinterlands, Ember Sword, League of Kingdoms. (Disclaimer: Project and token introductions mentioned in this article do not constitute investment advice. The views in this article only represent the interviewee's personal views and do not represent OKX's position.)

Taking Star Atlas, which is preparing to issue tokens at the end of August, as an example, this is a relatively hot game project right now. This project has many tags, such as AAA masterpiece, produced using Unreal Engine 5, etc. Additionally, the YGG Foundation has also officially announced its entry. It's now in the Solana ecosystem, and even legendary trader SBF expressed that this game is better than his expectations. So the REX team will next conduct investment research on this game. Additionally, at the end of August, this project will conduct an IDO. Everyone can follow it.

Disclaimer

This article may contain product-related content not applicable to your region. This article is intended only to provide general information and is not responsible for any factual errors or omissions therein. This article represents only the author's personal views and does not represent OKX's views. This article is not intended to provide any of the following advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to buy, sell or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) involves high risk, may fluctuate significantly, and even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. For questions about your specific situation, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional. The information appearing in this article (including market data and statistics, if any) is for general reference only. Although we have taken all reasonable precautions in preparing these data and charts, we assume no responsibility for any factual errors or omissions expressed herein. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in full, or excerpts of 100 words or less from this article may be used, provided that such use is non-commercial. Any reproduction or distribution of the entire article must also prominently state: "This article is copyrighted © 2025 OKX, used with permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article title and include the source, for example "Article Name, [Author Name (if applicable)], © 2025 OKX". Some content may be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Derivative works or other uses of this article are not permitted.

Show More

Recommended Reading

2025 KOLs' Most Used OKX Products Ranking

In the cryptocurrency industry, professional players' choices are always direct and pure. In 2025, KOLs cast the most genuine votes for industry tools and ecosystem development with a full year of capital investment and time accumulation. We围绕 four core questions—"What's the biggest achievement this year?", "Under the premise of achieving results, what are your most used and favorite OKX products in 2025?", "Why do you like it?", "This

January 5, 2026

2026 Investment Outlook: Assets On-Chain, Intelligence and Privacy | OKX Annual Record

Crypto's three major trends for the future: asset transformation, entity transformation, and rule transformation. At the present moment about to enter 2026, saying goodbye to the past four years of infrastructure focus on "road building," the crypto industry is welcoming a profound paradigm shift. OKX Ventures defines this as the opening of the "Kinetic Finance" era, where the core is no longer how fast the network is, but the flow of on-chain assets and money-making

December 31, 2025

Voting with Data, Insight into 2025 Hot Trading Products | OKX Annual Record

If you only look at market trends, it's hard to explain the return differences between exchange users in 2025. What truly determines returns also depends on account-level operation methods, not just market volatility itself. OKX's annual statement shows that mainstream coins are still the core of fund turnover and return carrying, supporting trading and strategy execution; emerging coins are more used to amplify volatility and provide phased opportunities, but are not stable, long-term return sources. What truly continuously contributes returns,

December 30, 2025

Fusaka in Practice: What Ethereum's Latest Upgrade Means for L2, Nodes, and Users

Ethereum mainnet has completed the Fusaka fork. From the protocol level, this upgrade mainly includes four parts, full text Q& A Show More core views and frontline experience of three guests: Ahmad (@smartprogrammer) – Nethermind execution client / Ethereum core developer Manu (@manunalepa) – Prysm / Of

December 16, 2025

OKX Research Institute | Why RWA Became a Key Narrative in 2025?

RWA (Real World Assets) is becoming a global capital "new favorite." Simply put, RWA means taking valuable, ownership-bearing things from the real world—such as houses, bonds, stocks and other traditional financial assets, even art, private lending, carbon credits and other assets that are usually not easy to trade directly—onto the blockchain, becoming tradeable, programmable crypto assets. This way, no

November 20, 2025

Claude Takes Championship, 6 Major AI Grid Strategy Showdown Truth | OKX & Ai Coin Live Evaluation

Short-term trading champion , is it also king in grid strategies? The first season of the "AI Trading Live Arena" launched by NOF1 finally concluded at 6 AM on November 4, 2025, whetting the appetite of the crypto, tech and finance circles. But the ending of this "AI IQ public test" was somewhat unexpected. The six models' total principal of $60,000 was only $4.3 at conclusion

November 6, 2025