Why Axie Infinity’s [AXS] lending offer is a silver lining in dark clouds

• AXS users can now access NFT loans and also earn staking rewards
• Despite the development, Axie Infinity was struggling with improving adoption

 On 2 February, Axie Infinity’s [AXS] engine, the Ronin network, confirmed that users of the Play-to-Earn project could access loans directly in their wallet. According to the announcement, the feature was made available after the network’s collaboration with MetaLend.

1/ @MetaLend_DeFi has deployed on Ronin!

MetaLend helps Axie Infinity players to take out loans against their in-game assets like axies and land directly from their Ronin wallets.

Here's what you need to know 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/izkQjKjQuY

— Ronin (@Ronin_Network) February 2, 2023

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Possible exit from the calamity

MetaLend is a leading partner that allows AXS users to lend against their in-game assets or NFTs. The Ronin network, also owned by Sky Mavis, noted that AXS players could access liquidity while collateralizing with their NFTs.

The official tweet pointed out,

“Anyone anywhere is now able to access liquidity and earn yield from their Axies and land on Ronin. In the future, players will even be able to play with their NFTs when collateralized.”

This may be a welcome initiative for AXS holders who survived the hard times of neglect in the last year. During this period, AXS’ gaming ecosystem, which was once attractive, became a shadow of itself. The NFT sector, where it thrived for some time, became a point of disinterest from the broader community.

However, there has been some reawakening in AXS apart from the 67% hike in value in the last 30 days. Since the beginning of the year, there have been days where the NFT volume surpassed $1 million.

When Ronin got word out about the MetaLend partnership, AXS’ NFT trade volume hit its highest in 2023. Over the aforementioned time period, the volume was $1.91 million.

Source: Santiment

Will AXS be back in the game?

Besides the development, Axie Infinity’s COO Aleksander Leonard Larsen admitted that the project was pursuing lending for its NFTs for a long while. Reportedly, the network’s co-founders were looking at options to unlock liquidity.

NFT lending has been a product our community has been asking for since 2019, and @Jihoz_Axie even set up legendary JihoDAO so players could unlock liquidity back in the day

Now with @MetaLend_DeFi players can do this trustlessly

Looking forward to more #DeFi for gamers on $RON https://t.co/za2qYtpnhr

— Aleksander / Psycheout – Axie Infinity (@Psycheout86) February 2, 2023

Now that the mission has been achieved, would AXS become more enticing for investors?

Realistic or not, here’s AXS’ market cap in BTC’s terms

According to Santiment, Axie Infinity’s network growth did not comply with an increase. The network growth measures user adoption and illustrates the number of new addresses created daily.  

As of this writing, the metric was down to 37. This indicated a decrease in traction despite several spikes. However, the 24-hour active addresses increased, meaning there has been an improvement in unique transactions on the network.

Source: Santiment