Crypto gaming is growing fast as blockchain technology evolves to provide enough throughput and computational power to run more immersive experiences. Coupled with GameFi mechanics, crypto gaming coins are shaping up to be a very lucrative investment.
However, like the rest of the industry, crypto gaming is plagued with scams and downright terrible games. And because of GameFi, the trick goes beyond finding a good game, to finding one that runs a sustainable financial model.
This guide dives into the best crypto gaming coins on the market. We touch on the games, what they are about, and what role their coins play in their respective ecosystems.
By the end of this guide, you should be able to select the best games with the most sustainable financial models.
1. Metacade - Gaming Hub with High Potential
2. Alt Signals (ASI) - Best Trading Service
3. Chancer (CHANCER) - Best Predictive Market
4. Treasure (MAGIC) - Best Overall Option
5. Apecoin (APE) - Most Anticipated Metaverse
6. Gala (GALA) - Most Promising Gaming Studio
7. The Sandbox (SAND) - Best Game Builder
8. Decentraland (MANA) - Best Open World Experience
9. Axie Infinity (AXS) - Best Play-to-Earn Game
10. Floki Inu (FLOKI) - Upcoming Memecoin Ecosystem
11. Alien Worlds (TLM) - Highest Number of Users
12. Illuvium (ILV) - Best Auto-battler Metaverse Game
Crypto Gaming Coin
Market Capitalisation
MCADE
$26.6 million
ASI
None yet
CHANCER
MAGIC
$275.36 million
APE
$1.55 billion
GALA
$298.85 million
SAND
$1.16 billion
MANA
$1.09 billion
AXS
$989.10 million
FLOKI
$336.13 million
TLM
$72.51 million
ILV
$149.78million
Metacade is not a traditional game. Instead, it serves as a hub that connects gamers, builders, creatives, and other stakeholders in the Web3 gaming space. While it is a new company that just completed its presale, it is already making strides in connecting the Web3 gaming community.
With Metacade, gamers can access a platform integrated with various popular play-to-earn games. Instead of players needing to head to the games individually, they can experience them all from one hub.
The ecosystem integrates leaderboards for various games so dedicated players know where they rank at all times. It also features a trending section for games that are hot right now, and a new section for upcoming games with potential.
If players are not sure what games to play, they can read reviews from other players to help them decide, and then leave honest reviews themselves to help both other players and game builders improve the games.
GameFi is an important part of crypto games, and Metacade understands that. The ecosystem helps players devise strategies for optimising earnings while enjoying gameplay. And the more you participate in the ecosystem, the more rewards you get via MCADE, the platform’s native token.
MCADE has a total supply of 2 billion, 70% of which was allocated to the presale (which took place in Q4 2022), 10% to development, 12.5% to centralised exchange listings and marketing, 5% to liquidity on decentralised exchanges, and 2.5% to competition winners.
MCADE trades at $0.019 as of writing and is available on Uniswap.
Alt Signals is a trading service that offers useful tools that help traders navigate the forex and crypto markets. These tools range from powerful algorithms to signal bots.
Its premier product, AltAlgo, is a bot that provides buy and sell signals for crypto traders and investors. The bot has achieved some success among the trader community with a 4.8 of 5.0 TrustPilot review.
While Alt Signal is not a gaming crypto in the traditional sense, it possesses similar characteristics with games. It features a community of dedicated users, a sustainable service or product, an ecosystem that provides value, and mechanisms to keep users engaged.
The company has proven that they are efficient at creating algorithms and robots, thanks to the success of AltAlgo. However, the new ecosystem will be powered by an advanced version of their winning algorithm, called ActualizeAI.
The new ecosystem, which will include a suite of tools and services, will be built on the AI capabilities of their new algorithm.
Users will be required to hold the platform’s coming token, ASI, in their wallets to access these services. There will also be trading tournaments and various other campaigns, with mouth-watering prizes, to spur community engagement.
ASI is still in the presale phase where it is being sold at a discount to the listing price. To participate, visit the Alt Signals’ website and click on Buy ASI.
Chancer is a predictive market that enables anyone to create a market based on a bet or prediction of an event, structure it however they like, invite people to join, and win or lose depending on the outcome of the event.
It adopts a trustless, immutable approach to making bets by ensuring that the terms are transparent and that winners are automatically paid.
The betting industry is an $83.65 billion market, with growth projection placing it at about $180 billion by 2030. That’s a lot of growth within a few years, and as blockchain adoption becomes more mainstream, it is not far-fetched to see more betting being moved on-chain.
This future favours services like Chancer as they provide the infrastructure for anyone to create a betting market for pretty much anything that has a fixed, trackable outcome.
Everyday users will be able to bet on sports, politics, entertainment, and much more from the comfort of a crypto wallet.
The protocol will also feature a live streaming section with technology that allows community members to livestream anything they want and place bets in real-time. For example, you could livestream a street race in your neighbourhood while others across the world bet on the outcome while the race is ongoing.
The protocol will be powered by the CHANCER token. It will be required to create markets and participate in bets, and will be the reward token for winners. To get CHANCER, join the presale, which will start on June 13th 2023.
Treasure is an ecosystem that creates a middle ground for game builders and players to contribute to immersive, interoperable games with customised player flows and multi-game challenges.
With Treasure, avatars, weapons, tools, NFTs, and other in-game items can be moved between games that are built on the infrastructure. Player challenges can span between various games, and builders can create immersive and diverse gameplay experiences.
The platform, which launched in 2021, already has a total marketplace volume of $271 million, 10+ games, a 100,000 strong player community, and 344,000 unique token holders. It is also the premier source of gaming liquidity on Sushiswap, is the leading gaming project on Arbitrum, and has enjoyed a 101% quarter-on-quarter growth.
The platform comes with a cross game trading application called MagicSwap that allows players to swap between in-game currencies within the ecosystem. A marketplace called Trove serves as the primary centre for exchanging in-game items, releasing NFT drops, and discovering new games.
The entire ecosystem is powered by the MAGIC token. All items in the marketplace are priced in MAGIC, making it the primary vehicle for transferring value across the ecosystem.
MAGIC has a total supply of 350 million tokens, 213 million of which are already in circulation. This places its market capitalisation at $295.37 million, a conservative number for a project of this scale.
You can buy MAGIC on Binance.
ApeCoin is the token that powers Yuga Labs’ ecosystem which includes a metaverse called Otherside and the Apecoin DAO, whose members vote on proposals that affect Yuga Lab’s ecosystem.
While Otherside has not yet launched, Yuga Labs is already working with major real-world brands like Gucci to include signature pieces within their metaverse. The coming mateverse has gathered attention and could be the next big thing upon release.
Otherside isn’t the only use case for APE. The token powers the entire Yugaverse which includes premium NFT collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Crypto Punks, Bored Ape Mutant Club, Meebits, and others. These collections can be purchased on the Apecoin Marketplace.
ApeCoin is a medium for exchanging value within this Yugaverse. It has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, 368 million of which are in circulation.
Some sell pressure is to be expected at future token release dates, but as long as the Yugaverse continues to provide value and successfully capture it using APE, the ecosystem should create enough demand to keep prices elevated.
You can buy APE on exchanges like Coinbase.
Gala Games is the gaming arm of Gala, a film, music, and gaming studio that develops games that are known for being enjoyable. The studio became popular at a time when crypto games felt more like a chore with repeated tasks.
Its first game, TownStar, was a rousing success as it incorporated play to earn mechanics into a game that was already great to play. Since then, they have released other games like the wildly popular Spider Tanks, with several others in development.
Gala’s ecosystem is powered by the GALA token which is used to buy items and weapons within their various games. For example, you need to buy a tank to begin playing Spider Tank which is sold in GALA.
You can also use the native token to increase your Gala Power, which represents influence and increases the amount of rewards you get from winning challenges and battles. Most items are paid for with GALA, although some items are priced in Ethereum.
We must mention that GALA’s tokenomics isn’t the best around and has actually caused problems for the studio. GALA has fallen 81% in the last year although much of that can be attributed to a general market fall.
However, the studio is making changes to their tokenomics that should fix most of the current issues.
The token has a maximum supply of 50 billion tokens, however only 39 billion have been created. Of the created tokens, only 7.5 billion are in circulation.
You can buy GALA on exchanges like Binance.
The Sandbox is an open world metaverse that allows players to do pretty much anything they can think of and builders to create immersive experiences. While this guide focuses on games, Sandbox’s infrastructure allows for the creation of almost anything including Museums, Cinemas, and even virtual theme parks.
To begin building, game developers must buy land, which are NFTs on the Ethereum/Polygon blockchains that guarantee permanent ownership. They can then access the game builder to begin developing games.
One thing we like about the Sandbox is the level of adoption it has achieved. Major brands already own large estates within its metaverse and some are already developing experiences.
For example, Game Publisher, Atari, owns a large estate, while The Walking Dead franchise is working with a blockchain game developer to bring the series franchise into the metaverse.
Other game publishers can develop games as long as they have land, and several full-fledged games already exist.
The platform’s token, SAND, is integrated into the ecosystem. Land, accessories, weapons, avatars, and tools used in the game are purchased with SAND. Creators also need SAND to list their NFTs on the marketplace and can impose a gate fee for their games and experiences.
SAND has a total supply of 3 billion tokens, 1.58 billion of which are in circulation. There is still a sizable chunk of tokens that are yet to be released which could cause significant sell pressure at future release dates.
The token reached an all time high of $7.51 in November 2021 and has since declined 94.8% to a recent low of $0.38.
You can buy SAND on exchanges like Coinbase.
Decentraland is another open world metaverse that leads the industry in terms of usability and adoption. Like Sandbox, it is built on Ethereum (now Polygon) and provides the possibility for players and builders to explore their imaginations.
We must admit that Decentraland has a smoother look and feel compared to Sandbox’s minecraft-style graphics. The open world has some breathtaking scenery (depending on the creators, of course) and teleportation stations to instantly transport you to various locations.
We’ve played games in Decentraland, and while much of its enjoyability depends on the creativity and expertise of the game developers, the graphics and feel does not differ too much from popular titles like Raft.
The ecosystem is powered by the MANA token. It is used to purchase land which is fundamental for creating experiences (including games). The token is also needed to list and buy items from the in-world marketplace.
Game creators can charge entry fees in MANA, and tokens used to purchase items in the marketplace are burned, creating deflationary token mechanics.
MANA has a total supply of 2.19 billion tokens, 1.82 billion of which are in circulation. This means that 83% of its total supply is already priced. While future token unlocks can create sell pressure, mechanics like token burns have been put in place to gradually reduce the supply.
MANA hit an all time high of $5.12 in November 2021 and has since fallen to a recent low of $0.29.
You can buy MANA on exchanges like eToro.
Axie Infinity is a pretty straightforward game. You raise cute little virtual creatures called Axies, and then battle them against other Axies to gain rewards and XP. Everything that goes on in the game is centred around this purpose.
Axie infinity is currently the third largest play-to-earn crypto game with a market capitalisation of $988 million, 9,000 daily unique active wallets, $1-$2 million in daily volume, and a total value locked of $780 million.
AXS is the metaverse token for the Axie Infinity universe where you buy, breed, and battle your Axies across several planes. Axie Infinity started out as a game on the Ethereum blockchain that ushered in the era of play-to-earn gaming.
The metaverse has since moved to its own blockchain, called Ronin, but is still compatible with Ethereum. However, you’ll need to to get a Ronin wallet to transfer funds to purchase your first Axies.
To begin, you need to buy at least three Axies to form a battle team. Each one comes with special abilities and attributes. You can also breed your Axies to create rare variants with unique abilities.
As of writing, Axie Infinity has processed $3.6 billion in transactions and has 2.8 million daily active users. Its coin, AXS, hit an all-time high of $150 in November 2021, but has since fallen to $8.66 as of writing.
AXS has a total supply of 270 million coins, 114 million of which are in circulation, which is less than 50%. Hence, some sell pressure is expected in the future.
You can buy AXS on exchanges like eToro.
Once a memecoin without utility beyond community engagement, Floki Inu has evolved into a full-fledged gaming ecosystem with a metaverse, a DeFi platform, an NFT marketplace, and a learning academy.
The Floki community is 440,000 strong (i.e. token holders) and could grow as crypto onboards more users.
Its metaverse, called Valhalla, is an NFT game where players can farm resources, join clans, battle opposing clans, engage in raids for various rewards, go on quests, and craft weapons and tools.
You can also buy NFTs, called Genesis NFTs, that grant access to early game launches, presales, and discounts on various items.
The metaverse, as well as the entire ecosystem is underpinned by the FLOKI token. In-game items are priced in FLOKI and you’ll need some in your crypto wallet to be able to go on quests, battles, and raids.
The token has a total supply of 10 trillion tokens, 9.7 trillion of which are already in circulation. This means that 97.8% of the total are already in circulation while 42% have been burned, i.e., they have been removed from circulation forever.
FLOKI trades at $0.0000342 as of writing with a 52-week high of $0.00005608 in February 2023 and a yearly low of $0.0000053 in June 2022.
You can buy FLOKI on exchanges like OKX.
Alien Worlds is a space exploration game that places players on an exploratory path to discover the universe, find alien worlds, participate in elections, and earn rewards from GameFi activities like staking.
The metaverse is powered by NFTs as items from ships, avatars, land, weapons, and more are all NFTs that can be resold on the in-world marketplace or external marketplaces like OpenSea.
Alien Worlds is on our list because it has shown an ability to retain users with its captivating gameplay and financial incentives. As it stands, it is the most played game according to Dapp Radar.
As of writing, Alien Worlds has 248,000 daily active users, processes 12.28 million daily transactions worth $244,780 dollars, and has $2.61 million locked in its smart contracts.
The game is also spread out across the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Wax blockchains which allows it to access liquidity on these blockchains.
The game is powered by a native token called Trilium (TLM) which serves as the major vehicle for transferring value and the in-game currency that players mine.
TLM has a maximum supply of 10 billion tokens, 5.8 billion of which exist. Of the total supply, 3.3 billion is in circulation, which means some sell pressure is to be expected at future release dates.
Alien Worlds also implements inflationary mechanics, so the metaverse will have to retain users and value to match the tokens being released into the ecosystem each year.
You can buy TLM on exchanges like Binance.
Illuvium is another play-to-earn metaverse that caught our attention with its graphics, gameplay, and mechanics. It follows humans lost on an alien planet who discover beasts with special powers, called Illuvials.
Players buy, breed, and battle these beasts for rewards. However, the game goes beyond these Illuvials. Players can also buy mining tools to mine rewards on the various planets they discover.
You can join Syndicates, which are DAOs within the metaverse that function similar to real DAOs with treasuries and decentralised governance structures.
The Illuvium ecosystem is currently split into three distinct games, Illuvium Arena, Illuvium Zero, and Illuvium Overworld.
Illuvium Arena is an arena-style pvp auto-battle game that pits players against each other for a chance to win rewards. This game depends largely on your Illuvials’ stats like their power levels, special attributes, and combinations.
Illuvium Zero is a world building game where players buy lands, acquire resources, expand their territories, and earn rewards for doing so, while Illuvium Overworld is the exploratory game where players explore new worlds and discover new Illuvials.
The metaverse recently launched an in-game decentralised exchange for trading avatars, land, and other in-game items, called the IlluviDex.
The metaverse is powered by the Illuvium token (ILV). It is mostly used for battle and mining rewards as all marketplace purchases are made using Ethereum. This makes its token mechanics inflationary as users have less reasons to hold on to the tokens aside staking.
ILV has a maximum supply of 10 million tokens, 7.4 million of which are in existence and 2 million in circulation.
You can buy ILV on Binance.
Crypto gaming coins are tokens that power crypto gaming ecosystems. They are often used within games for various purposes that could range from general things like paying for tools, weapons, land, to specific tasks like completing quests.
Either way, their value is usually tied to the degree of acceptance and adoption of the games themselves. While it may be easy to overlook the games and focus on the coins, crypto gaming coins do not grow sustainably if the game does not.
Gaming coins come in various types and serve various purposes. Some serve as an all-round token for transferring all forms of value within their gaming ecosystems while some are created strictly for GameFi purposes like staking coins to earn rewards that could be converted to cash.
Some others are used for DAO purposes, to vote on proposals affecting the entire ecosystem. At times, games could run a dual token system where a major token is used for governance and a minor token is used as an in-game currency.
You can buy crypto gaming coins on major exchanges like eToro or Binance. Our list of exchanges below is a good place to start.
When looking to buy crypto gaming coins, your focus should be more on the game itself. The rationale behind this is that the tokens are a part of the overall gaming experience that reflect the value of the game. If games perform well, so will their tokens.
The factors that affect the acceptability of crypto games are similar to those of traditional games. Some include.
The blockchain ecosystem that games decide to build on is important. For example, you’ll hardly see games building on Ethereum anymore because of high gas fees and scalability issues.
Granted, Ethereum has made strides in that regard, but good gameplay often requires more throughput than Ethereum can currently provide. Hence, most game developers move to faster networks like Polygon and Wax.
First generation crypto games were nothing more than a bundle of decentralised finance tasks with a fancy “gaming” theme. The tasks quickly became cumbersome and people lost interest.
Axie infinity was the first game to successfully combine engaging gameplay and GameFi, ushering in an age of play-to-earn gaming. Since then, several games have emerged that are nice to play, like Gala Games’ suite of games.
The more engaging crypto games are, the more likely people are to play them, and this helps to bring value into the ecosystem.
Crypto gaming is still in its infancy, so some of the best games pale in comparison to their legacy counterparts. Hence, a significant reason people play crypto games are the financial incentives. Almost all crypto games integrate gaming finance into their ecosystem in different ways.
For example, Town Star, the town building game by Gala Games, rewards players for completing tasks with Town Coin, which is a crypto with monetary value. Players can also buy NFTs that can increase the tokens they earn for completing the same set of tasks.
Tokenomics underpins the other points explained in this section. If a game’s tokenomics are too inflationary or improperly designed, then its tokens may not capture value as they should. In this case, the game could tick all the boxes, but people still won’t buy its tokens.
While it is common to see game tokens reach maximum supplies of up to 1 billion units, irrationally high numbers like 1 trillion is a red flag. Also, token allocations matter. If a significant chunk of the token supply goes to the team, then that is another red flag.
Ultimately, there is no one size fits all with tokenomics. However, you can always look out for signs of foul play.
This depends on the game. Some games reward winners of battles, tournaments or guilds with crypto. A good example is Axie Infinity. Battle winners get Smooth Love Potion (SLP), the game’s in-game currency which can be used to upgrade Axies or be sold for money.
Gala Game’s TownStar is another example. Players who complete the daily tasks within the allotted time gain TOWN that can be sold.
However, keep in mind that some of these tokens, especially when a dual token system is used, like in the examples above, can be inflationary which means their value can decrease over time. At least until all tokens are unlocked.
Most games have in-game exchanges that swap their tokens, however, an easy way is to use popular centralised exchanges. In this tutorial, we used eToro.
If you already own an account with a centralised exchange, skip this step. If not, navigate to the eToro website and click on Start Investing. Alternatively, you can download the mobile application from the Play Store or iOS store.
Create an account by filling out the sign up form with your full name and email address.
Next, verify your account by completing your profile and sending KYC documents like your National ID or driver’s licence and proof of residence (utility bill).
Once your account has been verified, click on Deposit funds on the left pane of the page and choose a convenient method from the drop-down menu. Set the amount you’d like to deposit.
Once your account is funded, search for any gaming coin in the Discover tab. An interface like the one below should load. You can then set your parameters and buy.
We explored the top crypto gaming coins and chose MAGIC of the Treasure ecosystem as our overall best because it creates an infrastructure for interoperable games without the need for a metaverse. It is also the leading gaming infrastructure on one of the fastest growing networks in crypto, Arbitrum.
With Treasure, game builders can create multi-world player journeys that attract more players to their games than they normally would thanks to the possibility of collaborating with other games.
However, all the gaming tokens on our list are good options with growth potential. To begin buying gaming coins, visit eToro.
The tokens covered in this guide were chosen through rigorous research and reviews. We paid attention to security, transparency, reputation, gameplay, tokenomics, and competitive edge.
The tokens listed are the best we found in the various categories we listed them. For example, we listed GALA as the most promising gaming studio because of its suite of enjoyable games.
Check out our why trust us and how we test pages for more information on our testing process.
The best gaming crypto on our list is Treasure because of its approach to gaming. It is not a singular game whose options are to either fail or succeed. Instead, it is infrastructure for interoperable games. Something that can live on despite the games built with it.
The top crypto gaming coins are the ones listed in this guide. They are not the only coins of interest, but are the ones that show the most potential.
This is hard to say as various metaverses bring different benefits. For example, Otherside is onboarding high class brands, Sandbox is home to various major brands like Atari, while Decentraland has great graphics and smooth gameplay.
Ultimately, the best metaverse coin will be the one that provides the best utility.
Again, the best crypto game depends on who is playing. From a play-to-earn perspective, Axie Infinity is doing quite well. Form a world-building perspective, Gala Games has a gem with Town Star.