Ronin Blockchain Comes Ahead Among Gaming Chain Leaders

The Ronin network brought in more than 3M monthly users in May, signaling a recovery of the gaming sector. Ronin remains one of the most successful gaming networks, and the sector has improved its activity in the past month. 

The Ronin blockchain is the principal support for the Axie Infinity game, additional mini-games of the same franchise, and the Mavis NFT marketplace. The activity on around 15 leading Ronin apps leads to 1.3M daily active wallets. 

Other statistics for Ronin count active users, which surpassed 3M in May and reflect a similar growth trend. 

The people have spoken

And they chose Ronin ⚔️ https://t.co/paOfxMJdPY

— Ronin (@Ronin_Network) June 2, 2024

At this rate, Ronin already competes with Polygon, one of the most in-demand gaming chains. Polygon also markets rapid growth of users in May, up to 1.2M daily active wallets. Ronin also surpassed Telegram’s chain, which admits to mostly carrying trading bots.

Activity on Ronin returned to its peak values from March, suggesting the bull market for Web3 activity is not over. Ronin also grows its general influence, with more than 20M addresses created since the network’s launch. 

One step at a time ⚔️ https://t.co/zR2IuKWlMl

— Ronin (@Ronin_Network) May 31, 2024

The new address generation coincides with a series of NFT launches for Ronin and gaming activity. However, skeptics see this as a sign of bot activity and not organic interest. In the past month, most of the Ronin activity has been tied to NFT mints, as interest in collections trading returns. Additional activity on Ronin came from the Pixel NFT and Web3 project, which has taken up a large part of the traffic since March.

Some of the Ronin chain activity also comes from its partnership with Yield Guild Games (YGG), one of the biggest Web3 gaming aggregators. Ronin also expanded its user base through scholarships, where it lent out expensive NFT to real-world players. Scholarships allow users to play with a rare NFT without paying the outsized fees. Scholars then share their game earnings with the gaming guild.

Is Ronin Overran by Bots?

Multiple blockchains either accept bot usage or try to discourage it. For Ronin, the bot narrative is seen as harmful. The network community aims to debunk the bot claims, showing evidence of organic activity. 

However, some projects show signs of activity within seconds, which is impossible for human buyers. 

Public sales all minted in just 1 second….🔥
Thank you all for your amazing support! We're thrilled to announce that all our Nyang Kits have sold out. This moment will be remembered forever. We promise to do our best to meet all your expectations. To Tamers! 🥂 pic.twitter.com/Lrxg8qXtxE

— Ragnarok: Monster World (@RagmonNFT) May 28, 2024

Ronin continues to organize live events and find signs of organic traffic and real-person social media accounts. Even with bots, Ronin is a marker of renewed NFT activity, with third-party mints used for new project fundraising.

On social media, Ronin is also trying to post evidence of organic activity without social media bots. For token sales, some bots may also be tied to real people who just want a faster way of competing. 

Axie Infinity has been strict in discouraging and banning dishonest practices like multi-accounting. Web3 games have always faced problems with bots, usually banning campaigns or blocking NFT. 

Additionally, Ronin claims that its daily active users would be competitive even without bots. Ronin currently surpasses Ethereum’s network, which has fallen to 500K daily active users because of fees. 

RON Trades Near One-Month Peak

RON, the native token of the Ronin blockchain, also went through a successful month. RON traded at $3.20, near its one-month peak. Trading volumes expanded in the past few days, up to $41M in 24 hours. 

RON tokens gain support from a significant share of staking. More than 202M RON are staked out of a total supply of 1B tokens. 

The Ronin ecosystem is building up value again, mostly through its largest apps. Ronin still relies mostly on Axie Infinity, the Katana DEX and a handful of other infrastructure apps. 

Ronin increased its total value locked to above $200M after gradual growth in May. The Katana DEX grew its volumes by 8.8%, while Ronin also carried more than $51M in stablecoin volumes. Other reports reveal that the Katana DEX carries more than $218M in liquidity and causes more than 31K daily transactions. 

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Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva