What Is Axie Infinity (AXS)? Play-to-Earn Pioneer

Last updated: October 2026

Axie Infinity is a blockchain game from Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis in which players collect, battle and breed cartoon creatures called Axies. It became the poster child of “play-to-earn” in 2021, when players — many in the Philippines — earned more from its reward token than from local jobs. That economy then collapsed, Sky Mavis’s Ronin bridge was hacked for about $625 million in 2022, and the game has since been rebuilt around free-to-play modes. AXS is its governance token; SLP was the in-game reward token until Sky Mavis stopped issuing it in the main ranked mode in January 2026.

This guide is part of our Coin Directory, which maps every related guide in one place.

Key takeaways

• Axie Infinity launched in 2018 and peaked in 2021–22 with millions of daily players before its reward economy collapsed.
• The March 2022 Ronin bridge hack, attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, stole roughly $625 million; Sky Mavis raised new funding to reimburse users.
• AXS has a 270 million maximum supply and is used for governance, staking and in-game fees.
• From January 7, 2026, Origins ranked play stopped paying SLP, citing bot farming; Sky Mavis is redirecting effort to the MMO Atia’s Legacy.
• Ronin, the chain Axie runs on, completed its migration to an OP Stack-based Ethereum layer 2 in May 2026.

History: From Breeding Game to Play-to-Earn Phenomenon

Sky Mavis was founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 2018 by Trung Nguyen (CEO), Aleksander Larsen, Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin, Tu Doan and Viet Anh Ho. Inspired by Pokémon and CryptoKitties, the first version of Axie launched on Ethereum in 2018 as a collection-and-breeding game.

Ethereum’s fees made small in-game trades impractical, so Sky Mavis built its own sidechain, Ronin, which went live in early 2021. Lower fees met a pandemic-era audience looking for income, and Axie exploded. “Scholarship” programs emerged: guilds such as Yield Guild Games lent expensive Axie teams to players who couldn’t afford them and split the SLP earned. At its peak, the game reported around 2.7 million daily players, and in October 2021 Sky Mavis raised a $152 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

The model depended on new players buying Axies and SLP. When growth slowed in late 2021, SLP’s price slid, scholars’ earnings dropped below living costs, and the loop unwound.

The Ronin bridge hack

In March 2022, attackers gained control of five of the nine validator keys securing the Ronin bridge and withdrew about 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC — roughly $625 million at the time. The theft went unnoticed for six days. The US Treasury and FBI attributed it to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Sky Mavis raised $150 million in a round led by Binance and used company funds to reimburse users, then increased the number of validators and tightened key management. It remains one of the largest crypto hacks on record and a key case study in our crypto security guide.

Rebuild: Origins, Homeland and Atia’s Legacy

Sky Mavis launched Axie Infinity: Origins in 2022 with free starter Axies, so new players no longer had to buy a team. It added Axie Classic for veterans, the land-based Homeland, and opened Ronin to outside games such as Pixels. In 2024 it announced Atia’s Legacy, an MMO set in the Axie universe. In January 2026 it stopped issuing SLP from Origins ranked mode, saying automated farming at high ranks was distorting the economy, and introduced a new airdropped token, bAXS, tied to upcoming titles. Exact launch dates for its new games have shifted, so check Sky Mavis’s official channels.

How Axie Infinity Works

• Axies are NFTs. Each has a class and body parts that determine its battle cards. You own them in your wallet and can sell them on the Axie marketplace.
• Battles: Origins is a turn-based card battler with PvE adventure and PvP arena modes. Starter Axies can’t be traded; owned Axies can.
• Breeding: two Axies can breed a new one for a fee in AXS and SLP. Breeding creates a sink that removes tokens from circulation.
• Land: Lunacia land plots are NFTs used in Homeland, where owners gather resources.

New to the concept of in-game assets as tokens? Our NFT guides hub covers the basics.

Tokenomics: AXS, SLP and RON

SLP’s unlimited supply was the weak point of the 2021 economy: farming minted far more than breeding burned. Ending ranked SLP rewards is the most direct fix yet, but it also removes the “earn” in play-to-earn for most players.

To see how AXS and RON compare with other game and gaming-chain tokens, read our overview of crypto gaming tokens and how they work.

Ronin: From Sidechain to Ethereum Layer 2

Ronin started as an independent sidechain with its own validator set — the design that made the 2022 hack possible. In May 2026 it completed a migration to an Ethereum layer 2 built on the OP Stack, keeping RON as its gas token and sharply reducing RON’s issuance. The network hosts other games and NFT collections alongside Axie; our Ronin explainer covers that ecosystem.

Players who need to fund a Ronin Wallet can follow our guide to bridging to Ronin to move ETH, AXS and SLP from Ethereum.

How to Start Playing (and Buy AXS)

1. Install the Ronin Wallet (browser extension or mobile) and back up the recovery phrase offline. If you’re new to self-custody, our crypto wallet guide explains seed phrases and common mistakes.
2. Download Axie Infinity: Origins from the official site or app stores and log in with your Ronin account. You receive free starter Axies.
3. Play before buying. Starter Axies are enough to learn the card system. Only buy Axies if you enjoy the game; their prices can fall to near zero.
4. To buy AXS, use a major exchange that lists it — AXS trades on many large platforms — then withdraw to your Ronin address on the Ronin network, or bridge from Ethereum with the official Ronin Bridge.
5. Staking AXS: Sky Mavis offers AXS staking through its official app. Reward rates and rules have changed several times, so read the current terms first.

Double-check the network before withdrawing: AXS exists on both Ethereum and Ronin, and sending to the wrong chain can make funds hard to recover. Our Immutable guide covers a competing gaming ecosystem if you want to compare.

For exchange routes and buying on Ronin, follow our step-by-step guide on how to buy Axie Infinity (AXS).

What Axie’s Boom and Bust Taught the Industry

Axie is the most studied case of a crypto game economy, and its lessons shaped almost every blockchain game that followed:

For the wider picture beyond Axie, our guide to how P2E crypto games work now covers the play-and-own and tournament models that are still running.

Axie was not the first breeding game on a blockchain; for the 2017 original, see our guide to the CryptoKitties breeding game, which also helped shape the ERC-721 standard.

• Rewards need sinks. When a game mints currency faster than players spend it, the currency’s price falls and earnings shrink. SLP is the textbook example.
• Players who come only to earn leave first. Scholarship guilds brought huge numbers of users, but most were there for income; when rewards fell, they quit, accelerating the slide.
• Entry costs block growth. In 2021 a competitive team of three Axies could cost hundreds of dollars, which is why free starter Axies became central to the rebuild.
• Infrastructure is part of the game. The Ronin hack showed that a game’s bridge and validator setup can matter more to players’ assets than gameplay balance.
• Bots follow the money. The 2026 end of ranked SLP rewards was driven by automated farming, a problem any game with tradable rewards must manage.

Newer studios increasingly design “play-and-own” games, where tokens and NFTs are optional extras rather than the main reason to play — a direct response to Axie’s experience.

Risks: Is Axie Infinity a Good Investment?

• Player numbers: activity is a small fraction of its 2021 peak, and gaming tokens depend on attracting players who play for fun, not income.
• Execution risk: much of the upside now rides on Atia’s Legacy and other new titles whose timelines have slipped.
• Token design changes: SLP reward cuts and new tokens like bAXS change incentives quickly.
• Security history: the Ronin hack shows how infrastructure failures can hit holders who did nothing wrong.

In a positive scenario, a successful MMO brings new players and fee revenue to the AXS treasury. In a negative one, blockchain gaming stays niche and AXS keeps trading as a 2021 relic. Size any position as speculative.

FAQ

Is Axie Infinity still active in 2026?

Yes. Origins, Classic and Homeland still run, the marketplace still trades, and Sky Mavis is building Atia’s Legacy. Activity is far below the 2021 peak, though, and the January 2026 end of SLP rewards in ranked mode changed how players are rewarded. Ronin also moved to an Ethereum layer 2 in May 2026.

Can you still make money playing Axie Infinity?

Not in the way people did in 2021. Ranked Origins play stopped paying SLP in January 2026, and remaining rewards and NFT sales are small and volatile. Some players earn from trading rare Axies or airdrops, but you should treat Axie as a game you play for fun, not a reliable income source.

What happened in the Ronin hack?

In March 2022, attackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group obtained five of nine validator keys for the Ronin bridge and withdrew about 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC, worth around $625 million. Sky Mavis reimbursed users using new funding led by Binance and company reserves, then expanded the validator set.

What is the difference between AXS and SLP?

AXS is the capped governance token used for voting, staking and fees. SLP was the uncapped reward token earned through gameplay and burned in breeding. SLP’s oversupply helped cause the 2021–22 collapse, and its issuance in ranked Origins play ended in January 2026.

Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.