Axie Infinity surges 130%! Can the anti-bot reward revolution save GameFi?

Axie Infinity’s AXS token surged 130% this week and 190% this month. The 16th season of Origins, launched on January 21, introduced the bAXS reward system, attracting players with an 80,000 bAXS prize pool. bAXS is non-transferable, supported 1:1 by AXS, and requires a fee linked to Axie scores for conversion. High-reputation players pay lower fees, while bots and short-term money grinders face higher costs.

Anti-Bot Revolution: Complete Analysis of the bAXS Reward System

The 16th season of Axie Infinity’s Origins began on January 21, opening a new competitive season with a revamped Bonded AXS reward system and a prize pool of up to 80,000 bAXS. For Origins players, all in-game rewards are now distributed in the form of bAXS, a non-transferable utility token backed 1:1 by AXS, used for breeding, evolving, and other in-game functions.

Converting bAXS to liquid AXS incurs a treasury fee linked to the player’s Axie score, meaning high-reputation players pay less, while bots and short-term earners face higher costs. This reputation-based fee mechanism is an innovative solution for Axie Infinity’s bot problem.

Historically, Axie Infinity has been plagued by bots and automated farms that extract value from the ecosystem, reducing genuine players’ earnings. Bots automate gameplay to farm rewards and immediately sell on the market, diluting real players’ profits and exerting downward pressure on token prices.

The new bAXS system fundamentally changes this dynamic. Since bAXS is non-transferable, bots cannot cash out immediately; they must convert to AXS. The conversion fee, linked to Axie scores, is a clever design. Axie scores reflect long-term engagement and reputation; genuine players tend to have higher scores, while bots and short-term earners have lower scores. This differentiated fee structure significantly raises the operating costs for bots, reducing their economic viability.

Market Recognition: Since the announcement of the bAXS adjustment plan earlier this month, AXS has more than doubled in value, currently trading around $2.50 per token. Traders are betting that the new reward model can restore healthier player interactions. With a 130% weekly increase and 190% monthly increase, market expectations for this reform are very high.

Expert Opinion: Partial Rebound or Structural Shift?

Bertie Wrench, founder of Bad Bikers, told Decrypt: “In reality, this brief resistance of game tokens is purely capital rotation and high-risk speculation.” He pointed out that after meme coins continued to rise, attention has shifted elsewhere. Wrench noted that due to macroeconomic pressures like the Japanese bond market crisis, unless market conditions improve, this sector-wide rotation is likely to continue.

Illia Otychenko, chief analyst at CEX.IO, disagrees with the capital rotation theory, noting that because Axie and The Sandbox started from much lower levels, their trajectories appear more obvious. He told Decrypt: “The recent strong performance of game tokens is more related to localized, project-specific catalysts.”

Otychenko explained: “Even if the narrative around privacy tokens hasn’t shifted significantly, these local developments could help boost overall sentiment in the GameFi industry.” However, both experts agree that the ongoing recovery of the industry requires fundamental growth in in-game token demand. “Current trends are more like a partial rebound rather than a structural shift,” Otychenko told Decrypt.

He lowered investor expectations, noting that “the play-to-earn industry still faces pressure, expected to decline about 75% by 2025, with last year’s funding down about 55%,” and Delphi’s research shows only a few games sustain “more than 100,000 weekly active wallets.”

Can GameFi Achieve a True Revival?

Whether the crypto gaming market will see a larger bull run remains to be seen, but the Axie team’s focus on sustainable long-term engagement rather than profit-only motives is commendable, and their structural reforms have been welcomed by players. Now, let’s wait and see if they can maintain this momentum.

According to CoinGecko data, Axie Infinity increased 16.7% in the past 24 hours, bringing its weekly gain to 88.5%. Over the past week, The Sandbox rose 15.3%, and game tokens like Decentraland and Smooth Love Potion recorded weekly gains of 4.4% and 0.7%, respectively. These movements suggest traders’ focus may be shifting.

In the long term, whether Axie Infinity’s tokenomics reforms can truly address the structural issues in GameFi remains to be seen. While the bAXS system is innovative, its effectiveness depends on execution details and player acceptance. If high-reputation players’ fees are indeed significantly lower than bots, and the conversion process is smooth, this system could become a standard anti-bot paradigm in GameFi.