What Are Crypto Gaming Coins? Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Did you know that the video game industry is worth more than the global movie industry and the North American sports industry? Combined?

Gaming is one of the most dominant forms of digital entertainment in the 21st century. It only makes sense that cryptocurrency would disrupt it. Novel play-to-earn models, NFTs, decentralized exchanges — it’s a lot to unpack.

But if you want to understand the future of gaming and crypto, you’re in luck. This 5-minute guide breaks down everything you need to know. Let’s go!  

What Is Cryptocurrency?

Simply put, cryptocurrency is digitally-native money. It has a few similarities and differences to the fiat money we all know and love. Let’s start with what they have in common:

• You can use crypto to buy and sell goods or services.
• Cryptocurrency can keep accounts like regular money.
• Investors can trade or hold crypto long term to make a profit.

But cryptocurrency is very different in some key ways: 

• Banks and politicians regulate fiat currency.
• Cryptocurrencies are governed by their users.

How does this work? 

All crypto transactions are recorded on a public database. These records are updated on a global network of distributed computers, all at the same time. We call this technology the blockchain.

Blockchain lets us decentralize several applications — cloud storage, data processing, even blogging. It also lets us decentralize gaming.

How Does Crypto Gaming Work?

If you’ve played video games before, you know that there are often in-game items that you can buy for fiat money. Sometimes these are simple skins for your character, a weapon to make your battles easier, or even just a collectible.

There are a few issues with this system:

• If the developer of the game shuts the servers down, you lose everything you bought. Even though you paid for your items, you don’t truly own them.
• Generally, any money you put in loses its value outside of the game.
• Let’s say you do find an outside buyer. Developers don’t get a cut whenever a player sells an in-game item to someone else in the real world — grey market transactions.

Blockchain decentralized apps like storage, data, and content. Why not add gaming to the mix?

Crypto games are video games built on the blockchain. To buy and sell items, level up, or access the premium version, you use cryptocurrency. Unlike traditional gaming, the blockchain verifies your ownership of your items, which you can sell outside of the game for crypto. If you’re a little confused, no worries — let’s go through some examples.

Crypto Games You Can Play Today

Crypto games look very similar to the traditional games we recognize. Here are just a few making moves:

Axie Infinity

In the Ethereum-based world of Axie Infinity, players compete against in-game monsters called Axies. Every monster and in-game item is a nonfungible token, or NFT. Your goal is to defeat as many monsters as possible and build the most valuable collection of Axies (NFTs) that you can. Think Pokemon, but on the blockchain.

Axies can be sold for Ether, which you can trade for fiat money. As recently as 2020, one Axie sold for over $100,000. Axie is also the biggest crypto game out there, with a coin market cap of $7.6 billion.

Gods Unchained

Gods Unchained is also built on top of the Ethereum network but functions like a turn-based card game like Hearthstone. Players battle each other with decks of cards that they can build up over time. Cards all have different levels of rarity, power, and value. 

Much like the cards used for in-person games, you can trade Gods Unchained cards on secondary markets. After all, players have their ownership verified on the blockchain.

My Neighbor Alice

My Neighbor Alice is a passive farming simulator where you can buy virtual land, obtain in-game items and collectibles, and interact with other crypto game enthusiasts. Those plots of land are — surprise, surprise — called Plots, and they function as NFTs on the Binance Smart Chain.

You can make all these purchases and sales using the game’s proprietary token, $ALICE. Like the other crypto game coins we’ve covered, you can swap $ALICE for Ethereum, $USDT, and even Binance Coin.

Why Is The Crypto Gaming Industry Important?

Like we mentioned earlier, the gaming industry is massive — worth more than $250 billion in 2025. With upwards of 2.5 billion people playing video games worldwide, it’s undeniable that video games are a massive part of modern culture.

In fact, in 2020, gamers spent $54 billion on in-game content. For most of them, their purchases were just expenses. Crypto gaming turns those costs into investments. Players can turn their play-time into earning opportunities by creating an entirely new secondary market for in-game items and NFTs. This could be the path to economic freedom for millions.

Start Winning With Crypto Today

The future of the crypto gaming industry is promising. Convergence with augmented and virtual reality is leading the way to the Metaverse. All that is great, but the world of cryptocurrency is taking off right now. Is there any way to take advantage of the crypto markets today?

Fortunately, there is. Marketing guru Dan Hollings has spent three years and millions of dollars perfecting The Plan. It’s an investment strategy for grid trading cryptocurrencies that can turn the markets into a passive income machine. Interested in finding out more? Sign up for an information session today!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a gaming coin?

Gaming coins are cryptocurrencies that have value in one or multiple games. You can trade coins for assets like non-fungible tokens, in-game items, and upgrades. Crucially, a gaming coin must have real-world value. This lets players sell their assets outside of the games.

Can I earn cryptocurrency by playing games?

Yes! Play-to-earn is a model that many crypto gaming platforms have adopted. In some cases, you can earn cryptocurrency simply by spending time in the game. More often, players collect in-game items that are represented by NFTs. Players can resell these tokens outside of the game for fiat money or other cryptocurrencies.

Is there gaming crypto on Coinbase?

Coins for crypto games are typically unavailable for trading on Coinbase. If you have game cryptocurrencies in your wallet, you’ll likely need to swap them out for other cryptos on a decentralized exchange like PancakeSwap or Uniswap.