# Axie Mania | Weekly Recap *Author: Ryan Sean Adams* *Published: Jul 17, 2021* *Source: https://www.bankless.com/axie-mania-weekly-recap* --- Dear Bankless Nation, Axie Infinity has gone absolutely parabolic. **Axie’s AXS tokens (the Axie Infinity coin) was $7m market cap less a year ago.** **Now [it’s $1.5B](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/axie-infinity). 😱** *That’s 200x from the time [we first wrote about Axie](https://bankless.ghost.io/how-to-make-money-in-crypto-gaming/).* *Today they’re getting ready to surpass Fortnite as the largest discord community in the world.* **A crypto game surpassing Fortnite. Let that sink in.** We had an [Axie Founder on State of the Nation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N70qNJ_9iUA) earlier this week where we discussed this surge in growth. Mind blowing. 🤯  *([Watch it now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N70qNJ_9iUA).)* Why? There are 500k daily active users—all of them interacting with the Axie crypto economy. This is apparent when the mobile game has generated over $66M in 30 day revenue from marketplace fees. To put it clearly: this revenue is dwarfing any other DeFi protocol right now. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/public/images/34cd3d70-197c-4274-a7c8-23462edab769_2358x820.png)Most of this revenue goes directly back to the players—a virtual economy with a GDP! The rest goes to a community treasury. So while Axie Infinity players are cashing in, the game as a whole is also building a massive war chest. This is a first for crypto. ## The Axie Infinity Revolution: Crypto gaming Many of us have have been bullish on crypto gaming for awhile. [We believed](https://bankless.ghost.io/how-to-make-money-in-crypto-gaming/) it would be a main driver to crypto to mass adoption. Digital collectibles allow players to generate *real *value when they play the game. Players can then sell that value using the DeFi ecosystem—crypto games are a gateway to going bankless. Now it’s happening. And I believe this is going to cause a fundamental shift in the $150 billion gaming industry. **Play to Earn will disrupt the Pay to Play gaming model.** Here’s another catalyst for crypto gaming right now—layer 2. Axie has been around for three years so why did to blow up so suddenly? One reason: in May 2021 they [fully deployed Ronin](https://cointelegraph.com/news/axie-infinity-axs-rallies-80-following-migration-to-ronin-sidechain) an Ethereum sidechain. More scale = exponential growth. [Layer 2 is here](https://bankless.ghost.io/a-guide-to-uniswap-on-optimism/) and it’s upgrading crypto gaming from dial-up to broadband. But here’s my favorite part: Axie creates opportunity for *anyone* in the world with a smartphone to earn. People in the Philippines are [earning a living wage](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/14/people-in-philippines-earn-cryptocurrency-playing-nft-video-game-axie-infinity.html) by playing Axie right now. This is bringing people out of poverty. This is giving the unbanked access to a global financial system. This is why we go bankless! We are living a few years into the future…but the rest of the world is catching up. Here’s what’s lined up for next week: - William’s going to show you how to capitalize on this Axie Infinity craze - Podcast ep with [Tarun Chitra](https://twitter.com/tarunchitra) on the history of electronic markets *(DeFi is 3.0)* - Ben’s digging into Perpetual Protocol Another week of level ups in the books! Enjoy the weekend. - RSA *P.S. Sign up for the [Smart Contract Summit!](https://bankless.cc/SmartCon) It’s a FREE** **virtual summit featuring top speakers from the industry. David and I will be hosting a panel on EIP 1559. [Register here.](https://bankless.cc/SmartCon)* --- #### **ACTION RECAP **📚 - Execute any good market opportunities you saw in [Market Monday](https://bankless.ghost.io/software-is-eating-money-market-monday/) - Build [your on-chain resume](https://bankless.ghost.io/how-to-build-your-on-chain-resume/) - Survive [the crab market](https://bankless.ghost.io/surviving-the-crab-market-/) 🔥 - Learn [how to use Uniswap on Optimism](https://bankless.ghost.io/a-guide-to-uniswap-on-optimism/) - Share [whether or not you’ve used Layer 2](https://bankless.ghost.io/have-you-used-layer-2-open-thread/comments)