Bitcoin Halving and GameFi: How New Bull Run Will Take Web3 Gaming to the Moon
Bitcoin halving is poised to significantly alter the GameFi landscape. Image: cocoparisienne on Pixabay
- GameFi is picking up steam alongside the overall crypto market.
- Most major game creators are already developing their blockchain games, and others will follow suit.
- To achieve the 1 billion goal, we must create easy-to-use and engaging blockchain games.
The effects of the Bitcoin halving, expected in slightly more than a month, will ripple throughout the entire crypto industry. Some of them are already evident in the GameFi sector: this year, the number of active users in blockchain games surged by more than 50%.
With the halving anticipation feeding the current bull run, Web2 game studios and new technologies will trigger massive hype in Web3 gaming and onboard the next billion blockchain users.
The pre-halving GameFi: how we entered 2024
A downturn in GameFi marked the previous year: analysts claim that the segment lost nearly 86% of its value from the latest all-time high, and many projects closed down.
The bear movement had a heavy impact on the market, but there is a silver lining – projects with the most resilient tokenomics and user engagement survived the crisis. The crypto market is gaining momentum, and the same can be said for blockchain gaming.
According to CoinGecko, GameFi became the second most popular narrative in the crypto market in 2023, positioned between artificial intelligence (AI) and meme tokens. The sector has always been quite popular, but it had the chance to surge, last year, thanks to new projects and an influx of major players.
In 2023, more than two-thirds of the world’s largest game studios tapped into GameFi. Some invest in blockchain gaming projects and some hire for blockchain-related positions.
Several studios, including Take-Two Interactive, Nexon, Konami Holdings, and Ubisoft, are developing their Web3 games. Together with the imminent crypto bull market, their work sets the stage for breakthrough growth in GameFi in 2024.
Why is everyone talking about Bitcoin halving?
The Bitcoin (BTC) halving will take place in mid-April, and its impact on the crypto industry is difficult to underestimate.
Bitcoin dominates the crypto market: its capitalization accounts for over 50% of the total value. Such a huge share means that any movement in Bitcoin’s price drags the entire industry along with it.
The halving means that the pace of Bitcoin issuance will be reduced by half. The supply of the first cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly limited, unlike its demand. Since the approval of the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), institutional investors have been pouring billions into Bitcoin on the world’s largest exchanges.
With spot Bitcoin ETFs acquiring an average of 10,000 BTC per day, the slash to a mean daily production of 450 BTC will create a massive supply shock that will push Bitcoin’s price to unprecedented heights, and permanently change the GameFi scene.
How Bitcoin halving will boost GameFi
In January 2024, the number of monthly active blockchain gamers surged by an astonishing 54.7%, compared to the 2023 annual average. The rapid audience growth reportedly began in November 2023 and continues to this day. Some Polygon-based games even congested the network so much that gas price spikes occurred.
GameFi is picking up steam alongside the overall crypto market—industry players have high expectations for growth in the next year and are expanding their operations. Here are other factors facilitating the surge in blockchain gaming (most of them are directly related to the halving).
Large studios will invest in GameFi
Most major game creators are already developing their blockchain games, and there are reasons to believe that, amidst the market surge, others will follow suit. This promises an influx of billion-dollar investments into GameFi, as well as thousands of players from traditional gaming. Dozens of new products in the Web3 gaming sphere will emerge, created by Web2 companies.
We can also expect smaller studios to catch up and start developing their own decentralized games to remain competitive. As with any other crypto bull run, the emergence of numerous new products in a trending sector is inevitable.
New tech will facilitate the growth of Web3 gaming
The integration of AI has been one of the key trends in crypto in recent months. This is particularly relevant for GameFi: some games have adopted Midjourney for character and environment creation, while Ubisoft uses AI to create non-player characters. All of this will enable the creation of richer game scenarios that increase user engagement.
Blockchain technology itself is another factor contributing to the development of Web3 games. Chains such as Ethereum (ETH), Ronin (RON), BNB, Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) create developer- and game-friendly environments where many solutions are tailored specifically for GameFi. This allows game devs to build complex and engaging player experiences, such as multi-chain ecosystems with interoperable digital assets.
Account abstraction is another technology that will help blockchain games gain mainstream adoption. It streamlines private key management, allows for the recovery of access to lost accounts, and eliminates gas fee-related worries.
This paradigm, gaining popularity in Web3, radically simplifies the user experience specific to blockchain applications.
On the path to one billion
One of the popular narratives in Web3 and GameFi is onboarding one billion users into crypto. Apparently, many of them will not have any prior experience with digital coins—the number of crypto users has just crossed the 580 million mark.
To achieve the 1 billion goal, we must create easy-to-use and engaging blockchain games that can appeal to mass users.
It seems that the modern Web3 gaming industry is doing just that. And while the integration between Web2 and Web3 gaming firms is already underway, the ongoing bull market, triggered in part by the halving event, might help usher in the massive embrace of Web3 games as a major trend for the next decade.
About the author: Can Picak is the CEO and co-founder of Diga Labs, a company that builds Web3 gaming infrastructure and interoperable solutions for GameFi. His areas of expertise are blockchain gaming, Web3 marketing, developing brand strategies, fostering community engagement, and also leveraging AI, IoT, and big data in startups. Under his leadership, DIGA Labs integrated its first blockchain game during a tough crypto market phase, which became a game-changer for the company.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to CCN, its management, employees, or affiliates. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice.
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