This Week in Crypto Games: Surprise PIXEL Airdrop for Ronin Users Revealed, Plus ApeChain Is Coming

The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, with prominent games released, token airdrops piling up, and a constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re debuting This Week in Crypto Games.

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Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Top stories

PIXEL for RON stakers: Ahead of Monday’s PIXEL token launch, the developers of the game Pixels announced Saturday that they are offering a surprise airdrop to Ronin network users who have staked the RON token.

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Pixels took the snapshot on February 8 and will reward 20 million RON in total to stakers across two waves, with as much as 3,955 PIXEL handed out to each eligible wallet. Full details via the tweet embedded below.

ApeChain’s coming: The ApeCoin DAO voted this past week to build a dedicated Ethereum scaling network using Arbitrum tech, in collaboration with Offchain Labs and Horizen Labs. Set to launch in Q2, the so-called “ApeChain” will be built to power games in the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, but can also be used for DeFi apps and beyond.

Read our interview with Offchain and Horizen execs—along with perspective from Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre—about how Arbitrum’s proposal beat those from other Ethereum scalers, and why it may be beneficial to the Ape ecosystem.

Bits goes bust: The Ordinals sale for Bits, a Bitcoin gaming project that would have the community of asset holders collaborate with a core team to design a game, went awry last week. Incubated by DFZ Labs, the company behind the Ethereum NFT project Deadfellaz, Bits planned to sell 10,000 Ordinals inscriptions—but saw meager demand.

Bits cut the price and supply, with pseudonymous DFZ co-founder Betty saying that the team owned “misjudging the market”—but ultimately, only around 600 units were sold. The project still plans to push ahead, based on her latest comments.

Oasys + Com2uS: Gaming blockchain Oasys has attracted some major players, including Ubisoft, Sega, and Bandai Namco—and it added another last week in Korean gaming giant Com2uS, which will bring its XPLA ecosystem over to the chain. The OAS token popped on the news, setting an all-time high price in the process.

ICYMI

• The GameStop-themed GME meme coin on Solana continued its rollercoaster-like trajectory last week, gradually falling by more than 70% before surging by the same percentage in less than a day. It’s not dead yet.
• Champions Ascension, a combat game with Polygon NFTs, is currently holding a weeklong event around its alpha game launch called The Emperor’s Legendary Crystals. The event will award more than $15,000 worth of prizes.
• Forgotten Playland, a colorful game that recently raised $7 million in funding, announced plans to launch its FP token on February 21. No word yet on an airdrop.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.