Ronin wallet users will no longer enjoy free transactions starting October 9. The former subsidy for some Axie NFT owners and Ronin wallet accounts will be discontinued and replaced with a new, smaller package of free transactions.
Until recently, Sky Mavis allowed free transactions for select owners of Axie NFT and Ronin wallet accounts. However, it will stop the program for a subsidized gas policy. Starting October 9, all Ronin transactions will be charged a gas fee of RON0.01, which equates to $0.016 per transaction.
The entire chain is home to 1.4 million daily active users, most of which are related to popular games and NFT activities. Ronin manages less than $5,000 in daily costs, while the Katana DEX runs around $13K in daily allowances. The new gas fee is expected to benefit the chain’s validators. Ronin also pays less than $7,000 in daily token incentives.
However, Ronin stated that the intention is not to charge more fees, but to provide a sustainable ecosystem for gaming studios.
Instead of the free transactions, Sky Mavis introduces Ronin Waypoint, specifically aimed at new users. The first gas-free transactions aim to make the onboarding process easier, without additional steps to transfer tokens and estimate gas fees. One of the use cases would be to allow gaming teams to onboard new users, by sponsoring their initial transactions.
The launch of Ronin Waypoint begins with sponsorship from Sky Mavis. Until recently, the organization used the Ronin validator to generate the transactions for free.
The new sponsored transaction format allows any entity to become a sponsoring service. Whitelisted wallets can submit their first trades for free. The sponsoring service then co-signs the transaction and actually pays for the gas.
From the end user’s point of view, the transaction is free.
Ronin grows beyond Axie Infinity
The Ronin Network was created specifically to carry Axie NFT and the native Katana DEX. Since then, Ronin has grown into an all-round Web3 hub and a niche L2 network.
Ronin now carries the Pixels (PIXEL) game after the Ethereum migration. Axie Infinity and its minigames have also been fully migrated, along with all Axie NFT. Games like Wild Forest and Apeiron have over 100,000 active daily users. Axie Infinity retained 75,000 active daily users and turned into a more sustainable Web3 game.
Ronin is also home to a small-scale DeFi sector, with a total value of approximately $135 million. Katana DEX is the leading app, where MetaLend seeks to build value for a native lending protocol.
Ronin is also pulling in stablecoins, although only around $31.4 million in the last week of September. The Ronin bridge remains active, but mainly for AXS and PIXEL tokens.
In recent weeks, the chain has also received an influx of $200,000 in WBTC, as well as $92.4 million in WETH. Other bridged assets include Yield Guild Games (WGG) and PIXEL.
Bridged USDC costs almost $32 million, while Ronin hosts WETH, WBTC and other Web3 tokens. | Source: Dune Analytics
At the April peak in 2024, the RON traded above $4, raising hopes of double-digit appreciation. However, the native RON token fell below $1.70 after the most recent market correction.
RON tokens are 57% unlocked, with 350 million in circulation out of a total supply of 1 billion. From October 27 and for 92 days, RON will add 389.94K adding newly unlocked tokens to the circulating supply.
Ronin is preparing to target game studios
The latest updates about Ronin are part of the chain’s strategy to target gaming studios. After gaining experience with the Axie community, Ronin is also reaching out to other game builders.
While play-to-ear games became unsustainable due to token inflation, the Web3 gaming stack is alive and well and Ronin is expanding its services to new builders. The Sky Mavis publishing team creates opportunities for game studios to launch on Ronin. Recently launched projects include Forgotten Runiverse, Lumiterra and Ragnarok: Monster World.
The chain said it will try to investigate games that already have a playable version, or are up to six months from launch. Ronin’s goal is to avoid supporting vaporware projects or games that only want to make money through NFT sales.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva.