NFTs are quickly consolidating as an independent sector within the crypto industry. Crypto art is one of the main applications for NFTs, but there is another interesting use case that continues to gain traction: NFT games.
With NFT games, the demand for multiple transactions and payments can be much higher, as they involve a continuous and dynamic interconnection between players and specialized marketplaces. This is why blockchain game players need a secure, fast, and transparent NFT payments solution that would let them focus on playing their favorite games without worrying about high fees and slow transactions with delayed finality.
USDC and Circle’s NFT payments solution provide a reliable full-stack payments infrastructure for blockchain games.
Circle’s NFT Payment Solution is Built Around Speed and Low-Cost Transactions
Circle’s NFT Platform & Marketplace Payment Solution enables NFT gamers to pay with their credit cards, USDC, or their favorite digital currencies with almost instant finality and at a low cost.
The USDC-based NFT payments product is designed to reduce friction in buying and selling items for gamers and NFT marketplace participants.
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire commented on the solution, stressing the benefit for end-users:
“This is not only an important and valuable trend for marketplaces and creators, it represents incredible demand from consumers – for collectibles, artwork, moments, and really anything that can be tokenized on the blockchain.”
Circle’s NFT payment solution is ideal for NFT marketplaces, but the biggest winners are NFT gamers who benefit from user-friendly payment rails that enable cheap and fast transactions.
NFT marketplaces have to put an emphasis on building payment channels that would deliver a seamless and intuitive experience. This can be achieved by letting gamers simply deposit funds into their accounts to buy NFT-based in-game items.
In the best-case scenario, marketplaces could let users enter card details and use the funds to buy NFT items; Circle Payments infrastructure makes it easy for developers and users alike.
NFT Games: A Fast-Growing Market
Despite the NFT market’s current focus on crypto art, NFT games are also turning into a fast-growing market.
Blockchain and NFTs address many challenges related to traditional in-game assets by providing ownership proof, provable scarcity, ensuring the immutability of transactions, and delivering interoperability of in-game assets.
As of May 2021, the total amount of investments made in the blockchain game market topped $1 billion, according to BlockchainGamer.biz. $634 million of the funds came from venture capital firms, while the rest has been raised via token sales.
Several NFT gaming firms have recently closed impressive funding rounds:
- In May 2021, Animoca Brands raised $88 million from multiple VC firms that valued it at $1 billion. Animoca Brands has gained popularity thanks to blockchain games like F1 Delta Time, The Sandbox, and MotoGP Ignition.
- Recently, Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis raised $7.5 million in its Series A round, with US billionaire Mark Cuban being a leading investor. Axie Infinity is a popular game where players breed, battle, and trade digital pets known as Axies. Its specialized NFT marketplace is one of the largest in the world right now.
- Also in May, a new team of gaming veterans raised $10.3 million in an initial round to launch Big Time Studios, which aims to develop the world’s first action-PC game involving NFTs and relying on crypto technology. The company was founded by former workers at Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, and Decentraland.
Today, NFT marketplaces built around blockchain games, such as Axie Infinity, Sorare, and Decentraland, generate tens of millions of US dollars in trading volumes every month.
Circle’s payments solution can be integrated to improve the user experience and help marketplaces streamline transaction processes.
Learn more about Circle’s NFT Platform & Marketplace Payment solution.
