Illivium’s risk-to-earn deathmatch, Axie Infinity to take ‘big swings’: Web3 Gamer

Illuvium takes a punt on risk-to-earn — Invites gamers to weigh in

One of the best known Web3 games, Illuvium, is taking a gamble on the emerging risk-to-earn gaming model, and wants players to help craft the rules of its mysterious new game.

“The game is meant to be simple, easy to understand, and full of risk, which, in turn, creates excitement and, ideally, viral, streamable moments,” Illivium founder Kieran Warwick said in a recent X post. 

Warwick explained that 100 players will enter with their illuvials, which are creatures in the Illivium world, “and fight to the death.”

Cash prizes are up for grabs along with other players’ illivuals.

The risk-to-earn model rewards players based on the level of risk they take, if they win, the payoff can be huge. However, if gamers lose, they could literally lose everything.

Warwick is putting the rulebook for the deathmatch into players’ hands, having launched a survey to crowdsource ideas from the community on how to make the game a success.

“From the initial responses, it is clear that people want a mix of cash prizes and also a sink to burn Illuvials they no longer want. But also the ability to win other players’ Illuvials,” Warwick said.

Gamers will “fight to the death” and risk it all

Illuvium, an open-world fantasy game on the Ethereum blockchain, uses a play-to-earn model that lets players earn ILV tokens through competitions and quests.

But more and more games are moving away from the play-to-earn model in recent times, which in some ways trained players to expect free money. Some industry executives predict risk-to-earn could become the only sustainable model for Web3 gaming.

Seedify co-founder Levent Cem Aydan said that, “When everyone is paying for a subscription, and they’re not all expecting big returns, but if you actually really go up there, your returns get bigger, then the economy is going to survive.”

Cambria, a highly popular risk-to-earn seasonal MMO based on Ronin and Abstract, managed to launch a third season by the end of 2025 after two wildly successful seasons that won over the hardcore Web3 gamers.

Axie Infinity admits it played it safe in 2025 — Now it’s ready for ‘big swings’

NFT blockchain game Axie Infinity is also embracing risk in an effort to reignite the excitement of crypto gaming’s 2021 peak, according to Axie co-founder Jeffrey “JiHo” Zirlin.

“In ’26 we’ll take much larger risks,” Zirlin said in an X post, reflecting on 2025 which he admitted was “too conservative.”

Zirlin said that outside of Axie’s Atia’s Legacy pre-registration campaign and multiplayer playtest — set in the Axie universe of Lunacia — the year had been “lackluster.”

“Big swings that can make history again,” Zirlin said, alluding to the time when Axie soared during the COVID-19 pandemic before plunging during the crypto bear market, as financial incentives became less appealing to players.

He acknowledged that few expect Axie to “strike back” and reclaim its status as a trend-setter across the Ronin Network and the broader crypto gaming ecosystem.

During the Christmas holiday period, Unique Active Wallets (UAW) on Axie Infinity fell nearly 14% over the past week, dropping to 98,910, according to DappRadar — a steep decline from its 2022 peak of around 3 million daily active users.

Crypto would be more ‘measured’ if Trump hadn’t won: Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu

Crypto market participants may have been far more level-headed in 2025 if Donald Trump had not been elected US President, according to gaming giant Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu.

“I think the damage is this sort of feeling, it’s okay because we have Trump,” Siu told Real Vision founder Raoul Pal on a recent podcast episode.

“Everyone basically just expected it just to moon all the way and not realise that I mean, in many ways, sure, Trump and the Trump family are obviously pro crypto, but they have other things on their agenda,” he added.

Siu said that if Trump hadn’t been elected and anti-crypto people like former SEC chair Gary Gensler were still in office, most market participants would likely be “more measured” in their market forecasts.

“When Trump was elected there was really exuberance,” Siu said.

Siu said that market participants must still be aware of risk, be cautious, and just because a political leader is pro-crypto, does not mean there is not some “danger ahead in some form or fashion.”

“Before I think we were hypervigilant for good reason because literally there was an enemy at the gate the whole time,” he said, referring to Gensler, who stepped down on the day of Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.

Trump hasn’t helped the web3 gaming sector and over the past 12 months, the two largest crypto-gaming tokens, Render (RENDER) and Immutable (IMX), have each fallen roughly 80%, according to CoinMarketCap data.

It comes not long after Siu revealed that Animoca Brands is aiming to position itself as a vehicle for investors to gain exposure to broader crypto projects and the altcoin market, as the company plans to go public through a reverse merger this year.

Other News

— Gaming giant The Sandbox has revealed a new Web3 platform, Corners, allowing users to create and trade coins tied to collections of online content.

— Mythical Games has announced plans to launch a new NFT marketplace called Pulse Market, which will use the USDC stablecoin as its native currency.