Axie Infinity players are using SLPs in real life

Axie Infinity, a blockchain-based play-to-earn game, has become a phenomenon for giving players a chance to earn a living just from playing the game. But players need to exchange their tokens into fiat money to spend them in the “real world” – as with like any cryptocurrency.

However, that’s changing. A platform called xSpend, which launched in December 2021, is letting players directly use Axie Infinity tokens (and other cryptocurrencies) to pay for goods and services.

“I can use on average 5,000 SLPs (smooth love potions) monthly – at a rate of 1.5 to 3 Philippine pesos – for services such as mobile phone credits and paying electricity bills,” CryptoMahalay, a Philippines-based Axie Infinity manager, tells Tech in Asia.

Of course, that rate has since dropped. SLP, which is the in-game currency players earn to play Axie Infinity, is also prone to price fluctuations – its price currently hovers below US$0.02 apiece, compared with US$0.23 in July 2021.

Screenshot of xSpend platform

That said, behavior trends appear to be on xSpend’s side. Valeri Inting, chairman and CEO of XLD Tech Labs, a key partner of the company behind xSpend, says the platform had 7,500 new users within a week of its launch. She also points out that 77% of the members of crypto gaming guild Yield Guild Games (YGG) currently use their tokens to pay for real-life necessities or monthly bills.

“This is different from people’s traditional conception that crypto involvement simply means HODLing tokens and waiting for price appreciation,” she explains.

Ambitions for financial inclusion

Axie Infinity players mainly earn money by winning in-game battles between digital monsters called Axies.

To use SLPs for daily necessities, players would need to convert them to fiat money through the usual cryptocurrency exchanges. However, xSpend allows players to connect their crypto wallets to its platform, and choose to pay for services with SLPs or other cryptocurrencies.

Apart from SLPs, xSpend also accepts other tokens such as USDT, USDC, DAI, BNB, and YGG.

For instance, Juvar Abrera, a co-manager of an Axie Infinity team uses USDC to pay for his internet bills and GrabPay wallet via xSpend.

“Some of my money [is] in crypto and sometimes I don’t want to use the money on my bank account,” Abrera tells Tech in Asia. But he says it’s different with xSpend: “I don’t need to cash out my crypto from centralized exchanges like Binance.”

Each conversion from cryptocurrency to fiat currency and every withdrawal from an exchange to a bank account involves paying fees.

This means users might save on fees by using xSpend and find it easier to spend their cryptocurrency.

Regulations a barrier?