Gaming tokens are cryptocurrencies that run the economies of blockchain games. Players use them to buy items, earn rewards, stake or vote on how a game develops. Because they sit on a public blockchain and not on a game company's server, players can hold them in their own wallets and trade them outside the game. The price record matters before anything else. On 25 October 2026, every major gaming token CoinGecko tracks was trading more than 93% below its all-time high, and most were more than 98% below. The CoinGecko Gaming (GameFi) category was worth about $3.39 billion in total.
Where the sector stands in October 2026
The biggest recent change is to infrastructure. On 12 May 2026 Ronin, the chain behind Axie Infinity, moved from an independent Ethereum sidechain to an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack. The Block reported that the hard fork paused the network for about 10 hours. The network said the upgrade would cut RON's annual inflation from above 20% to below 1%.
Prices tell the other half. The figures below are CoinGecko data at 11:16 UTC on 25 October 2026. All of the price data here comes from that one aggregator.
| Token | Project | Price (USD) | Market cap (USD) | All-time high (date) | Below ATH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXS | Axie Infinity | 0.925 | 162.5M | 164.90 (Nov 2021) | −99.4% |
| BEAM | Beam | 0.00305 | 156.5M | 0.0442 (Mar 2024) | −93.1% |
| MANA | Decentraland | 0.0779 | 152.6M | 5.85 (Nov 2021) | −98.7% |
| SAND | The Sandbox | 0.0481 | 141.4M | 8.40 (Nov 2021) | −99.4% |
| IMX | Immutable | 0.137 | 124.1M | 9.52 (Nov 2021) | −98.6% |
| GALA | Gala | 0.00172 | 87.2M | 0.825 (Nov 2021) | −99.8% |
| RON | Ronin | 0.0530 | 40.9M | 4.45 (Mar 2024) | −98.8% |
| ILV | Illuvium | 3.08 | 25.5M | 1,911.26 (Nov 2021) | −99.8% |
| SLP | Axie Infinity | 0.00052 | 18.9M | 0.400 (Jul 2021) | −99.9% |
These numbers change by the minute. The earlier version of this article quoted prices and a $6.2 billion sector total that are now well out of date.
How gaming tokens work
A gaming token is a smart contract on a blockchain, such as Ethereum, a Layer 2 network or an application-specific chain. Balances and transfers are recorded on-chain. That gives two practical differences from ordinary in-game currency:
- Custody. Tokens sit in a wallet the player controls, not in an account the publisher can edit. The token can survive even if the game shuts down. Its value usually does not.
- Tradability. Tokens can be sent to other people and swapped for other assets, including on decentralised exchanges. A market price forms outside the game, and that price feeds back into how the game feels to play.
Many games pair fungible tokens with NFTs, which are unique on-chain items such as characters, land or equipment. Players can sell or transfer those items, and in some games rent them out.
The main types of gaming token
Most projects mix these roles. The labels describe what a token mainly does.
Utility (in-game currency) tokens
These are earned and spent inside the game. Axie Infinity's SLP is the standard example. Third-party research describes it as earned through play and consumed when breeding Axies, with the cost rising each time a given Axie breeds. Utility tokens are usually issued continuously as rewards. If players earn tokens faster than the game takes them back through spending, the supply grows and the price comes under pressure. SLP's 99.9% fall from its 2021 peak shows how that ends.
Governance and staking tokens
These give holders a say over a project's treasury or rules, and many can be staked for rewards. AXS is described as Axie Infinity's ERC-20 governance token, which holders can stake. Third-party guides say SAND is used to buy LAND and in-game assets, to stake and to vote through The Sandbox DAO, and that its total supply is capped at 3 billion.
Infrastructure (gaming chain) tokens
These pay for activity on a blockchain built for many games, not for one title. Examples are IMX on Immutable, RON on Ronin and BEAM on Beam. In theory demand comes from a whole ecosystem rather than a single game. In practice, the table above shows these tokens fell almost as far as single-game tokens did.
Metaverse tokens
MANA (Decentraland) and SAND (The Sandbox) belong to virtual-world platforms where land and user-made content are the main assets. They behave much like governance tokens with a land market attached.
How far each gaming token fell
Sort nine gaming tokens by market cap or by distance from their all-time high, and see what kind of token each one is.
| Token (project) | Main role in this article | Market cap, 25 Oct 2026 (USD) | Below all-time high | All-time high reached | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXS (Axie Infinity) | Governance and staking | 162.5M | −99.4% | Nov 2021 | |
| BEAM (Beam) | Infrastructure (gaming chain) | 156.5M | −93.1% | Mar 2024 | |
| MANA (Decentraland) | Metaverse | 152.6M | −98.7% | Nov 2021 | |
| SAND (The Sandbox) | Metaverse, governance and staking | 141.4M | −99.4% | Nov 2021 | |
| IMX (Immutable) | Infrastructure (gaming chain) | 124.1M | −98.6% | Nov 2021 | |
| GALA (Gala) | Not classified in this article | 87.2M | −99.8% | Nov 2021 | |
| RON (Ronin) | Infrastructure (gaming chain) | 40.9M | −98.8% | Mar 2024 | |
| ILV (Illuvium) | Not classified in this article | 25.5M | −99.8% | Nov 2021 | |
| SLP (Axie Infinity) | Utility (in-game currency) | 18.9M | −99.9% | Jul 2021 |
This shows one CoinGecko snapshot from 11:16 UTC on 25 October 2026. It does not track later price moves, player activity, emission schedules or token unlocks, and it does not say whether any token is worth buying.
From play-to-earn to play-and-own
The 2021 play-to-earn model paid players mostly for time spent. Rewards were paid in tokens whose value depended on new players continuing to join and buy in. When new players stopped arriving, token prices fell, and earnings measured in dollars fell with them. That collapse is visible in the all-time-high dates in the table: most cluster in July to November 2021.
Since then projects have talked about "play-and-earn" or "play-and-own". That means fewer emissions, rewards tied to skill or achievement, and more ways to spend tokens. Ronin's inflation cut from above 20% to below 1% is one concrete, measurable example. Whether these changes produce lasting demand is not yet shown by price data.
Regulation and tax
- US securities law. In March 2025, Immutable said the US Securities and Exchange Commission had closed its investigation into the company with no enforcement action, as reported by Decrypt and The Defiant. The probe concerned 2021 sales of the IMX token. A closed investigation is not a ruling that a token is or is not a security.
- US tax. The IRS treats virtual currency received for performing services as ordinary income (Q9 of its virtual currency FAQ). The amount is the fair market value in US dollars when received (Q12). Whether a particular in-game reward counts as payment for services depends on the facts. Rules differ by country, so check local guidance.
The risks
- Emissions. Reward tokens that are issued continuously need steady new demand. Without it, prices fall, as SLP did.
- Single-game dependence. A token tied to one title rises or falls with that game's player numbers.
- Security. On 23 March 2022 the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group stole almost $620 million from a blockchain project linked to Axie Infinity, according to the US Treasury. That was the Ronin bridge. Treasury described it as the largest virtual currency heist to that date. Bridges and other cross-chain contracts remain a weak point.
- Liquidity. Several tokens in the table have market caps under $50 million. Small markets can move sharply on modest trades.
- Network changes. Chain migrations and hard forks can pause activity, as Ronin's roughly 10-hour downtime did, and can change token economics overnight.
How to evaluate a gaming token
- Play first. If the game is not worth playing without rewards, the token depends on new money coming in.
- Read the emission schedule. Find out how many new tokens are issued each year, who receives them, and when team and investor tokens unlock.
- Find the sinks. Look for what players actually spend the token on, and whether that spending removes tokens from circulation.
- Check the chain. Find out where the token lives, how it is bridged, and whether that bridge has been audited or exploited.
- Compare price with the all-time high and with activity. A low price relative to the peak is not evidence of value on its own.
Limitations: the prices and market caps come from a single aggregator snapshot on 25 October 2026, and token-role descriptions for AXS, SLP and SAND rely on third-party documentation, not the projects' own pages.
This article is for information only and is not investment, tax or legal advice.
