What. A. Year. Over the past six months, the world has witnessed Ronin’s relentless rise. Future generations of gamers will look back on the first half of 2024 as a turning point for our movement. Huge growth. Massive expansion. Undeniable dominance. Ronin has earned its crown as the #1 gaming blockchain in the world. After reading this development update, you’ll understand what it took to get here – and where Ronin is going next.

Part 1: How Ronin Became the #1 Gaming Blockchain in the World

You might be wondering how much Ronin has grown over the past six months. So, let’s start with some numbers. 

In 2024, Peak DAU surged from ~200K to over 1.5M so far. That’s about the population of Munich, Germany, and represents a 6.8x increase in users since December of 2023.

Mavis Market volume grew by more than 10x. Kaidro’s NFTs have already accumulated over 1.3M in RON volume, the Ragnarok: Monster World mint drew over $800K in primary sales, Apeiron’s four collections have amassed more than 1M in RON volume – and these are only a fraction of the 31 collections now available. 

In Q1, both Binance and Coinbase listed Ronin’s native token – RON. This gave millions of new users a portal straight into gamers country. There are now more than 10.3M RON holders around the world, and we’re just getting started.

Ronin Wallet downloads surged past 3M over the past six months. The Ronin Wallet now also features BinancePay and CoinbasePay integrations, which means anyone can buy RON using their Binance or Coinbase apps – all from the comfort of their wallet. These new portals reduced onboarding friction and introduced our network to a new crop of users. 

Today, the Ronin ecosystem counts 15 playable games – with more in development. Open-world MMORPGs, card-battlers, RTS games, roguelite x god game hybrids, casual party royale and Match3 puzzle games… Ronin has risen to the top of the crypto gaming industry. While ETFs and memecoins may have made the most headlines this year, a powerful revolution has been brewing among gamers. 

How the Ronin Effect Accelerated in 2024

By the end of 2023, we were starting to see an exciting phenomenon take place: games and NFT collections were experiencing massive growth after migrating to Ronin. We called this the Ronin Effect. Over the past six months, the Ronin Effect has only accelerated. Pixels’ peak DAU surged from 220K to over 1M, Apeiron’s first token launch drew $75M in staked RON, and Ragnarok’s inaugural NFT mint sold out in less than 5 seconds. Here are a few highlights:

Pixels’ Unstoppable Growth

Pixels has cemented itself as the most popular crypto game in the world. MAU has held strong above 1M since mid-March, and then peaked around 1.7M in June. The New York Times even published an article highlighting the Philippines’ love for Terravilla! 

The game has continued to evolve since its migration to Ronin last year. Players have spent over 5.3M $PIXEL in the last 30 days alone excluding guilds, and total VIP coupon spend surpassed the equivalent of 15M $PIXEL over the past 12 months. This shows enormous demand for their game, which is even more impressive when you consider that the token only launched in February.

The Pixels team kicked off Chapter 2 in June, and shared their plans to onboard millions of new players.  Chapter 2 adds more sophistication to some features, overhauls others, and reinforces what was already working. In particular, this new phase introduces deeper in-game progression. This next phase of Pixels’ growth will also require a bigger team, which is why they began hiring in H1 2024. Pixels Founder Luke Barwikowski even hinted at the possibility of a Pixels L2 on Ronin next year!

Apeiron’s $APRS Token Launch

Apeiron is a roguelite x god game hybrid that joined the Ronin movement towards the end of 2023. The game itself counts over 70K DAU most days, and the team has already launched two tokens on Ronin’s Katana DEX: $APRS and $ANIMA. The $APRS public token sale in March was the first of its kind on Ronin: the Community Round enabled RON holders to receive an allocation at launch. Over $74.5M was staked by members of the Ronin community. Real gamers, real tokens.

Ragnarok Comes Onchain

Ragnarok is more than a game: it’s a beloved, billion-dollar transmedia IP with the potential to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 users. We were thrilled once to welcome them onto Ronin in April, and again when their Nyang Kit NFT mint sold out in under 5 seconds! This was the Ragnarok franchise’s inaugural NFT collection, and it has already seen over 480K RON in total sales volume in its first month. 

Kaidro Joins the Ronin Movement

In February, the Kaidro movement stepped onto Ronin. Kaidro is a multimedia universe spanning webcomics, games, animation, and more. Their launch trailer has already accumulated over 8.4M organic views on YouTube and their three NFT collections have accumulated more than 1.3M RON in sales. Like Ragnarok, Kaidro has strong appeal both inside and outside of crypto and Web3 gaming.

Part 2: Reinforcing Ronin’s Tech Stack

Ronin entered a new era when Sky Mavis founders announced their intention to scale Ronin with zkEVM using Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK). This came after a flurry of Ronin Wallet upgrades, new Ronin Bridge features, and big leaps forward for the Katana DEX. Ronin is getting ready to onboard the next generation of crypto gamers. Here’s how:

Ronin zkEVM

In June, Ronin developers announced their intention to further decentralize Ronin using zero-knowledge proof Layer 2 rollups – or zkEVM. zkEVM sends a proof to the Layer 1 that transactions executed on the L2s are valid, which allows a blockchain to process more transaction throughput and reduces gas costs while inheriting Ronin’s security. Today, Ronin can handle up to ~40 million transactions per day. What would it take to make that number 400 million, or even 4 billion? zkEVM is the answer. 

Soon, third-party builders will be able to launch their own blockchains on top of Ronin. That means you might see a Pixels chain, an Apeiron chain, or even a Ragnarok chain! Imagine hundreds of millions of users transacting across infinite Ronin chains. The possibilities are endless. 

Here’s a quick summary of the benefits of zkEVM:

• Scalability
  • zkEVM enables infinite blockspace by enabling economically aligned layer 2 chains to be deployed on top of Ronin
  • Eventually Ronin is exploring Agglayer to turn itself into a L2, leading to Ethereum alignment
• User experience
  • Seamless cross-chain experience that allows users to seamlessly tap into applications like Mavis Market and Katana from a zkEVM chain
• Economic Alignment
  • Potentially higher staking rewards since the L2 sequencer fees go to the validator running the L2 chain
  • Starting a zkEVM chain requires 250,000 RON, potentially increasing demand and utility for RON
• More games
  • Allows onboarding of game teams with technical needs that require them to run their own distinct chain
  • Permissionless deployment. Anyone will be able to deploy their games to Ronin, allowing for more competition and faster onboarding

The Ronin Wallet’s 2024 Glow Up

Crypto wallets are the connective tissue between users and blockchains. That’s why we’re always looking for ways to improve the Ronin Wallet. Stronger security, sleeker design, features users want – these are the north stars that guide us. 

We introduced state-of-the-art MPC technology, multi-chain support, a new browser sidebar – and more. The Ronin Wallet is your boarding pass to crypto games, RON staking rewards, NFT collections, and beyond.

The Ronin Bridge: a Portal to Ethereum

In February, we bolstered the Ronin bridge to pave new paths for builders to join our movement. Over the following months, new tokens began to flow from Ronin to Ethereum and back: Pixels Farm Land, CyberKongz Genkai, VX Kongz, $APRS tokens, and even long lost Axie Egg Coins! The Ronin Bridge has already processed a cumulative $1.673B in lifetime volume, and its latest upgrades have opened the door for more. Try it out for yourself from the comfort of your Ronin Wallet!

Katana’s Time to Shine

The Katana DEX is Ronin’s decentralized exchange, and it saw a few major updates in 2024. Five new tokens went LIVE, the Innovation Zone launched, and Ronin Apps integrated the Katana front-end. These achievements prepared Katana for a more decentralized future where infinite tokens might launch to infinite users. Here are the tokens Ronin builders have launched or migrated to Katana this year:

• $BANANA, the CyberKongz ecosystem token
• $PIXEL, Pixels’ in-game token
• $APRS, Apeiron’s governance token
• $ANIMA, Apeiron’s player incentive token
• $YGG, Yield Guild Games’ community token

Part 3: The Future of Ronin

Ronin Forge

The next step in our digital nation’s evolution will require more alliances, more infrastructure, and more games. That’s why we launched Ronin Forge in June: it’s an early access program for Web3 studios to build and launch new games on Ronin. This gives teams a chance to experience the Ronin Effect for themselves, and to shape the future of our industry. It also means more games for our community to play!

Here’s what successful Ronin Forge applicants can expect to receive:

• A grant of up to $50,000 USD in RON
• Access to the Sky Mavis ecosystem, publishing tools, shared guides, a Slack channel with our team, and potential mentorship calls
• Permission and support to integrate and use Ronin infrastructure like the Ronin Wallet, the Katana DEX, Mavis Market, and more
• A direct portal to the Ronin community.

H2 2024 and Beyond

Over the coming months, we plan to build on our lead by onboarding more game studios and shipping more features. Ronin builders also have tons of plans of their own. Here are a few things you can expect:

• New games migrating or launching on Ronin
• More token and NFT collection launches
• Continued protocol upgrades like the Ronin zkEVM through Ronin Evolution Proposals (REPs)
• Progress towards reputation systems that reward the most-committed missionaries

Final Thoughts

In 2018, Axie Infinity launched to a group of about 300 players. That year, the price of Ethereum declined to $89. The Sky Mavis office only had three desks at the time! We know what it’s like to be the underdog, and understand the importance of shipping relentlessly.

This mid-year review is the culmination of more than 6 years of work. Thank you to our incredible community for believing in us from the beginning. We’ve come a long way together, and there’s still a long way to go. Let’s keep pushing.