GALA, the native cryptocurrency of the Gala Games ecosystem, has been on a roller coaster ride as of late.
The token has gained more than 12% over the past day amid the broader rally among gaming coins. It has also seen its value soar by more than 60% over the past week and 200% over the past month, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
In a note to Techopedia, Anndy Lian, Intergovernmental Blockchain Expert, said:
“The recent surge in GALA’s price can be attributed to a combination of factors, including partnership announcements and growing investor interest in the GameFi sector.”
With a market cap of $2.2 billion as of March 11, 2024, GALA is currently the 56th largest cryptocurrency by market value. It has a circulating supply of 29,309,794,963 coins and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.7 billion.
Where’s next for GALA? Is the latest rally sustainable? Learn in our GALA price analysis.
Key Takeaways
- GALA has seen a significant surge, gaining over 200% in the past month.
- The rally is attributed to several factors, including the resurgence in the crypto market.
- Recent developments, including the economic system of a new game called Last Expedition, have sparked further interest in GALA.
- Other gaming tokens have also surged alongside GALA, including PIXEL and RON.
Gala Gains Renewed Interest Amid Market Resurgence
Founded in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer (a co-founder of Zynga) and other industry veterans, Gala Games leverages blockchain technology to facilitate the creation, distribution, and trade of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), enabling players to own unique in-game assets such as characters, equipment, and land.
The platform offers a variety of games spanning different genres, with notable titles including “Town Star” and “Mirandus.” These games are designed to be play-to-earn, allowing players to potentially earn rewards through skilled gameplay or contributions to the ecosystem.
After explosive growth during the 2021 bull run, the platform faced significant challenges, largely attributed to a mix of technical vulnerabilities and the waning interest in GameFi.
A notable incident was an issue with a bridge malfunction, which allowed an attacker to mint over $2 billion worth of GALA tokens.
The incident involved a vulnerability within the multi-chain routing protocol provided by pNetwork, which supports Gala Games, among other DeFi organizations.
Additionally, as the initial excitement around blockchain gaming and NFTs began to stabilize, platforms like Gala Games faced challenges in maintaining the explosive growth experienced in their early days.
Nevertheless, the GameFi project has once again picked up momentum amid the recent market resurgence. With Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high, GALA has also been on a roll, gaining more than 200% over the past month alone.
Why Is GALA Surging?
GALA’s recent surge can be largely attributed to the announcement detailing the economic system of a new blockchain-based game called Last Expedition.
The game features a rich narrative on the alien planet Aura, where players, as hunters, gather valuable resources and tech while facing deadly creatures. It uses in-game currencies as a reward system, which could be swapped for other currencies, including GALA. The announcement read:
“Thanks to the power of GalaChain, a variety of in-game currencies with different purposes will be used to provide an immersive player experience with nearly infinite combinations and strategic choices.”
In-game currencies and Notarium, a key resource, can be earned and used for various upgrades and crafting, adding depth to the gameplay. This intricate economic model, combined with strategic gameplay elements, likely contributes to increased interest and investment in GALA.
Gala has been vigorously pursuing other development initiatives as well. The platform has launched its GalaSwap decentralized exchange (DEX) on the GalaChain network and sponsored a $1 million hackathon at the Game Developers Conference.
Anndy Lian commented:
“Their partnership with AWS Game Tech and Alienware is one of the highlights. This increased GALA’s brand visibility for the token in the global gaming arena, and its connection with the big brands brought more credibility. The growing price of GALA has also brought many GameFi users back to the market.”
Positive sentiment across the crypto space, driven by institutional interest and increasing adoption, has benefited altcoins, including GALA.
Furthermore, GALA’s tokenomics include mechanisms such as token burning, where a portion of the transaction fees collected in GALA is burned, effectively reducing the overall supply over time.
This deflationary measure can contribute to the token’s price appreciation as the circulating supply decreases.
Gaming Tokens Surge as Bitcoin Hits $70,000
Aside from GALA, other prominent gaming tokens and metaverse coins also experienced a significant surge in value over the weekend. This surge occurred concurrently with Bitcoin briefly surpassing the $70,000 mark.
One of the tokens experiencing significant gains includes PIXEL, the crypto farming game, and its associated network, Ethereum scaler Ronin. PIXEL reached a new all-time high price above $0.94 overnight, with growing interest reflected in over 500,000 daily active users.
Ronin’s RON token also hit a more than two-year high of $4.05 before slightly dipping to $3.70. Yield Guild Games’ YGG token, announced as PIXEL’s guilds infrastructure partner, saw a 64% increase in value this week.
Moreover, NFT card battler Parallel’s PRIME token reached a new all-time high of $19.78, while BEAM, the token of the Beam gaming network, set a record high of $0.044. Immutable’s IMX, the largest gaming token by market cap, spiked to a two-year high of $3.62.
Tokens such as Axie Infinity’s AXS and Iluvium’s ILV also experienced notable gains.
These gaming token surges often outperformed Bitcoin, which briefly exceeded $70,000 on Sunday, following its historic breach of that price point on Friday. Bitcoin’s current value sits just below $69,500, representing an 11% increase over the past week.
So, will the price of GALA continue moving up? Anndy Lian has a positive view. He said:
“When I spoke to my community on the ground, they said that the price action got their attention, and they are promoting the token non-stop on X. In the last few days, I have seen a big increase in trading volume by close to 110%, amounting to around $1.4B in the last 24 hours. The increased volume means that the buying interest is very high. If you look at CMC on the addresses by time held, I see that the number now is 69.28% vs. 52.14% 1 year ago. This also means that more people are more confident about the token now.”
Giving his short-term GALA price outlook, Lian predicted:
“Maybe consider holding it [GALA] for a longer period. If this situation continues, I believe a 5% to 15% price hike in the next week is also possible.”
The Bottom Line
The remarkable surge in GALA’s value, alongside the broader rally in gaming tokens, comes amid a renewed interest in blockchain gaming and NFTs.
GALA has emerged as the biggest winner in the recent gaming and metaverse coin surge, with the price jumping more than 200% over the past week.
Source: https://www.techopedia.com/gala-is-up-200-percent-in-past-month
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.