Solana exec trolls crypto gamers, Pixel tackles play-to-earn issues: Web3 Gamer

Crypto gaming ‘is not coming back’ — Solana Foundation President

Crypto gaming hopefuls waiting for a sector comeback could be out of luck, according to Solana Foundation president Lily Liu.

“Gaming on a blockchain is not coming back,” Liu said in an X post. 

The provocative post has racked up nearly 900,000 views on X at the time of writing, triggering a heated debate across the industry, despite the point itself being pretty much crypto’s equivalent of low-hanging fruit.

Tone doesn’t always come across online, but a few signs suggest Liu was trolling the sensitive crypto gaming community hard.

Liu has since changed her X profile picture to one of her holding a gaming controller and added “head of gaming” to her title, alongside “Solana Foundation president.”

Luckily for true believers, many in the crypto industry did not share the same view. Popular gaming streamer Yellow Panther said, “Gaming on blockchains is here to stay.”

“Gaming on blockchains will always be a breakthrough,” gamer FeranRepom added.

Gamers debate over what works and doesn’t in Web3 gaming

In Liu’s defense, sentiment around the crypto gaming sector has been grim. Axie Infinity founder Jeff “JiHoz” Zirlin told Magazine in January that more crypto gaming studios are likely to face the chopping block in 2026.

Zynga founder Justin Waldron said Web3 gaming has failed due to false promises. “Projects tried to build complex ecosystems, long roadmaps, and massive token economies before proving players actually cared,” Waldron said.

VeryAI CEO Zach Melter said Web3 gaming “could’ve all worked out if we had just gotten existing games to use blockchains.”

Some anticipate that the US crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, will be the catalyst for a crypto gaming bull run. “The CLARITY Act will make the last decade of growth in gaming look like a joke,” Immutable founder Robbie Ferguson said in an X post.

Pixel launches all-in-one application to tackle play-to-earn problem

Popular Web3 game Pixels has launched an all-in-one application, “Stacked,” to solve the headaches that have plagued play-to-earn gaming.

“For players, it is one place to: play games, complete missions, build streaks, earn rewards, and cash out across a growing ecosystem,” Pixels said in a thread on X.

“The hard part was never putting assets on-chain. The hard part is managing incentive alignment. And that is the biggest reason so many Web3 games have struggled,” Pixels said.

Many play-to-earn games have failed to deliver on their promises of real-money rewards, bogging players down with complicated mechanics, confusing systems and messy cash-outs that leave earnings pretty much worthless.

Pixel said that the market has “been chasing” sustainable play-to-earn for “a long time” and Stacked brings everything into a single app, allowing players to claim earnings without juggling multiple wallets or platforms.

Pixels founder Luke Barwikowski said that the application aims to redistribute “rewards to people instead of platforms.”

Initially, the application will focus on $PIXEL ecosystem games, including Pixels, Pixels Dungeons, Sleepagotchi and Chubkins.

However, it may open up to more games in the future. “As confidence in the system builds, we’ll accelerate user acquisition, grow Stacked more aggressively, and open the doors to more B2B partners,” Pixels said.

New season of Bruce Lee avatars launches on The Sandbox

The seventh season of Bruce Lee avatars is now available as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on The Sandbox, as part of Bruce Lee Enterprises’ ongoing partnership with the metaverse platform.

“Each design reflects a different side of his legacy through discipline, focus, precision, and strength in The Sandbox,” the metaverse platform said on its website.

Prices start at just 19 SAND, equivalent to roughly $1.90 USD, and go as high as 399 SAND for the legendary NFT, equivalent to roughly $30 USD.

It comes as the NFT market continues to sink, recently reaching five-year lows. The market capitalization has fallen 55% from its yearly high of $3.2 billion to $1.45 billion at the time of publication, according to CoinGecko.

In February, it was reported that the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT that pop singer Justin Bieber bought for around $1.3 million worth of ETH back in January 2022 had dropped to roughly $12,000.

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Ciaran Lyons

Ciaran Lyons is a Cointelegraph staff writer covering cryptocurrency markets and conducting interviews within the digital asset industry. He has a background in mainstream media and has previously worked in Australian broadcast journalism, including roles in national radio and television. Prior to joining Cointelegraph, Lyons was involved in media projects across news, documentary, and entertainment formats. He holds Solana, Ski Mask Dog, and AI Rig Complex above Cointelegraph’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.