‘Pixels’ Game Gives Out NFTs, Ronin Tokens Ahead of Airdrop

On Wednesday, Pixels began a giveaway initiative that will ultimately span free in-game NFTs and Ronin (RON) tokens and coupons for a free in-game VIP membership, which usually costs $10 per month to unlock premium benefits.

Pixels kicked off the giveaway campaign on Wednesday via Twitter, offering fans a chance to earn a Farm Land plot. The Ethereum NFTs start at about 1.6 ETH on secondary marketplaces (or nearly $3,500 worth). Additional rewards will be offered via “daily tasks” in the web-based farming and social game starting Thursday.

Last week, Pixels founder Luke Barwikowski said in a livestream that the PIXEL token launch was “very close” and that the team would not do another play-to-airdrop campaign before the token debut.

Pixels held two such campaigns and will ultimately reward the token to about 28,000 eligible wallets under the in-game rewards initiatives. However, while there won’t be additional earning opportunities ahead of the airdrop, Barwikowski did state that the game will include its own play-to-earn rewards after the token is live.

Originally developed on Ethereum sidechain network Polygon, Pixels migrated to Ronin in late October and is credited with spurring fresh enthusiasm around the network and a surge of active users in recent months.

Ronin is a gaming-centric sidechain originally developed by game studio Sky Mavis for the hit monster-battling game Axie Infinity in 2021. Since then, the network has gradually let in additional projects from external studios, including other games like The Machines Arena, Apeiron, and Zoids Wild Arena.

There’s been a significant uptick in token airdrops around crypto lately as protocols reward early users and contributors with tokens while decentralizing the governance process.

Arbitrum gaming network Xai recently held a sizable airdrop for its XAI token, while the games Nifty Island and Apeiron are among those holding their own play-to-airdrop campaigns right now, and cross-chain gaming protocol Portal plans to launch its own airdrop this month.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.