GameFi

PEPENODE, a mining–GameFi hybrid, has raised more than $2.3 million in its token sale and lists a current price of $0.0012064. The project's design burns 70% of tokens spent on rig upgrades, features a declining on-chain emissions schedule, and offers staking yields of up to 546% APY from a pre-allocated pool, while several analysts and YouTubers have highlighted the initiative.

As the year closes, PEPENODE promotes a mine-to-earn model that gamifies rewards without hardware and emphasizes staking and gameplay. Its presale highlights a deflationary mechanism that burns tokens used in upgrades and transactions, targeting meme coin and GameFi audiences through a virtual mining dashboard and node progression. The project's flow centers on user engagement via leveling, rewards, and leaderboards.

PEPENODE’s presale has entered its final 24 days, with the project raising over $2.3 million and pricing the token at $0.0011968. The Mine-to-Earn meme coin pairs a gamified mining system with staking yields of up to 554%, and more than 1.4 billion tokens are already staked.

The Blockchain Game Alliance’s 2025 State of the Industry report finds that stablecoin adoption is among the top three growth drivers for Web3 gaming, contributing 27.3% to sector expansion. High-quality game launches account for 29.5% of growth, while revenue-focused business models add 27.5%, pointing to a shift toward payments infrastructure and sustainable design. The update was published on December 10, 2025 at 8:35 PM UTC, according to the BGA.

On 10 December 2025, an industry survey from the Blockchain Gaming Alliance found that Web3 game developers are moving away from hype-driven play-to-earn models toward stronger in-game economies and higher-quality experiences. The report notes that studios now treat stablecoins as core payment infrastructure alongside interoperability and AI tools, while becoming less dependent on major traditional publishers for growth.

Meta is reviewing budget reductions of up to 30% for its Reality Labs division in 2026, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with internal discussions. The metaverse unit has accumulated losses exceeding $70 billion since 2021. Metaverse-linked crypto tokens have declined sharply, with the sector's total market capitalization falling to under $3.4 billion from more than $500 billion at the start of 2025.

Gaming activity on Web3 platforms reached 27.9% of total on-chain engagement in October, the highest share recorded this year. NFT trading volume increased 30% to $546 million across 10.1 million transactions. Decentralized finance total value locked declined 6.3% to $221 billion amid market liquidations and a $93 million loss at Stream Finance.

Blockchain gaming's pledge of "true ownership" has largely failed to materialize as game shutdowns expose regulatory gaps. Magnus Söderberg, CEO of Triolith Games, warns that Web3 studios face steep compliance costs when in-game assets become tradeable for fiat currency. This triggers financial service regulations that many developers cannot afford, forcing platforms to choose between multi-million dollar compliance infrastructure or unregulated operations that carry significant legal risks.