Axie Infinity’s SLP Rallies 40% in 24 Hours After Season 20 Update

The play-to-earn game Axie Infinity’s reward token SLP – short for smooth love potion – has surged by 40% over the last 24 hours after the launch of the "Season 20" update.

The update reduces the pace of issuance of SLP, cutting the daily new supply to 45 million per day, according to Axie Infinity.

The move followed recent complaints about the token's rapidly inflating supply and a 99% plunge in the price over a seven-month period.

The game has been affected by the hyperinflation of SLP, a result of a high SLP minting rate and low burning rate, according to a newsletter from Delphi Digital. This resulted in immense selling pressure on the token, with prices dropping below $0.01.

“The SLP rally is a direct response to the reduction of SLP issuance in the game,” said Aleksander Larsen, Axie Infinity’s co-founder, in an email to CoinDesk.

“Most seems to be driven by speculation, but we expect SLP to stabilize in the coming weeks as the fundamentals come into play,” added Larsen.

Although SLP has quadrupled in price over the last seven days in anticipation of the launch of Season 20, the token is still down from its all-time high of $2.41 reached in July according to data from Messari. This was amid a wave of headlines trumpeting the future of cryptocurrency-powered video games.

Axie Infinity wrote in a blog post that as a measure to stabilize the in-game economy it has removed all SLP rewards from "adventure mode" and will cap SLP rewards to increase token scarcity.

“Adventure mode was originally conceived as a way for the community to learn how to use their Axies," according to the blog post. "It has outlived its purpose as a way for people to earn tokens from the game.”

The Season 20 update has also created a $7 million prize pool to “supercharge the competitive Axie scene,” according to the blog post.

AXS, Axie’s governance token, is up 40% in the last seven days and is trading at around $67 at press time.