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In order to play the game at all, you must own 3 axies, which currently cost about $350 total to purchase 3. This is one of the principal sources of new money entering the ecosystem, new players wanting to play the game and securing virtual livestock with which to play. Most players cannot afford this themselves, so there are "sponsors" in the developed world who buy them for them and loan them to these "scholars" in exchange for a cut.

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Yes, but what on earth is so compelling about a quasi pokémon clone that anyone is paying the price of 5-6 AAA games to play it as a game for fun? And who is buying all the SLPs ‘players’ farming this for $?

As far as we can tell the primary motivation of most people playing the game is the hope to earn money, and the business model is sustained primarily by the pace of new user growth.

SLP's price is supported by demand to breed new Axies -- it is consumed and then a new Axie is created -- and so demand for new Axies props up the value of SLP. But additionally there is some speculative value to SLP based on expectations for what will happen with the game itself.

> who is buying all the SLPs ‘players’ farming this for $?

Novice traders looking at the SLP token price chart and thinking it has to mean-reverse (instead of looking at the marketcap chart as they should).

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