Key Insights
- Immutable zkEVM saw continued growth in Q3’24, with daily active addresses surging 79% QoQ, driven by ongoing gaming partnerships such as MARBLEX, new game launches like Space Nation, and integrations like the Squid Bridge.
- Immutable X saw average daily transactions surge 414.8% QoQ to 1.1 million and a moderate 23.6% QoQ increase in daily active addresses driven by high-profile games releases and ecosystem growth programs in Q3’24.
- As of Q3’24, Immutable Passport has surpassed 2.5 million sign-ups as gaming ecosystems continue to leverage Passport for seamless one-click player onboarding in Web3.
- As of Q3’24 ending, nearly 400 funded games have joined the Immutable ecosystem, with over half of these games signed in the first half of the year displaying impressive ecosystem growth.
Primer
Immutable is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution for NFTs and gaming economies, providing zero-to-minimal gas fees for minting and trading NFTs, fast transaction settlements, and scalable gaming infrastructure. Founded in December 2018 by James Ferguson, Robert Ferguson, and Alex Connolly, Immutable raised $2.4M in a seed round on July 9, 2018, with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Santiago R Santos, Continue Capital, and Nirvana Capital. Immutable aims to address critical challenges in the Gaming and NFT ecosystem, such as scalability, user experience, and developer efficiency, without sacrificing Ethereum’s security and decentralization. Immutable achieves this through its two chains: Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM.
Immutable X is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution leveraging StarkWare’s ZK-rollup technology to provide a high-throughput, cost-effective execution layer for gaming and NFT transactions. The protocol batches large numbers of transactions and submits validity proofs to Ethereum’s Layer-1, allowing Immutable X to handle over 9,000 transactions per second with zero gas fees for minting and trading. Immutable zkEVM is an EVM-compatible ZK-rollup, built using Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK), which extends the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to support high-performance applications. Optimized for gaming, Immutable zkEVM offers developers an EVM-compatible environment with reduced computational overhead and enhanced privacy features, allowing for efficient, secure execution of complex gaming applications.
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Key Metrics
Performance Analysis
Immutable zkEVM
In Q3’24, Immutable zkEVM user activity saw continuous growth for the third consecutive quarter despite a broader market decline. Daily active transactions rose 80.5% QoQ to 595k transactions, with a corresponding 80% QoQ growth to 267k in daily active addresses.
This sustained growth is likely driven by the following events:
- In June 2024, Immutable announced that it had partnered with South Korean game publisher Netmarble. This partnership facilitates the migration of MARBLEX, Netmarble’s blockchain gaming platform, along with three live Netmarble titles onto Immutable zkEVM. As part of the MARBLEX partnership, Immutable has announced a $20 million Ecosystem Boost Program, which will provide essential technical and financial support for developers building on Immutable zkEVM. Immutable zkEVM may continue to see accelerated growth in onchain activity as high-profile games are onboarded to the network.
- In August 2024, Immutable announced the integration of Squid cross-chain bridging protocol to enhance interoperability between Immutable zkEVM and other networks. This integration allows for token transfers across more than 70 supported networks, enabling users to bridge tokens from various chains to Immutable zkEVM. As such, this cross-chain capability likely spurred additional activity by attracting users from different ecosystems.
- In September 2024, Planetarium Labs, in partnership with South Korean game development studio Bad Beans, launched Immortal Rising 2, the anticipated sequel to the popular dark fantasy idle RPG Immortal Rising, on Immutable zkEVM. The game attracted over 500,000 player pre-registrations.
- Through Q3’24, Immutable zkEVM continued to attract high-profile game title launches, including Space Nation, Raven Quest, Pixelmon, Treeverse, and Battle Bears. In its first nine days on Immutable zkEVM, Raven Quest became the most-watched Web3 game on Twitch, gathering over 1.2 million views.
The gaming franchise leveraged Immutable tools such as Immutable’s wallet infrastructure Immutable Passport for player onboarding, and Immutable Checkout for gas-free transactions. These tools continue to reduce friction for users, encouraging more frequent interactions such as minting, trading, and participating in in-game activities onchain. As of Q3’24, Immutable Passport has surpassed 2.5 million sign-ups, driven by the proliferation of game title launches and integrations within Immutable’s ecosystem.
Immutable X
In Q3’24, average daily transactions soared 414.8% QoQ, reaching 1.1 million paired with a moderate 23.6% QoQ increase in daily active addresses to 16,000. This substantial growth suggests that existing users were engaging in significantly more transactions, likely due to new gaming incentives and incremental platform upgrades. Another major driver of this increased activity was the launch of a few notable highly anticipated game titles like Illuvium. These releases were accompanied by promotional campaigns like the ongoing Main Quests Rewards program launched in Q2’24, which incentivized user engagements, contributing to the spike in onchain activity.
On August 14, 2024, the Ethereum gaming franchise Illuvium released three gaming titles in open beta on Immutable X. These titles included Overworld, an open-world exploration game; Arena, an auto-battler; and Zero, a mobile game. Each title offers distinct gameplay experiences within a unified universe.
In Q3’24, Immutable X faced a notable downturn in NFT activity, with daily sales volume, buyer engagement, and seller participation all exhibiting sharp declines. Daily NFT sales (USD) dropped 9.6% QoQ, from $560,000 in Q2’24 to $506,000 in Q3’24. Similarly, daily buyers and daily sellers fell 74% QoQ to 587 and 68% QoQ to 638, respectively. This overall decrease in NFT trading activity aligns with broader market contractions in Q3’24, with speculative activities like memecoin and NFT trading seeing the steepest declines in demand. A drop in player engagement within partnered games and in-game NFT markets likely contributed further to the downturn.
In the previous quarter, Immutable X saw a boost in NFT activity, partly fueled by the launch of the Guild of Guardians collection on both Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM, generating over $11 million in sales by mid-May. Additionally, the launch of Immutable’s $50 million Main Quest rewards program in April incentivized increased engagement, with more buyers purchasing lower-priced NFTs in Q2 as competition among sellers intensified. However, by Q3, as the broader market downturn dampened speculative trading, Immutable X’s NFT activity reflected the reduced speculative enthusiasm affecting both the NFT and memecoin sectors.
Market Cap and Price
The IMX ERC-20 utility token powers the Immutable ecosystem (including both Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM) as its native utility token and serves a number of purposes in the Immutable ecosystem, such as being used to pay Immutable’s trading fees to engage in governance votes, and to transact on Immutable’s blockchains. IMX is issued by Digital Worlds NFTs Ltd, which is a subsidiary of IMX Ecosystem Foundation, an independent foundation outside of Immutable.
In line with an increase in user activity across Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM, the IMX token’s circulating market cap rose 13.6% QoQ to $2.7B while price saw a moderate 6.5% QoQ increase to $1.68. The disproportionate rise in IMX’s market cap suggests that IMX supply unlocks during the quarter were a major driver of IMX market cap growth rather than price appreciation alone. In Q3’24, roughly 97 million IMX (4.85% of the total token supply) was unlocked into circulation to fund ecosystem and project development initiatives. Q3’24 supply unlocks increased IMX’s total token supply by 6.5% QoQ from 1.5 billion to 1.6 billion. Despite broader market contractions in Q3’24, the IMX token showed resilience, increasing 6.5% QoQ as its market cap rank rose from 39 to 34.
Qualitative Analysis
Ecosystem Growth
Immutable has cemented its position as a prominent Layer 2 solution for gaming and NFTs, attracting a diverse range of high-profile titles and rapidly expanding its ecosystem. As of Q3’24 ending, nearly 400 funded games have joined the Immutable ecosystem, with over half of these games signed in the first half of the year displaying impressive ecosystem growth. Immutable also continues to support new and existing gaming projects across Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM with targeted ecosystem programs.
In April 2024, Immutable launched its “Main Quest” ecosystem rewards program, dedicating $50 million in rewards to boost player engagement across its top ecosystem games. In Q3’24, the program funded “gem” quest campaigns across notable ecosystem games, including Guild of Guardians, Space Nation, Blast Royale, Metalcore, The Bornless Game, Pool Masters, Heroes of Crypto, Treeverse, Pixelmon, and Illuvium. Players earned rewards for completing in-game quests, playing regularly, and owning digital collectibles in popular titles throughout the campaign.
Alongside the Main Quest program, Immutable promoted cross-game engagement with initiatives like the Gaming Treasure Hunts. Through in-game events like Space Nation’s Space Trek Phase 2 and World of Dypians, the Gaming Treasure Hunts program distributed a $120,000 prize pool to participating players.
Partnerships
The following notable ecosystem partnerships were announced in Q3’24:
- QAQA and DM2C Studio: On July 11, 2024, Immutable announced a strategic partnership with QAQA, a Japanese social media quiz platform. This collaboration aims to introduce Web3 gaming to the Japanese market by leveraging QAQA’s platform to educate users about Immutable’s ecosystem. As part of this initiative, Immutable and QAQA co-hosted a two-week event from July 8 to July 22, featuring interactive quizzes sponsored by Immutable and other leading Web3 projects. Through this partnership, Immutable seeks to expand its reach in the Japanese market, fostering greater awareness and adoption of Web3 gaming while tapping into QAQA’s substantial user base.
- Fireblocks: On Aug. 15, 2024, Immutable announced its integration with Fireblocks, an enterprise-grade platform for managing digital asset operations. This partnership is designed to strengthen treasury management across games, builders, DeFi projects, and ecosystem partners on Immutable’s zkEVM chain. Leveraging Fireblocks’ digital asset network and secure infrastructure, Immutable seeks to bolster the secure storage and management of digital assets within its gaming ecosystems and NFT projects.
- Nemesis Downfall: On Aug. 8, 2024, Immutable announced a partnership with Nemesis Downfall, an emerging blockchain gaming project. This collaboration aims to expand the Nemesis Downfall universe’s reach to Immutable’s ecosystem with the release of its gaming title on the network, although additional information on the partnership has yet to be published.
Closing Summary
Q3’24 was a period of significant growth and innovation for Immutable, marked by continuous ecosystem expansion and high-profile game launches. As of Q3’24 ending, nearly 400 funded games have joined the Immutable ecosystem, with over half of these games signed in the first half of the year displaying impressive ecosystem growth. Despite Q3’24 broader market tailwinds and supply unlocks, the IMX token showed resilience, rising 6.5% in price QoQ and moving from a market cap rank of 39 to 34.
Immutable also saw notable transaction activity growth across Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM in Q3’24. Daily active transactions on ImmutableX rose 414.8% QoQ, with daily active addresses up 23.6% QoQ, driven by new games and ecosystem incentive programs. Immutable zkEVM recorded its third quarter of growth, with active addresses up 79% QoQ, fueled by partnerships like Marble X, new title launches like Space Nation, and the Squid Bridge integration. As of Q3’24, Immutable Passport has surpassed 2.5 million sign-ups, as it continues to enhance one-click onboarding for Web3 gamers.
