I’m sitting in the airport after another YGG Play Summit. The fourth one. Four years. Time moves in a blur in this space. It feels like yesterday that I first came to the Philippines and handed @gabusch his first Axies. It also feels like a lifetime ago. Across these years we’ve celebrated big wins. We’ve also failed many times and gone through some of the most brutal markets together. Four years ago, I was in Manila during the FTX collapse. At the time, it looked like all hope was gone. We’re passing through a similar moment now. This cycle has been dominated by memecoins and perp dexes. Leverage and Wall Street. Far from the ideals that brought us together at the start of this journey. Yet whenever things hit their darkest points, glimmers appear. I was honored to accept the “Best Ecosystem” award this year on behalf of our relentless team and steadfast community. In many ways, it felt more earned than last year’s, which is ironic given the mood around gaming tokens today. “What’s mood to do with it? You fight when necessity arises, no matter the mood.” Despite the charts, the level of innovation I’m seeing on Ronin is far higher than it was last year. @Moku_HQ is breaking new ground with autonomous digital tanuki athletes battling in a format that blends the spirit of “Killer Queen” with fantasy sports. Great breakdown from Kyroh: xitter.cf/Kyroh/status/199167220… App tokens are emerging, with @FishingFrenzyCo delivering the first major implementation seen on any chain. Breakdown: xitter.cf/Jihoz_Axie/status/1986… @playcambria, on-chain game of the year, is pushing a new meta—risk-to-earn—driven by social coordination and prize pools funded by buy-ins instead of emissions. Goldrush Season 3 is coming: xitter.cf/playcambria/status/199… @pixels_online, browser game of the year, continues to ship and sharpen its reward economy. @AngryDynomites is onboarding real Web2 gamers and using that energy to fuel their on-chain economy on Ronin. @playwildforest also has that potential given the experience of the team. @RonkeOnRon is always shipping new onchain experiments like Ronke Kong, Arcade which were hits at our booth, and their new strategy token. Axie Infinity: Atia’s Legacy, winner of most anticipated title, will draw on seven years of Axie development and everything we’ve learned from the wider space. Expect Playtest 2 to lean deep into risk-to-earn and the extraction roguelike loops we're seeing work in trad. gaming rn. The Ronin product stack is finally syncing together. The Ronin Arcade shows how a unified questing, identity, and rewards layer can knit the ecosystem into one coherent experience. In essence: we need to innovate or die. As an industry. And I’m seeing Ronin emerge as the nexus — the laboratory — of mass-market crypto innovation. At the summit this year, it’s clear that Ronin continues to lead when it comes to engaging and educating real people. Our booth was packed with gamers and students, many downloading their first wallet and playing their first crypto game. And the industry took notice: xitter.cf/OliverMaroney/status/1… Crypto is becoming part of daily life. The vision of players onboarding through games, earning their first crypto, and spending it on everyday goods is finally materializing. This week we announced a major Ronin Wallet x QRPH integration, made possible by CoinsPH. It completes a loop that began forming back in 2021 when merchants started receiving AXS and SLP manually. There’s plenty to fix. Builder incentives across the chain need repair. RON’s inflation is too high given demand trends. These are solvable problems, and solutions are in motion through proof-of-distribution and the inflation reduction proposals we’re shaping with key holders and validators. The market has been difficult, and we’ve tightened our belts. Our fiat runway is more than enough to build for years to come without selling tokens. In many ways, this is an advantage as attention and capital consolidate around Ronin’s strongest apps while weaker efforts fade. I've also attached some data showing that collecting and buying of NFTs is in fact, growing on Ronin. Innovate or die. With love, Jihoz