Philippines’ Merchants Accepting Axie Infinity SLP Coin as Payment

Axie Infinity is conquering Southeast Asia, with merchants in the Philippines accepting Axie’s Smooth Love Potion (SLP) token as payments. Filipinos are using the in-game reward token in payments for goods and services—the same coin they earn their income from.

A growing number of Filipino merchants are accepting SLP, the in-game reward token in the popular play-to-earn NFT game. This includes Filipino business Nextperience Group—with local businesses in event planners and co-baking spaces, CoinDesk reports. Since mid-July, it has processed a total of PHP 150,000 (US$2,980) in revenue.

As one of the two tokens in Axie Infinity, SLP tokens are awarded for successful battles. Players can cash out or use SLP in the game to breed new Axie monsters. On the other hand, players can earn Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) in tournaments, or from selling Axies in the marketplace. With the growing popularity of the game in Southeast Asia, the trading volume for SLP has surged. Crypto exchanges in the region are allowing users to exchange SLP for the local currency.

“The minting and acquisition of SLP has become an everyday task for a lot of people.” So it’s useful to be able to spend SLP as an everyday currency, according to Nextperience.

Philippines to Tax Axie Infinity Players’ Earning

Staff in the store say their customers tend to assess the price of SLP in terms of the effort it would take them to earn it. If a baking experience costs 150 SLP, they may say, “Oh, 150 SLP, that’s just my daily quest.” Merchants would check the price of SLP on Binance before providing their customers with a timely conversion rate. Meanwhile, some others will set a fixed selling price that is between SLP’s lowest and highest value for the month.

According to CoinDesk, customers are usually paying SLP via the Ronin wallet, which runs on the Ronin blockchain. It is an Ethereum sidechain allowing users to conduct up to 100 free transactions every day.

“There are more Filipinos with Ronin wallets than there are Filipinos with credit cards,” according to Nextperience’s spokesperson.

Axie Infinity is one of the highest-grossing blockchain games in the world. Globally, it counts almost half a million daily active users, and more than 60% of them are in the Philippines. However, the fast-growing crypto game catches the attention of the Philippines’ tax office.

Players who sell Axies and earn money in the real world must pay income taxes due from such transactions, according to the Philippine Department of Finance (DOF). The Philippines’ central bank and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are discussing whether Axie Infinity tokens are assets or securities.

The game publisher, Sky Mavis, doesn’t have a license to sell securities. Also, Sky Mavis must pay taxes in the country for any revenue created through local sources, according to the Filipino government.

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