Video games developers have begun a love affair with blockchain, integrating non-fungible tokens and crypto as in-game assets to provide better rewards to the communities they serve. In doing so, players have the opportunity to win prizes with real-world value. 

These games are often bundled together under the “Play-to-Earn” banner and represent a step up from the older concept of Pay-to-Win. Even so, NFT-based games are an evolving model and a hub for innovation. Take Banksters, a new educational game that attempts to teach players valuable crypto trading skills they can later apply to the real-world. 

Banksters is a unique, player-vs-player game that is the first of its kind to operate a Trade-to-Win model. It takes place in a fantasy crypto trading world where players have to analyze the token markets and predict what will happen next, influence it where they can, and try to close on profitable trades. By doing so, they’ll earn cryptocurrency rewards. 

In Banksters, digital, NFT-based avatars serve the role of playable characters, with each one having its own, unique abilities and influence on gameplay. Banksters’ NFTs have different powers that enable players to affect the market rate of different tokens, mine in-game currency and enter “investment runs”, where they compete against other human traders. Players can also challenge their friends to see who the best trader is. 

Crypto Trading Simulations 

Banksters is essentially a PvP game that sees traders compete against one another to see who is the best crypto investor. They’ll need to use the trading skills they acquire from playing the game to achieve greater profits than their rivals in each investing round. 

The game is meant to be both educational and challenging, as players must acquire knowledge of how the crypto markets work and use their skills to beat their rivals. Players can spend the in-game currency they earn to boost the abilities of their NFT avatars to gain an advantage over their opponents. This adds an additional layer of competitiveness to the game and boosts its appeal. 

Six Kinds Of NFT

The key feature of Banksters is the way NFTs can influence the market in different ways using their unique abilities and gain an edge over other players. 

There are six different kinds of NFTs, including Trader, Investor, Shark, Whale, Illuminati and Reptilian, and each one becomes progressively more powerful. Using these abilities, traders can increase their chances of winning an Investment Run, attack other players and also fend off attacks on themselves. By progressing to higher levels, players can upgrade their NFTs, increasing the effectiveness of their abilities and enabling them to mine more in-game currency. 

Leveling up requires the Bankster to pay with experience and in-game crypto tokens. The higher they want to increase their level, the more the upgrades cost. This adds yet another element to the gameplay, as players are required to manage their resources carefully to advance more rapidly. 

Banksters can get started with a free avatar or pay to buy a more powerful one. However, the rewards players can earn are much more limited when playing for free. On the other hand, the mining process is still accessible to free players, so they can eventually mine enough tokens to purchase their first NFT. 

Investment Runs

The main challenge for Banksters is the Investment Runs, which provide an extremely realistic trading experience based on live trading data. Players are required to pay a fee in crypto to enter these games, with these funds going into the prize pool that everyone competes for. 

Investment Runs are broken down into short rounds, with players awarded points based on their chosen positions in relation to the token’s price movements. During Investment Rounds, players can also use their special abilities to attack their rivals and defend themselves, adding to the excitement. 

The winner of an Investment Run is determined by the total points received. Those who earn the most points gain more rewards and experience, including $BARS tokens that can be sold on cryptocurrency exchanges. 

The Value Of Trade-to-Win

Banksters’ trade-to-win model can be especially valuable to anyone who’s interested in learning about the ins and outs of crypto trading and how the markets work. Players will learn about technical analysis, the market psychology, risk management and more within a fun, virtual environment, with the chance to win real-life rewards by doing so. For the first time it truly does pay to learn, and players will later be able to bring the skills they have acquired on the platform to real life trading scenarios, where the sky really is the limit in terms of the profits they can earn. 

The gameplay in Banksters is based on real-world, real-time market data, so players have to employ the same kinds of strategies and use the same analytical skills as professional crypto traders.