'Off the Grid' GUN Token Expanding From Avalanche to Solana—Here's Why

Off the Grid’s GUN token is set to expand to Solana on Thursday after originally being launched exclusively on Avalanche, which powers the battle royale shooter’s dedicated L1 network, GUNZ. A Solana-themed skin pack has also been released for the game, marking the ecosystem expansion.

The move is largely motivated by lowering the barrier for entry for users to buy the GUN token, as well as part of what an official X post called the project’s “multi-chain ethos”—suggesting that other chains could be on the roadmap for GUN, as well.

“This is in line with our goal to make the GUNZ marketplace and its items, as well as any games within the GUNZ ecosystem, accessible to anyone—on any chain,” Gunzilla Games Director of Web3 Theodore Agranat told Decrypt. 

When pressed on whether the Solana version of GUN will be able to be used on the Off the Grid marketplace on launch day, Agranat said, “Maybe.” In response to Decrypt’s questioning of which chain GUN could expand to next, he did not respond directly, but said Decrypt was “asking the right questions.”

Following the news, the GUN token extended its daily losses, with an 11% dive over the last 24 hours to a current price below $0.036, per data from CoinGecko.

“We want to be the best place for you to launch a token, and for you to be able to realize: OK, I can connect with users who believe in my product, have conviction in it, and this market can resolve to the accurate price for my token,” Jerry Li, business development employee at the Solana Foundation, said on an X Spaces.

“Off the Grid is a great example of that, right?” He added, “It's a project that is thriving on the Web2 side, and we want to make sure that the same picture is translated into its Web3 performance.”

The GUN token is currently the 73rd largest gaming token by market cap, according to CoinGecko. But given Off the Grid’s own high profile among crypto games and successful launch to Web2 players, the token’s March launch wasn’t met with a flurry of demand. Now it’s down 69% from its peak price.

Meanwhile, Off the Grid’s marketplace has continued to see growing sales, as it processed $666,600 worth of volume over the past 30 days, according to DegenRadar. As part of this growing crypto-economy tied to the game, big in-game skin sales have started to roll in. This includes the Tacoma Pioneer, which sold for $5,499 on Monday.

That’s why the GUN token's substantial drop from its all-time high mark has been confusing for some investors, because the game’s player base doesn’t appear to be losing interest. Traders hope that the expansion to Solana will boost the token’s valuation, even if the initial price action following the announcement hasn't shown that.

“I think the principal effect this move will have is accessibility to newer investors and lowering the barrier for entry, versus having to learn about a new chain in order to buy,” pseudonymous Off the Grid NFT skin collector Money Magician told Decrypt. “Perhaps not an instant effect, but it shall be a positive driver for [GUN’s price].”

It's important to note that existing GUN tokens will remain on the GUNZ Avalanche L1, although there will be an option to bridge these assets to Solana if the user desires. Ultimately, there will be no Solana-related changes to the GUNZ network, wallet, or the game itself.

Skin traders told Decrypt that the addition of Solana support for GUN probably won’t move the needle much for the ecosystem. Instead, what they’re waiting for is the ability for in-game skins to be tradable on OpenSea. The OpenSea integration was pinned by Gunzilla for sometime this month.

“That's when real money will flow in and out of the skins economy,” Money Magician finished.