Avalanche Shooter ‘Off the Grid’ Has a Thriving Black Market Ahead of On-Chain Trading

Blockchain gaming is supposed to solve the problem of players creating “black markets” for digital items in traditional games, as trading tokenized, user-owned weapons and skins are a key part of open crypto economies.

But ahead of the launch of its Avalanche-based GUNZ L1 mainnet and the on-chain item trading and token that’ll come along with it, Off the Grid—one of crypto’s biggest games to date—has found itself in a very familiar “Web2” kind of situation.

The battle royale shooter has a bustling black market where players trade skins and GUN tokens for real money. This underground economy has spawned due the game currently not allowing players to trade their items freely on-chain, as its mainnet launch looms.

Avid skin collectors gather in clan Discord servers or trading-specific groups, spamming the chat with messages like “Want to buy GUN tokens with USD,” or offering to sell their rare skins in exchange for cash.

This kind of activity is strictly prohibited in the game’s terms of service, but for players aiming to secure some of the game’s best loot before on-chain trading is implemented, it’s apparently worth the risk.

Two of the game’s largest skin collecting whales, Money Magician and torToro, don’t engage with what’s called over-the-counter or OTC trading, because they believe the skins will be worth much more once the GUNZ mainnet launches and items can be freely traded on OpenSea. But they said they’ve received offers.

“For my account, somebody offered $60,000 or something,” Money Magician told Decrypt. “Maybe it seems reasonable right now, but I still wouldn’t sell it—because I know where these NFTs are going.”

These whales own approximately 10,000 and 19,000 NFT items each, both starting their collecting through Off the Grid’s predecessor, a compact mobile experience called Technocore. The pair were then invited to the game’s closed testing period under strict non-disclosure agreement, during which the game’s rarest items to date were released.

During this testing period, players that bought the monthly OTG Pro subscription for $10 were handed the Pioneer content pack as thanks. This came with eight NFT items, and it is believed by the community that only 550 of each were minted at the time.

Thought to be even rarer, however, is the Convict gear and Zippermouth Mask that were available to extract via hexes for a short period of time. The community believes that these are the rarest items in the game, with only 300 of each ever minted. That’s not to mention the possible increased rarity of an item based on its serial number.

There were also guns with modified stats or alternate attachments that were discontinued, which have since been rebranded to “Legacy” and “Retro” skins of stock guns that remain in the game.

Those that own items released during the closed play test are hopeful they will never return to the game, but Theodore Agranat—director of Web3 for developer Gunzilla Games—said that isn’t the case, at least for one of the rare items.

He told Decrypt that the studio “reserves the right” to release items that were never “officially released,” which is defined by it being added to the battle pass, as a monthly content pack, or as part of a special campaign. Agranat said that the Convict gear will “absolutely” be officially released in the future.

On top of this, Agranat confirmed that Gunzilla Games is working on a more comprehensive numbering system to help validate the amount of items minted. The studio is also implementing a system to display which items are exclusive and which are not.

Off the Grid is currently running on a testnet of GUNZ, the dedicated Avalanche L1 gaming network, meaning that items can be traded on its marketplace using its in-game GUN token. However, items and tokens cannot yet be sold on third-party marketplaces or exchanged for other currencies. 

As a result, some players are turning to the black market out of necessity to fulfill their collecting dreams. An avid Off the Grid player simply known as H claims to have bought the Pioneer, Prankster, and Anarchist sets for $3,000, so that he can gift the Pioneer set to his son (who also plays the game) once mainnet hits.

Gamer Henryk Ptasznik shared evidence with Decrypt of an almost $1,500 Solana payment he received, which he claimed was in exchange for his full Pioneer set. He told Decrypt that he did this because he already had enough GUN tokens, and wanted to cash in some of his inventory before mainnet launch, as he fears the uncertainty it may bring. 

Most traders, however, are looking to grow their inventory before mainnet, as they believe there will be an immediate price jump—and an even larger increase once a bigger audience starts playing the game and engaging with its on-chain features.

“I believe in the future of Off the Grid. It could be the next Apex [Legends] or Fortnite,” Cpt. Jaxie, a gamer that claims 40% of his crypto portfolio is in Off the Grid NFTs, told Decrypt. “My total investment into Off the Grid is around $4,500, I’ve already turned a profit. I’m around $2,000 in profit.” 

“It’s a long-term hold for me,” he added. “One year or more and [it will] 10x in price.”

With so much demand for a black market, many of the biggest Off the Grid clans—such as Flaw Gaming—have dedicated trading Discord channels. In these chats, players look to sell bundles of 1,000 GUN tokens for anywhere between $4 to $10 in an unofficial form of pre-market trading, as well as shift unwanted skins or even sell off their accounts. Other times, buyers will directly approach those holding an item they want, without the need for advertising.

When trading a specific item or set, the two parties enter a dance of risk and trust. After agreeing on a price, one party must list an item on the in-game marketplace for the other to purchase using GUN—which is often sent back to the buyer. Then the buyer must send the agreed-upon amount, usually via crypto, but there are obvious risks here as they could ghost the seller at any time. If there are multiple items to trade, then it may be done in multiple transactions.

Trust risks aside, there are also potential hazards with listing items on the marketplace at all, as a sniper bot could purchase it—especially if it is an ultra-rare item not already on the marketplace. But some traders still persist amid these hurdles.

“I like to have multiples of everything in the market, so I can sell some on mainnet and keep some for myself and my sons,” H told Decrypt. “You can call it a bit of an addiction.”

Previously, Gunzilla Games told Decrypt that it was aiming for a Q1 2025 mainnet launch, which would fully enable trading and eliminate the need for a black market. With only about three weeks left until that deadline, Agranat confirmed to Decrypt that this is still the plan.

Until then, the black market continues to thrive as community members show clear signs that they’re hungry to trade their skins. If Gunzilla Games can’t offer this yet, then much like in Web2 games, players will continue to find ways to trade.

Edited by Andrew Hayward