Philippines Looks to Tax Hit Blockchain Game Axie Infinity: Report

Storms are gathering around hit crypto game Axie Infinity as regulators in its prime market, the Philippines, expressed their intention to tax its players and publisher.

• Income from play-to-earn crypto games such as Axie Infinity should be taxed, Manila Bulletin reported Monday, citing Undersecretary of Finance Antonette C. Tionko.
• Tionko said that whether Axie tokens are assets or securities is being discussed by the country's Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and central bank.
• The undersecretary also said that while the game's Vietnamese creator, Sky Mavis, is not registered in the Philippines, it must pay taxes in the country for any revenue created through local sources.
• The SEC reiterated that the game and its publisher are not registered in the Philippines, and that Sky Mavis doesn't have a license to sell securities, the Manila Bulletin said yesterday.
• Axie Infinity allows players to earn passive income using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
• Globally, it counts almost half a million daily active users, and more than 60% of them are in the Philippines, Leah Callon-Butler, director of consulting firm Emfarsis, wrote in a CoinDesk column in July.
• Concurrently, the price of the Axie Infinity token, AXS, has increased dramatically, from around $5 at the end of July, to over $70 at the time of writing.