An incoming change in Splinterlands will take the emphasis away from Collection power and move it to SPS tokens. This incoming change that is scheduled to take effect from the end of the second quarter will require players to stake a certain amount of SPS tokens to participate in various leagues.
Naturally, the more SPS you stake, the higher the league you can participate in. The amount of SPS and other issues surrounding the potential change was extensively discussed in the previous Townhall meeting.
Now, I must admit that my feelings are somewhere in the middle, as I see how it works in favour of SPS token but not necessarily in favour of monster market price. I suspect we will see a dramatic drop in the price of monsters and a potential rise in demand for SPS token.
Generally speaking, I think the NFT market of SPlinterlands is in a decent position. There's a healthy chunk of liquidity and demand for monsters is at a sustainable rate.
Sadly, over the past couple of months, the price of monsters have experienced significant hits due to the state of the wider crypto market. Whenever there's a downturn in the general crypto market, we typically see play to earn related assets taking a hit, and NFTs are no exception.
The good thing about Splinterlands NFTs though, is the fact that regardless of the price of the cards, you can always use them to earn SPS token from ranked battles. So, even if the asset in question is constantly taking a beating, it will never lose its intrinsic value of enabling players to earn from the game.
In the past, players were required to hold a certain number of monsters to boost their collection power and in turn, be able to participate in ranked battles in higher leagues. The aforementioned change in requirement that sees emphasis move from collection power to SPS stake could have a positive and negative effect, overall.
From the monster market perspective, it is possible that demand for monsters will reduce due to the change from collection power to SPS stake. On the surface, it is safe to assume that the average player will now look to focus on SPS token, rather than simply buying monsters for the hell of it, like we used to do in the past.
All those cheap gold foil deals we chased to boost our collection power will no longer be commonplace. Also, you can expect the rental market to also take a slight hit because people will no longer need to rent monsters that boost their collection power.
On the flipside of it, one can also assume that SPS pumps, which in turn means that the reward you earn from monsters pumps in the process. Note that ranked battle participants earn SPS token and with potential increase in demand for the token, ranked battle players will most likely start earning more.
The net result could end up going full circle and keeping demand for monsters stagnant because while the price of monsters could reduce due to staking SPS replacing collection power, the pump in the price of SPS due to an increase in demand will work in favour of ranked battles. This in turn could potentially increase interest in playing said ranked battles and we all know what we need to play ranked battles.
