DeFi Kingdoms Dumps Harmony for Korean Metaverse Blockchain Klaytn

NFT game DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL) announced it is leaving Harmony (ONE) for Korean metaverse blockchain Klaytn (KLAY). DeFi Kingdoms' move is a major blow for the sinking Harmony network, as it struggles to recover from the $100M hack of its Horizon Bridge in June.

DeFi Kingdoms Is Still Alive

Although DeFi Kingdoms is best known for an exploit that tanked its JEWEL token 90% in April, the game remains popular with web3 gamers. It's hard for me to ignore that the JEWEL token's market cap has fallen to just $22.6M after being valued at $1.3B in January, but I don't play crypto games. Today, DeFi Kingdoms still has impressive numbers, compared to other crypto games:

• 4th highest user transaction volume over the last 30 days
• 13th highest user count over the last 30 days
• 5k daily users
• $500k daily transaction volume
• $67M in its smart contracts
• Top dApp on Harmony by TVL and transaction volume

Klaytn Is Paying DeFi Kingdoms to Move to Klaytn

If DeFi Kingdoms is doing relatively well on the Harmony network, why leave? Well, it sure seems like Klaytn is paying DeFi Kingdoms to move to its blockchain. In an AMA, DeFi Kingdoms admitted that Klaytn is paying, but not how much:

We have come to an agreement [with Klaytn] on good incentives for us to consider the move as being worth it not just for the initial work but also to extend our runway.

More Bad News for Harmony

As Harmony struggles to recover from its $100M hack, Klaytn poached the best dApp on its network. Even though DeFi Kingdoms is tiny compared to its peak popularity, its JEWEL token's $10M TVL represents 30% of all TVL on Harmony. I think it's safe to say that DeFi Kingdoms’ departure is very bad for Harmony.