The Axie Marketplace is where Axie Infinity players buy and sell their creatures, land and cosmetic items. It is also where most beginners make their first expensive mistake: paying too much for an Axie they don’t need, sending funds to the wrong network, or signing a transaction on a fake copy of the site. This guide walks through how the marketplace works, what you need before you buy, how selling and offers work, what it costs, and the safety habits that matter most on Ronin.
Risk note: Axies, land and the tokens used to buy them are speculative digital assets. Their prices have fallen sharply before and can do so again. Nothing here is financial advice. Only spend what you would be comfortable losing entirely, and treat any purchase as buying a game item, not an investment.
What the Axie Marketplace is
The marketplace is the official trading hub run by Sky Mavis, the studio behind Axie Infinity. It lives on the game’s own web app at app.axieinfinity.com, and every item on it is an NFT recorded on Ronin, the Ethereum-linked sidechain Sky Mavis launched in February 2021 to make Axie trades cheaper and faster than on Ethereum itself (Wikipedia).
Four kinds of asset are traded there:
- Axies, the creatures you battle with. Each one has a class and a set of body parts that decide its cards in the game.
- Land plots in Lunacia, the game world.
- Land items, decorative and functional objects placed on land.
- Accessories and other cosmetics that change how an Axie looks.
Because these are NFTs, whatever you buy sits in your own wallet rather than in an account the studio controls. That is the core idea behind web3 gaming, and it is also why mistakes are hard to undo: there is no support desk that can reverse a signed transaction.
Before you buy: do you need to?
The most useful question comes before any setup. In 2020, Sky Mavis estimated a new player needed about $400 for three Axies just to start. That barrier is a big part of why the early economy became so speculative, a story we tell in detail in our explainer on how GameFi economies work.
Today you can try the game without buying anything first. Play with the free starter creatures, learn which classes and parts you actually enjoy, and only then look at the marketplace. Buying after a week of play is almost always cheaper than buying on day one, because you will know exactly which parts your team is missing.
What you need before your first purchase
- A Ronin Wallet. This is Sky Mavis’s own wallet. It comes as a browser extension and as mobile apps for Android and iOS. Install it only from the official Ronin site or the official store listings, and write the recovery phrase on paper, never in a screenshot or cloud note.
- An Axie Infinity account linked to that wallet, so the marketplace can see what you own.
- Funds on Ronin, not on Ethereum. This is the step that catches most people. ETH sitting on Ethereum mainnet can’t be spent on the marketplace. You need it on the Ronin network, either by withdrawing from an exchange that supports Ronin withdrawals directly or by moving it across the Ronin Bridge.
- A little RON, Ronin’s native token, which pays network fees. The amounts involved are small, but without any you can’t sign transactions.
If you still need to buy crypto first, our comparison of exchanges for gaming tokens covers where RON, AXS and ETH trade. When withdrawing, pick the Ronin network explicitly and send a small test amount before the full sum.
How to buy an Axie, step by step
- Open the marketplace by typing the address yourself or using a bookmark. Don’t follow links from ads, Discord DMs or social media replies.
- Filter hard. Filter by class and by the specific body parts you want. Browsing without filters is how people end up paying for looks instead of abilities.
- Check the sales history for similar Axies rather than trusting the listing price. Sellers often list well above what comparable Axies actually sold for.
- Look at the price currency. Prices are usually shown in WETH (wrapped ETH on Ronin). Sky Mavis also lets you pay with other tokens supported on Ronin, converting them for you, which is convenient but can add a small swap cost.
- Buy and confirm in your wallet. Read the wallet pop-up before approving: the amount, the token and the site requesting the signature.
- Check your inventory. The Axie should appear in your profile once the transaction is confirmed.
Offers, including collection and trait offers
You don’t have to pay the listed price. The marketplace supports offers below the asking price, and in June 2025 Sky Mavis added collection and trait offers: instead of bidding on one Axie, you place a single offer that any owner of an Axie with the traits you chose can accept (official announcement).
These offers are made in WETH. One detail from the announcement is worth knowing: if your WETH balance drops below the offer amount, the offer isn’t cancelled; it becomes active again once your balance is topped up. If you no longer want the Axie, cancel the offer from your profile rather than simply moving your funds.
How selling works
To sell, open your inventory, pick the Axie or item and choose how to list it:
- Fixed price. You set one price and the item stays listed until someone buys it or you cancel.
- Auction. This is not a bidding war. You set a start price, an end price and a duration, and the price moves steadily between the two. A buyer can purchase at any moment for whatever the current price is. Setting a high start and a lower floor is a simple way to find the market price without guessing.
Listing or cancelling a listing requires a wallet signature. If you change your mind about a price, cancel the old listing properly rather than leaving two prices live.
What it costs
| Cost | Who pays | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace fee (4.25%) | Seller | Taken from the sale price. Factor it in when you set a price. |
| Ronin network fee | Whoever signs | Paid in RON. Small, but you need a balance. |
| Swap cost | Buyer | Only if you pay in a token other than the listing currency. |
| Getting funds onto Ronin | You | Exchange withdrawal fees or bridge fees. Often the biggest cost for small purchases. |
The 4.25% fee is documented on Axie Infinity’s Wikipedia page. Sky Mavis announced a rise to 5.25% in February 2022 and rolled it back weeks later after community feedback, so it is worth checking the current rate on the sale screen before you list.
Safety habits that actually matter
Ronin has a history that makes caution sensible. In March 2022 the Ronin bridge was drained of about $620 million in ETH and USDC, and the FBI later attributed the theft to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-backed hacking group. That attack targeted the network’s infrastructure, not individual players, but everyday losses on the marketplace usually come from much simpler tricks.
- Bookmark the real site. Fake marketplace pages that look identical are the most common way wallets get emptied. Search ads for “Axie marketplace” have been abused this way across crypto.
- Never share your recovery phrase. No one from Sky Mavis, a guild or a “support agent” will ever need it.
- Read every signature request. If a pop-up asks you to approve access to all your assets when you only meant to buy one Axie, reject it.
- Keep a separate wallet for trading and move valuable items you’re not using to a wallet you don’t connect to random sites.
- Be wary of “too cheap” listings promoted in DMs. They are usually on a cloned site.
Is it worth buying Axies at all?
It depends on why you’re buying. If you enjoy the game and want a specific team, buying a few well-chosen Axies after learning the basics is no different from buying items in any other game, except you can resell them later. If you’re buying because you expect to earn a steady income, the history is discouraging: Axie’s reward token lost more than 99% of its peak value in 2022, and daily players fell from a peak of 2.7 million to around 250,000 by 2023. For a wider look at which games are still active and how they reward players, see our guide to play-to-earn crypto games.
Axie Marketplace FAQ
Can I use MetaMask on the Axie Marketplace?
The marketplace is built around the Ronin Wallet, and that is the option Sky Mavis supports. Using the official wallet also avoids network mix-ups between Ethereum and Ronin.
Why can’t I see the ETH I bought on the marketplace?
It is almost certainly still on Ethereum or on the exchange. The marketplace only sees funds on the Ronin network. Withdraw from the exchange using the Ronin network, or move the ETH across the Ronin Bridge.
Who pays the 4.25% fee?
The seller. It is deducted from the sale price, so a sale listed at 100 returns about 95.75 before any network costs.
Is an auction on the Axie Marketplace a bidding auction?
No. The price moves between a start and an end price over a set time, and the first buyer to accept the current price gets the item.
Can I get my money back if I buy the wrong Axie?
No. Blockchain transactions can’t be reversed. Your only option is to resell it, usually for less once the fee is included, which is why filtering carefully and checking recent sales matters so much.