This Week in Crypto Games: B3’s Self-Destruct PC, Avalanche Battle Pass

It’s tough to keep tabs on the ever-changing crypto gaming space, thanks to the constant flow of news: everything from big game launches and fun degen experiments to token price swings and occasional project collapses. It’s a lot to follow.

Luckily, we’re plugged in at Decrypt‘s GG. We cover the biggest happenings throughout the week, and then this weekly roundup provides a quick way to catch up, as well as find a bunch of other little bits of news from throughout the week.

Top stories

Self-destruct crypto PC: B3, a layer-3 gaming protocol built on Ethereum’s Base network by former Coinbase employees, has acquired gaming PC manufacturer Andromeda Insights to expand into hardware. The acquisition enables B3 to control the entire gaming stack—protocol, games, and hardware—while giving Andromeda additional resources.

Their first joint product, the B3PC, is a crypto-focused gaming PC featuring unique security capabilities. Most notably, it includes a self-destruct storage drive that can be instantly wiped via secure digital deletion or physical destruction of NAND flash chips through a high-voltage shock. The PC also integrates a hardware wallet, encryption, on-chain game support, and offline transaction modes.

B3 co-founder Daryl Xu emphasized that high-performance gaming increasingly demands real-time rendering and AI integration, positioning the hardware as purpose-built for crypto and AI gaming futures. The B3PC is available for preorder with a $200 deposit and expected Q1 2026 delivery. B3’s protocol supports 80+ games, and launched its native token in February.

Avalanche battle pass: Avalanche has launched a free-to-mint NFT called the Avalanche Battle Pass to unite its gaming ecosystem and reward cross-game participation. Created by Ava Labs and Playfull, the pass is available through Magic Eden marketplace and follows the popular “battle pass” format pioneered by games like Fortnite. (Solana launched its own similar Game Pass in April.)

Players mint the NFT, register it on Playfull’s website, and then earn rewards like in-game NFTs and AVAX tokens by playing partnered games. The pass supports over a dozen games including Off the Grid, MapleStory N, Spellborne, and DeFi Kingdoms.

Ava Labs Gaming Lead Parker Heath describes it as an “on-chain watering hole” that connects fragmented gaming communities across Avalanche L1 chains. Despite broader blockchain gaming challenges of late, Heath highlighted strong user numbers, with Off the Grid attracting 300,000+ daily users and MapleStory N reaching 770,000+ users since its May launch.

ICYMI

• Pudgy Penguins game Pengu Clash launched on Telegram last week.
• Avalanche game Forgotten Playland implemented in-game NFT support last week as part of its biggest update yet.

Weekend reads