Why You Should Buy Axie Infinity Before Homeland Changes the Math
Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) are currently priced at $1.17 this week. That's down 99.3% from AXS's 2021 all time high, per CoinCodex. That isn't a typo. Recent news that the Atia's Legacy MMO is set to launch later this year and Playtest 2 went live April 8 should help if everything goes according to plan. The ability to buy Axie Infinity at these prices won't last forever. Especially considering Axie Infinity's team has talked up a player driven economy Eve Online dreams are made of for years. This guide breaks down the 5 different exchanges you can use to buy Axie Infinity, how much it costs to buy using each method and how to structure your purchase from a tax and custody standpoint. AXS trades between $18 million to $32 million per day depending on who you ask and when. You likely won't run into liquidity issues placing retail-sized orders. Though it's thin enough that liquidity could evaporate quickly if a big enough catalyst hit the market (e.g. a fully populated Homeland release). Exchange choice becomes even more important at $1.17 vs. $50. Same thing goes for the actual fees you pay.
Routes to Purchase AXS: Fee Structures That Differ
Coinbase is clearly the easiest on-ramp if you are living in the U.S. And if you want self-custody from day one, decentralized exchanges operating on the Ronin Network (technically Ethereum Layer 2 now since it migrated on May 12) represent a fifth option. Fees vary by route. Binance charges flat 0.1% trading fees for AXS pairs. Trading fees can be reduced to 0.075% if you pay with BNB. So for a $500 AXS purchase you'd owe $0.50 or $0.375 in trading fees. Transfers to Binance from banks are normally free, though deposits with cards cost 1.8%-2%. Note that trading AXS for USD still passes through USDT on Binance. So don't forget that intermediary step if you're coming straight from fiat to stablecoin. Fees for OKX are similar to Binance with maker/taker fees of 0.08%/0.1% for standard accounts. Withdrawal fees are identical for both exchanges. Withdrawing AXS (ERC-20) will typically cost you around 1 to 3 AXS depending on network congestion. Coinbase Pro (which confusingly rebranded to Advanced Trade) charges considerably more taker fees at 0.6% for accounts with less than $10,000 in trading volume over 30 days. Six times what Binance charges. For a $500 purchase, Coinbase will charge you $3 versus $0.50 for Binance. That extra cost is the price you pay for buying cryptocurrencies in the U.S. without VPNs or offshore KYC purgatories. Coinbase also offers direct AXS to USD trading pairs, meaning you don't need to buy a stablecoin intermediary. Current volume leader for the AXS/USD pair is GroveX. Trading fees are very competitive at 0.1%, but the exchange doesn't have the brand recognition of Coinbase and order books are thin for any currency pair besides AXS/USDT. Expect significant slippage on any order above $5,000. DEX: Trades will be executed through Katana, Ronin's homegrown swapping protocol. Ethereum fees apply after Ronin's migration to Layer 2 on May 12 since its security is now reliant on Ethereum. Expect to pay around 0.3% per trade for swapping on Katana. Before swapping you'll need to bridge ETH or USDC to Ronin which will cost you a bridge transaction fee plus Ethereum gas. So purchasing $500 worth of AXS on the DEX route will typically cost you $3-$8 all in depending on gas fees. The benefit of going this route is you immediately have self custody.
Trading-fee cost of a $500 AXS buy by route; the DEX figure includes bridge and gas. Source: published exchange fee schedules.
After the Purchase: Where to Hold Your Axie Infinity Coin
Buyers' needs don't stop at "where do I want these AXS tokens stored after I buy them?" As a utility token, the Axie Infinity Shards token can be used for two things. Voting with your tokens as a governance token, or staking them into Axie Core as part of the Axie Infinity ecosystem. If purchasing AXS purely for exposure to the crypto as a speculative trade then leaving them on Binance or OKX couldn't be easier. Both exchanges offer insured cryptocurrency custody and lightning fast Axie Infinity sell orders if the trade moves against you. However, if you intend to play on launch and want your tokens accessible from the Homeland chain then they need to be transferred to the Ronin Network. This means withdrawing them from a centralized exchange to a Ronin address (either the browser extension or mobile app). Withdrawal fees from Binance to Ronin are typically set at 1 AXS, around $1.17 at today's prices. Withdrawing from Coinbase means you first withdraw your AXS to an Ethereum address then pay more fees to bridge them to Ronin. In February 2026 Bonded AXS or bAXS was launched. Another thing to keep in mind is that any wallet holding at least 10 AXS staked were eligible to receive a portion of the 100,000 bAXS tokens that were airdropped. The amount you received was determined by your Axie Score. Currently transfers of bAXS to other wallets are disabled. bAXS tokens are account bound. Each bAXS is valued 1:1 by AXS but they are locked in a smart contract. Conversion rates will differ for each Axie holder when they swap back to AXS based on Axie Score. For those looking to get in on the ground floor of Homeland it's important to note staking Axies with Axie Core isn't just about grabbing a yield. Participation requires it. By keeping your tokens on an exchange you are passing on future opportunities like bAXS rewards and future airdrops for participating on-chain. Buyers should ask themselves is this just another crypto trade or are they buying a ticket of entry into the Axie ecosystem.
Timing the Entry: DCA vs. Lump Sum at These AXS Price Levels
AXS is a highly volatile small-cap gaming token. Currently trading at $1.17 per AXS token for a $202 million market cap. Events like the April 25 short squeeze that sent the Axie Infinity price up 40% and wiped out $1.33 million in positions showed traders how risky thin markets can be. Dollar-cost averaging can mitigate some risk by reducing the impact of entry timing. Dollar-cost averaging purchases also help diversify entries over time. Instead of betting on a single price entry point, spacing out your entries. If you pre-plan to buy $100 worth of AXS over 5 weeks, your average price will be softened by any dips or rallies. As exchanges look to surface options for investors on how to buy Axie Infinity with less money down upfront, most platforms have implemented some variation of a repeat buy function. Binance offers an auto invest tool that can execute these buys on a schedule with no added cost above the normal market trading fees. Coinbase's recurring buy option, by contrast, charges the same hefty taker fee for each transaction. The Axie Infinity price has traded between $0.90 and $1.50 for majority of 2026 outside of the run up in April. Any prediction about the Axie Infinity price will have to balance these two truths: How successfully Axie Infinity can recapture the attention of the 300,000 to 500,000 monthly active users it has in its ecosystem. And the larger reality that 93% of all Web3 gaming tokens have failed. Right now the AXS price is in a sweet spot where dollar-cost averaging into your position allows you to sell Axie Infinity on a rally or buy the dip. Remember if you plan on staking your AXS tokens through either Axie Infinity staking or Axie Core start buying early enough so you have it staked before Homeland launches. It takes time to build up staked positions and for Axie Scores to increase your bAXS eligibility.
The Tax Step Most Buyers Skip Until It's Too Late
Every time you need to buy fiat into USDT and then swap your USDT to AXS, you've had two taxable events under most jurisdiction's tax code. The IRS also treats every swap as a disposal. So if your USDT increases in value even slightly (between market open and when you swap to AXS), you owe the IRS taxes on that gain. Buying AXS from a fiat pair on Coinbase (Coinbase does list AXS to USD) instead will only count as one taxable event rather than two. Much easier to deal with during filing season. Crypto traders or investors who plan on selling their Axie Infinity tokens sometime in the future, should also consider tax consequences when they buy. Dollar cost averaging will create many tax lots at many different prices. Most portfolio trackers allow import of Binance, Coinbase, and OKX transaction history via API. Ronin transactions will need to be imported manually as a CSV, or connected via synced to wallet address. Few platforms can do this last part gracefully just yet. The AXS purchase price at the time each lot is bought is that tax lot's cost basis. FIFO vs. specific identification can cost you hundreds of dollars on a large position. Staking rewards are taxed as ordinary income at fair market value on the day you receive them. If AXS is valued at $1.17 when you receive your staking reward, then your income is $1.17 per AXS reward token, regardless of what AXS does later. bAXS isn't taxed how you might expect as the token isn't transferable. Also, conversion rate from AXS to bAXS isn't uniform, and depends on your Axie Score. As such, no definitive tax treatment has been written for it. For now conservative methods treat the bAXS you earn as income at whatever AXS dollar equivalent you receive it for. As always, keep detailed records, and pay a crypto-knowledgeable tax professional. Not "that CPA you know that also does crypto."
Putting It Together Before the Launch Window Closes
Ronin Network has finally migrated to Ethereum's L2 as of Wednesday, May 12. The addition of bAXS vesting structure to Axie Core will alter the dynamics of AXS' relationship to the game. Atia's Legacy Playtest 2 has launched. Moment of full launch is near. "How to buy Axie Infinity" is going to stop being just a trading venue question. It's going to be a logistics question with numerous fee, custody, tax and timing variables that will ultimately determine the efficiency of your position. Whether you pay fees in the cheapest venue: Binance for most non-U.S. residents, cleanest tax paper trail for your US dollars: Coinbase for the Americans willing to pay premium, Katana on Ronin for those that absolutely need ecosystem access but will have bridge friction. Axie's price prediction thread is either going to completely play itself out as Homeland opens up to new players, or it isn't. What will not be able to change retroactively is how much you paid in fees for that AXS crypto, your eligibility for bAXS distributions and your tax records cleanliness. Those three things are completely up to you as the buyer right now. Axie Infinity Shards has never had a more technically mature moment. It's leaving its sidechain days behind and the Ethereum inherited security model is now being put to use. The question for the buyer isn't if AXS is a good bet anymore. It's if they can execute on the purchase efficiently enough for the bet to have any room to play.
