This post was originally published in [2022] and has been fully updated for 2026 with new data and tools.
Everyone loves the idea of earning while playing, but is the entry fee actually zero?
In this DeFi Kingdoms free to play guide! There’s Fine Print! You need to know before connecting your wallet.
While the game technically allows you to enter the world of Crystalvale without a massive investment, the “hidden” costs of gas fees and hero stamina can catch beginners off guard.
The million-dollar question is how much money can you earn, and if the game sucks week-old broccoli.
DeFi Kingdoms is not Free! Since DeFi Kingdom runs on the Ethereum blockchain, everything you do, including setting up a profile, costs money with gas fees!
Keep reading, and I’ll share how to get started with DeFi Kingdoms, 3 other play-to-earn games, 5 ways to earn money with this game, and my plan with this project!
DFK “Fine Print” ROI Calc
Days to Break Even:
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Is DeFi Kingdoms Still Worth Playing in 2026? A 4-Year Evolution Guide
In 2022, the world was hosted on the Harmony network. Sadly, there was a massive 100 million dollar hack, and the world moved to the Kaia blockchain.
Any assets on the old chain now require some headaches to move over.
The kingdom also launched its own blockchain called DFK Chain on the Avalanche Subnet. This means transactions are super fast and cheaper than in 2022.
JEWEL is used as a gas token now, while before it was just a utility token.
Plus, in 2022, when I was playing it, the game was for questing (Player vs environment), now there are PVP (Player vs Player) fights, duels, and a Colosseum where a character can die.
There are more tokens, such as…
- Jewel – Governance and gas
- Crystal – Like a power token for the Crystalvale realm.
- Jade – Power token for Kaia realm
Now you can swap JEWEL for other tokens in realms that have benefits.
Plus, there are pets. Back in 2022, there were only heroes. You can find little eggs when questing and give them gear, and they hatch and can help your hero.
There is a whole egg market where if you find 1 lucky EGG, it could be worth a ton. Gives you that gambling addiction.
I guess they want to compete with Axie Infinity.
What is DeFi Kingdoms? A 2026 Guide to the P2E RPG on DFK Chain
DeFi Kingdoms combines play-to-earn video gaming with DeFi (Decentralized Finance). It’s also a DEX, meaning a decentralized exchange.
I’ve written about 3 other play-to-earn games such as….
The play-to-earn model sounds so appealing, right? Play a video game and get paid to do it! The main thing is you have to have fun playing the video game.
If the game sucks, then it is hard to continue playing, right? Only you can make the decision if it sucks!
The cryptocurrency token for DeFi Kingdom is called JEWEL. This token is an ERC20 token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
ERC20 stands for Ethereum Request for Comment, and I don’t know what the 20 means. You can think of an ERC20 token as WordPress for a blog. It provides the framework that many exchanges and wallets understand.
The good news is the JEWEL token has a use and isn’t just a cute puppy!
The token is used to purchase game items, heroes, and kingdoms. It’s also used for staking and liquidity mining. To stake JEWEL in the game, you have to go to the bank and talk to Mr. Teller.
The reward for staking is 1/3 of the trading fees from the DEX (Decentralized Exchange). If you’re not sure what staking is, I wrote a post HERE that I hope explains how it works.
How to Earn JEWEL in DeFi Kingdoms: Passive Income vs. Active Questing
You can earn money with staking, liquidity mining, buying and selling Heroes and items, quests, and possibly renting Heroes out.
To earn money with staking, you would go to the bank. To earn money with liquidity mining (yield farming) you would go to the garden (since you’re farming) at the seedbox.
Heck, you could even buy and sell kingdoms at the real estate office at the capital.
You can earn a high APR (annual percentage rate) from the liquidity mining, but there is some fine print. When you harvest the rewards, some of them will be locked, and some you can sell for cash.
As you can see from the fine print in the first epoch, you can only use 5% of the rewards in the beginning. You can read the full fine print HERE.
Next up is the marketplace, which acts as the DEX (Decentralized Exchange). On the DEX, you can swap 1 token for another.
Then we have the Tavern, where you can recruit Heroes (NFT’s). The Heroes are VERY similar to Axies in the most popular play-to-earn game called Axie Infinity.
These Heroes all have different abilities, and you can build them up to sell. Oh, and you can even breed them “just” like Axie Infinity.
Another way you could possibly earn money is with a quest. At the time of this blog post, there are only professional quests, and there is no PVP (player vs. player) or adventure quests
Profession quests mean things such as fishing, foraging, mining, and gardening.
Is DeFi Kingdoms Safe? Audit Results and Risk Assessment for New Players
DeFi Kingdoms is not a scam, but was launched on August 22, 2021, and is VERY new. The main token, JEWEL, is also not available on any exchanges. Lastly, there is some fine print on liquidity mining that some people don’t know.
Defi Kingdoms is real, and I recommend playing around with it to learn. Getting some hands-on experience can also help you learn and gain confidence (you can only learn so much from a blog post).
To get started, all you need is a web browser, the Metamask wallet extension, and some Harmony ONE tokens in Metamask. You can purchase Harmony ONE tokens from Binance, Crypto.com, and Kucoin.
Unfortunately, with Binance, it takes 10 days to move the ONE tokens to Metamask. Oh, and it’s not as easy as you think. I found this video HERE helpful on how to move ONE token to Metamask.
You can’t create a profile until you have some Harmony One tokens in your wallet.
Harmoney ONE is a layer 2 blockchain on the Ethereum blockchain. You could think of a layer 2 blockchain as, instead of MANY transactions that cost gas fees, a layer 2 just collects all the transactions and, once a day, submits them to save everyone money.
It’s like buying in bulk to save money. Sort of like shopping at Costco, where you can buy 1 years worth of ketchup at a time.
You can install DefiKingdoms from the link HERE. Also, once you connect your Metamask wallet, you don’t need any username or password to log in because it’s linked to the Metamask wallet.
Once you’re in the game, you can head over to the marketplace and convert some ONE tokens for JEWEL tokens. Those JEWEL tokens you could stake at the bank or go to the gardens and do some liquidity mining.
If you’re not sure what liquidity mining is, you can check out this post HERE.
You could also go to the tavern to buy, sell, and possibly rent Heroes.
Conclusion to DeFi Kingdoms free to play guide!
I’m bullish on DeFi Kingdoms because it takes a boring topic, DeFi, and turns it into a video game. The bad news is that there is some fine print with liquidity mining rewards, and it’s very new.
Also, there are “lots” of moving parts, relying on Ethereum as a side chain with a video game element. What could go wrong, right?
In conclusion, I want to learn more about this project, and this means putting some skin in the game (this is how I learn).
I’m both bullish and “very skeptical” with DeFi Kingdoms. I like simple things; even my golf swing is “insanely” simple, but I can hit the ball straight.
The simpler the project, the more I like it (probably why I’m more of a Bitcoin guy).
Crypto in general is very risky, so it’s not a bad idea to diversify.
One way you can diversify is with a side hustle. Affiliate marketing is not a bad idea because you can do it anywhere, anytime, around your schedule, with very little start-up cost, in nearly any niche, and it can be a lot of fun.
I’ve been doing it for 15 years, and I’m giving away my system for FREE HERE.
I hope this post on DeFi Kingdoms was helpful to you. Bye for now.