A 22-year-old young man used money from a video game to buy two houses, unexpectedly collapsing the Philippine economy.

> The game is Axie Infinity.
> Players battle cartoon monsters to earn a token called SLP.
> At its peak, the value of SLP was $0.34.
> Ordinary players earned $155 per month—$195 .
> More than half of that was full-time wages.
> Top managers running player teams earned $20,000 a month with just a mobile phone.
> 2.7 million people played every day.
> Half of them were in the Philippines.
> People quit their jobs and pulled their children out of school.
> Families were living entirely on SLP.
> The 22-year-old posted a selfie on Facebook in front of his two new houses, and the government saw it.
> They immediately declared in-game income taxable.
> Players were required to register as taxpayers and report their earnings.
> Then, SLP plummeted 99% within six months.
> The government was drafting tax legislation, but the economy was already gone.
> Families had nothing left and couldn’t turn back.
A video game created a taxable economy for millions, triggered a national tax crisis, and collapsed before the government collected a single cent in taxes.