The arrest of CEO Pavel Durov in France in August impacted the messaging app Telegram. Circumstances changed and a policy was reversed. The app will now share users’ IP addresses and phone numbers with the government for criminal investigations. How do you think this will play out for their user numbers?
There’s one notable fact to be brought to your notice. Early this month, Telegram flexed hitting a milestone of 950 million monthly users. Who or what deserves the credit for this? The less-complex “tap-to-earn” games synced with Telegram mini-apps are probably blowing up the stats.
These games succeeded in onboarding a swarm of users to the platform. Most importantly, their ‘airdrop seasons’ generated quite a buzz, blending anticipation with scrutiny for some. It’s time to explore tap-to-earn games within the Telegram gaming ecosystem powered by The Open Network (TON) blockchain.
Top Telegram-Based Tap-to-Earn Web3 Games
1. NOTCOIN
| ORIGIN | November 2023 [closed beta]; January 1, 2024 [public launch] |
| USER BASE | 35 million accounts |
| DEVELOPER | Open Builders |
Notcoin debuted and swiftly became a viralTelegram T2E clicker game, allowing users to tap an animated coin for rewards. Following its success, it launched sub-games, including the six-week Lost Dogs game in partnership with Lost Dogs Co. Currently, players can engage with Not Pixels, the sub-game developed alongside Pixelverse.
Notcoin’s Not Pixels Gameplay
In this game, you compete with multiple players to paint a 1000×1000 pixel canvas (1 million pixels) to earn tokens. The more pixels you paint, the more tokens you accumulate. All players are treated equally and cannot draw their own lines, structures, or place images.
Token’s Market:
This viral Telegram T2E gaming project launched its native token NOT in May 2024. The token’s airdrop was considered as one of the biggest airdrops of this year. Currently, over 102.47 billion NOT tokens hold a market cap of $843 million. At the time of writing, NOT traded at $0.008234 — a price range that is 71.47% down from its peak in June ($0.02896). Remarkably, in that ATH month, NOT recorded a market cap of $3 billion.
2. HAMSTER KOMBAT
| ORIGIN | March 26, 2024 |
| USER BASE | 300 million accounts |
| DEVELOPER | Anonymous |
If you’re a T2E pro or addict, you probably know that Hamster Kombat isn’t a combat game but is more like Notcoin. Hamster Kombat is a ‘crypto exchange CEO simulator’ available as a mini-game app on Telegram. Like Notcoin, it’s a tap-to-earn game where you tap your hamster to earn in-game coins while also enjoying perks from daily missions, combos, and a referral system.
Hamster Kombat’s Gameplay:
Well, in Hamster Kombat, you play the role of the CEO of a fictional crypto exchange in the hamster realm. Your goal is to level up your startup to the top. By tapping, you invest in marketing, licenses, talent, product development, and so on.
Besides tapping, you complete daily combos and tasks, claim daily rewards, and multiply your in-game revenue to build your crypto exchange within the game. Just like every other game, the character’s skin clothing, and other accessories can be acquired, and personalized on their profile.
Token Airdrop:
- Following the closure of Season One’s in-game earnings on Sep. 20, the project is headed for the token generation event (TGE) on Sep. 26.
- This season, over 60 billion HMSTR are being distributed. Only 131 million users (44% of the current user base) are eligible for this airdrop.
- The project has entered an “Interlude Season” prepping for Season 2.
Recent Updates:
- Over 2.3 million user accounts were banned and labeled as ‘cheaters’, leading to the recovery of 6.8 billion tokens.
- Binance Launchpool has been running a major campaign for the HMSTR listing since last Saturday.
3. CATIZEN
| ORIGIN | March 2024 |
| USER BASE | 39 million total users; 18 million MAU |
| DEVELOPER | Pluto Studio |
This one on the list aims to replace mindless tapping with meaningful swipes. Catizen is a Telegram-native mini web3 game app based on a swipe-to-earn model. In this feline-themed game, players swipe to breed cats in a cat café and earn in-game currency, which will later help them claim CATI token airdrops.
Catizen’s Gameplay:
As a player of the game, you run a cat café that welcomes feline-loving visitors who come to pet and buy cats. You start with a level one cat, which is worth some vKITTY, the in-game currency. To upgrade your cats, simply swipe cats of the same level. When a visitor buys a cat, you earn vKITTY points based on the cat’s level. You can then claim CATI tokens corresponding to the value of your vKITTY points.
Token’s Market and Upcoming Airdrops:
- Notably, CATI has a fixed cap of 1 billion tokens. On September 20, the token was launched and is trading on prominent exchanges such as Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitget, Crypto.com, and MEXC.
- The community was enraged and criticized Catizen for dropping the Season 1 token allocation from 43% to 34%, and then to an initial 15% of the total token supply. The next 19% will be distributed through the “Catizen Airdrop Pass.”
- Currently, over 305 million CATI tokens are circulating in the crypto market with a cap of $192.9 million. On the first trading day, CATI hit a high of $1.11. At the time of writing, it traded for $0.7743.
- As per a recent announcement regarding CATI allocation, the project hinted at a potential 19 airdrop season, spanning over 4 years and 8 months.
Recent Updates:
- On September 20, CATI began trading on Binance.
- Catizen announced its collaboration crypto payment network Alchemy Pay on Tuesday.
- Coinbase announced the launch of CATI’s perpetual futures on its International Exchange and Advanced platform on September 26.
4. X EMPIRE
| ORIGIN | July 2024 |
| USER BASE | 40 million users |
| DEVELOPER | Anonymous |
X Empire, formerly Musk Empire, has joined the Telegram tap-to-earn game troop as a look-alike of Hamster Kombat. But this one is an “Elon Musk simulator” game. Players gain control of a virtual version of Elon Musk or an image and earn rewards simply by tapping on it.
X Empire’s Gameplay:
As a player, you get to choose from various avatars — multiple versions of Elon Musk; ‘Premium’ options like Kim Kardashian, a muscle-bound Doge and ‘Epic’ options like Vitalik Buterin and Pavel Durov. The main gameplay (mining) involves tapping your avatar to earn in-game currency until your energy runs out, after which you wait for it to refill.
You can use your coins to upgrade Musk and his workforce, enhancing attributes like ethics and leadership for passive income, which continues to accumulate even when the game is closed, though only for three hours.
A unique feature is the “City” tab, allowing players to engage in Rock Paper Scissors battles and invest in daily stocks for potential returns. Players can also solve a daily riddle for extra rewards.
Token Airdrop:
- The project has announced 690 billion as the total supply cap of its native token X. Reportedly, it is launching on the TON blockchain.
- The mining phase of the game ends on September 30, as noted on the app’s loading screen. Hence, the token’s airdrop is expected to commence by the end of September or early October.
- 70% of the tokens are allocated for miners and vouchers whereas the rest 30% is for new users and the subsequent phases. There isn’t any lockup or vesting period on the tokens.
Recent Updates:
- As of Sep. 23, the project has sold over 60,000 NFT vouchers, granting userbase access to 4 billion tokens.
- Reportedly, over 12.5 million wallets became eligible for the upcoming airdrop as of Sep 21.
Disclaimer: The above article is for informational purposes only, and the opinions expressed are solely those of the author. TheNewsCrypto advises readers to conduct their own research before investing or making any decisions.
