This Week in Crypto Games: 'Notcoin' Token Launch Date, 'Fantasy Top' Takes Over, and Rugging for Fun

The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Biggest news

Notcoin launch confirmed: After missing a couple previous estimates, Notcoin has finally announced that the NOT token launch has a confirmed date. Notcoin’s NOT token, which will be minted on The Open Network (TON), will be listed on May 16. Binance and OKX are both running staking reward campaigns beginning on May 13.

Viral Telegram-based game Notcoin paused its gameplay in April ahead of its imminent token launch, but it didn’t come as quickly as expected. Originally planned for April 20 alongside the Bitcoin halving, the devs pushed the launch date back to ensure a smooth launch.

Fantasy Top dropped: A new crypto social media game has entered the lobby. Fantasy Top takes the core principles of fantasy football and swaps in 120 crypto influencers, traders, and content creators. And it’s dominating the crypto conversation right now.

Influencers who are turned into NFT cards, called heroes, are rewarded with a percentage of their cards’ trading volume, as well as part of the total pack sale revenue. A cool $1.25 million worth of ETH was distributed to Twitter influencers last week. 

Getting rugged is fun?: A new game launched last week turns minting Ethereum meme coins into a competitive game. Rug.fun is a two-phased 24-hour game that sees investors attempt to create and buy into the highest and lowest liquidity meme coins. Anywhere in-between when the timer hits zero? Then you’re getting rugged.

By the creators of Mint.fun, an NFT discovery site that was just acquired by Zora, the Context team airdropped the first token made using the protocol to victims of previous rug pulls. 

ICYMI

• Solana game MixMob: Racer 1 is set to launch on iOS and Android May 14.
• Charles Hoskinson claims that classic shooter Doom will run on Cardano layer-2 network, Hydra.
• Solana Overwatch-esque shooter Nyan Heroes pre-alpha V2 went live on Epic Games.
• The DAO behind popular NFT project Nouns has unanimously approved its esports arm to host three Super Smash Bros. Melee events later this year, providing about $146,000 worth of funding to bring them to life.

• Avalanche game first-person shooter Shrapnel now lets players buy tokens with credit/debit cards.
• Portal Fantasy, an online RPG available on Steam, has announced a play-to-airdrop campaign. 
• Another hero shooter The Machines Arena has been opening ranked lobbies on the weekends.
• Loaded Lions: Mane City, a city-builder game on the Cronos blockchain, launched its Season 2 gameplay after awarding more than $400,000 worth of CRO rewards and NFTs.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Andrew Hayward