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 token launches: Finally, four months after the Telegram-based game launched, Notcoin debuted its NOT token on Thursday via The Open Network (TON). The massive airdrop yielded the largest gaming token launch of 2024 so far, along with over a billion dollars worth of trading volume.
Viral Telegram-based game Notcoin paused its gameplay in April ahead of its imminent token launch, originally planned for April 20. The devs pushed the launch date back to ensure a smooth launch and it appears to have paid off, with no major issues reported.
‘Notcoin’ Trading Volume Tops $1 Billion in 2024's Biggest Gaming Token Drop
More than four months after the game launched via messaging app Telegram, Notcoin debuted its NOT token Thursday via The Open Network (TON)—and the massive airdrop yielded the largest gaming token launch of 2024 so far, along with over a billion dollars worth of trading volume so far. The NOT token is currently trading at a price of approximately $0.0076, per data from CoinGecko, giving it a market cap of about $776 million with the entire supply of 102.7 billion tokens minted right from the sta...
GameStop Revival: Three years after the notorious 2021 GameStop short squeeze, which was turned into a documentary and feature film, Roaring Kitty—one of the key figures of the short squeeze—appeared to return to Twitter on Sunday.
This resulted in the video game retailer’s stock’s price skyrocketing, with trading halted many times over. As we should expect by now, this meant that countless GameStop-related meme coins also saw huge gains. But the hype train started to crumble on Friday when the company’s stock tanked 26% after it revealed plans to sell up to 45 million shares.
'Roaring Kitty Is the Villain': GameStop Trader's Tweets Are Getting Sad
It appears that Roaring Kitty has been let down by his favorite video game store. GameStop, the company which the trader (aka Keith Gill) made his name discussing online, has filed to sell up to 45 million shares—which could increase the total number of shares by as much as 15%. The price of GME immediately tanked by 26%, and now is trading at a price less than 20% above last Friday’s close. As you might expect, the plunge appears to be stressing out Twitter’s favorite meme stock trader. Followi...
Nyan Heroes token: Solana-based hero shooter game Nyan Heroes will launch its NYAN token on Tuesday, May 21 via exchange partner Bybit. Details regarding the game’s airdrop are expected soon, particularly as the game is currently holding its second pre-alpha playtest with play-to-airdrop rewards via the Epic Games Store.
Solana Game 'Nyan Heroes' Reveals Token Launch Amid Play-to-Airdrop Push
Cat-themed shooter Nyan Heroes has confirmed that it will launch its NYAN token on the Solana blockchain next week. The Overwatch and Titanfall inspired mech shooter has been in pre-alpha since March, reportedly breaking into the top 30 titles on the Epic Games Store with over 200,000 downloads. On Tuesday, May 21, the official Nyan Heroes token NYAN will be launched on the centralized exchange Bybit. In addition to this launch, the announcement hints that details regarding the long-awaited NYAN...
Apeiron Esports Championship: Ethereum trading card strategy game Apeiron has announced a world championship tournament with a huge $1 million prize pool.
Apeiron Guild Wars 2024 will see the top 12 guilds—the Ronin Network game’s version of a clan—battle it out to reach the in-person finals, which is slated to be hosted in Hong Kong in Q3 2024. On this stage, players will showcase their skills for a share of the prizes.
Ethereum Strategy Game 'Apeiron' Reveals $1 Million Esports Championship
Ethereum trading card strategy game Apeiron has announced a huge $1 million prize pool for its very own world championship. Apeiron Guild Wars 2024 will see the top 12 guilds—the Ronin Network game’s version of a clan—battle it out to reach the in-person finals, which is slated to be hosted in Hong Kong in Q3 2024. On this stage, players will showcase their skills for a share of the sizable prize pool. A total of $1 million worth of prizes will be awarded to participants based on where they plac...
Fantasy Top Update: After taking Crypto Twitter by storm, Fantasy Top shipped a huge update that saw over 40 new heroes added to the game. On top of this the scoring system was adjusted to battle bots artificially inflating scores, plus Fantasy Top launched a pair of competitions last week.
Fantasy Top Volume Jumps as Crypto Twitter NFT Game Adds 40 New Heroes
Fantasy Top took over Crypto Twitter last week. Now, with a huge update shipping, the game has seen a jump in player engagement. Late last night, Fantasy Top's official Twitter announced a jam-packed week for fans of the social media game, including a reworked scoring system, a huge prize pool, and a newbie-friendly tournament. Most notably, however, over 40 new NFT heroes are being added to the game, including crypto-degen-turned-boxer Barneytheboi, founder of the Sappy Seals NFT collection w...
ICYMI
- Ethereum card battler ‘Cross the Ages’ launched its CTA token, while also raising $3.5 million in a round led by Animoca Brands.
- Rogue-like trading card game Guild of Guardians is now available on iOS and Android.
- Meme coin gambling game Rug.fun played its second game, amassing $246,000 total value locked
- NFT chess game Anichess has partnered with global esports brand Team Secret ahead of its PvP mode launch.
- Crucible Network announced the Emergence Marketplace, a place for interoperable digital assets to be traded, set to launch in the summer
- Param Laboratory, an independent game and infrastructure development company, secured $7 million in funding led by Animoca Brands.
GG spotlight
Here are a couple of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:
How Jenndefer Became a Crypto Twitter Main Character via 'Fantasy Top'
Jennifer Duong, aka Jenndefer, has far fewer Twitter (aka X) followers than some of her Fantasy Top "hero" compatriots. But the influencer-driven crypto game has quickly turned her into one of Crypto Twitter’s main characters, as has her other content around Blast. Jenndefer quickly carved a niche for herself when she dove headfirst into Blast, the Ethereum layer-2 network known for its lucrative incentives ahead of an upcoming airdrop in late June. However, it was in Fantasy Top—a blockchain-ba...
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Preview: Everything You Need to Know
“You’re still a frog in a well who knows nothing of the sea,” is one of the coolest lines we’ve heard in a reveal trailer this year. The next installment in the massive video game franchise Assassin’s Creed has just been announced, taking place in ancient Japan. It’ll see players control two contrasting characters with different fighting styles as their narratives clash. With the game releasing before the end of the year, fans of the series (including us) surely want to know everything about it....
Edited by Andrew Hayward
