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 surges: Telegram-based clicker game Notcoin (NOT) reached a $1 billion market cap last week, according to CoinGecko. This came after it surged 50% following the launch of “earnings missions” that enabled players of the game to passively earn crypto rewards.
The viral clicker game had tens of millions of users fervently tapping a digital gold coin to earn crypto ahead of its token launch. When NOT launched on The Open Network, it immediately became the largest crypto gaming token launch of 2024. Now it's one of the top 100 coins on the planet.
Notcoin Jumps 35% as NOT Sets New All-Time High
What's NOT to love? Notcoin, the play-to-earn Telegram cryptocurrency game, saw its token set a new all-time high of $0.01244 early Thursday morning. It's already retreated slightly, but the current Notcoin price of $0.01199 means it's comfortably 35% higher than it was this time yesterday and 129% higher than it was this time last week. Over the past day, NOT has seen $1.3 billion worth of trading volume—approximately 42% of it originating from the NOT/USDT trading pair on Binance. In fact, the...
Hamster Kombat token: Another Telegram-based game that closely mirrors Notcoin's approach, Hamster Kombat, announced Friday that it will launch its own token on The Open Network. No timeline has been set for the launch or the planned airdrop to players.
While built around the same kind of tap-to-earn premise, Hamster Kombat takes the theme of putting players in charge of a crypto exchange, letting you grow your empire by investing in upgrades, marketing, and more over time. And all of those earned coins should convert into a token airdrop in time.
The Next Notcoin? Telegram-Based Game ‘Hamster Kombat’ to Launch Token on TON
Hamster Kombat, the latest in a growing pile of crypto games that have been deployed on popular messaging app Telegram, is set to launch a token on The Open Network (TON). The crypto management simulation game claims to have amassed 60 million users since its launch in March. It has the largest Telegram channel with 20 million subscribers, according to TelegramChannels—that’s 13 million subscribers ahead of Notcoin’s own community. Telegram games have had a recent rise in popularity following t...
Tickle-to-earn: Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain network, logged two consecutive days of huge daily transaction tally gains—totaling over 115 million transactions in one day—all thanks to a “tickle-to-earn” cat game.
Tapos is a “tickle-to-earn” game that prompts users to tickle an on-screen cat for HEART tokens. This Notcoin-esque cat game records every single in-game click on-chain. With 63,000 users, it broadcast over 323 million transactions over its three-day campaign.
‘Tickle-to-Earn’ Cat Game Prompts Massive Spike in Aptos Transactions
The blockchain tracks each and every time you tickle the digital cat. Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain network, logged two consecutive days of huge daily transaction tally gains—and it was all thanks to a “tickle-to-earn” cat game. On Friday, Aptos recorded over 90 million transactions, followed by over 115 million transactions on Saturday, according to data from Aptoscan. Here’s some perspective: On Wednesday, Aptos processed 875,000 transactions, while Ethereum, according to Etherscan, processed ju...
The Sandbox DAO: Ethereum-based metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox has launched a decentralized autonomous organization (otherwise known as a DAO). This will help SAND token holders and land NFT owners shape the future of the game and its economy.
The rollout will happen in three phases, starting with DAO members being able to vote on Sandbox Improvement Proposals (SIPs) submitted by the community via email. In the second phase, the DAO will gain more power before becoming fully independent in the third phase. It's launching with $11 million worth of SAND for the first-year budget.
Ethereum Game 'The Sandbox' Launches DAO to Let Players Shape Its Future
The Sandbox, an Ethereum-based metaverse game platform, announced Tuesday that it has launched a DAO—or decentralized autonomous organization—to let token holders help shape the future of the game and its economy. Users who own NFT-based LAND plots or hold the game’s SAND token will be able to propose and vote on governance decisions regarding gameplay upgrades and feature additions, future events and rewards initiatives, how “player status” will be determined based on asset ownership, and other...
ICYMI
- Arbitrum is about to unlock $250 million in funds to bolster its gaming ecosystem, if the proposal passes.
- The "Bitcoin Game Boy," aka the BitBoy One handheld console, is getting a Runes-themed limited edition version.
- Pudgy Penguins and Mythical Games releasing a mobile game on the Mythos Chain, a Polkadot-based gaming network.
- Crypto Unicorns revealed a play-to-airdrop campaign amid its migration to Ethereum layer-3 network Xai.
- Final Fantasy creator Square Enix has switched to Arbitrum for NFT characters for Symbiogenesis, a game that has previously used Polygon for some assets.
‘Final Fantasy’ Maker Square Enix Moves to Arbitrum for Ethereum Game NFTs
Square Enix, the video game giant behind the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts franchises, is adopting another Ethereum scaling network for its Symbiogenesis blockchain game. The publisher announced early Thursday that its next NFT character mint for the story-driven game will take place on Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum, shifting gears after the first wave of characters was minted on the Ethereum mainnet. “For Chapter 2, we've adopted Arbitrum, reducing the gas fees to about 1/1000 of the pre...
- Prominent South Korean game publisher Com2uS has become part of the Oasys gaming ecosystem by launching its own layer-2 chain called XPLA Verse.
- Spider Tanks game creator Gamedia levied various claims against publisher Gala in an open letter, saying that it felt "misled and exploited" amid an ongoing legal dispute. Gala has yet to comment publicly.
- CityVerse Tycoon will be launching on Ethereum layer-2 network Base.
GG spotlight
Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:
'Bitcoin Miner' Game Adds a New Way to Earn Real BTC—Here's How
Mobile game Bitcoin Miner, one of the most prominent play-to-earn games that pays out real Bitcoin while you play, has launched a new kind of limited-time event that’s available for approximately the next 24 hours as of this writing. The midweek “Diggy” event puts riffs on the other kind of mining—no, not mining cryptocurrency with a hyper-powered computer, but instead digging into the earth to uncover resources. It’s another kind of side diversion from the mostly idle main game, giving you some...
'Fortnite' Is the Best It's Been in Years With New Season—Here's Why
Fortnite is a game of ups and downs. Every few months, as the Battle Pass resets, the game world changes. We've had medieval towns, cyberpunk cities, giant ice cubes, and adorable bowling alleys. We've fought clandestine military organizations led by Dwayne Johnson and Brie Larson, Greek gods, and interdimensional beings. We've had cyber swords, Spider-Man hands, and super-powered mallets. Sometimes these changes work, sometimes they don't. Luckily, the latest reset to Fortnite's constantly-morp...
Edited by Andrew Hayward
