This Week in Crypto Games: More Telegram Games Launching TON Tokens, Parallel Hits Epic Games

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

More Telegram games on TON: As Telegram-based games Notcoin and Hamster Kombat take over the world of crypto gaming, two new challengers enter the chat. TapSwap and Yescoin are two simple games playable via mini apps on the Telegram messaging platform, and now both have plans to launch tokens on The Open Network (TON). And yes, before you ask, they both either replicate or riff on the clicker concept.

TapSwap—which claims some 50 million players—previously offered Solana wallet integration, but said Thursday that it will ultimately launch on TON instead. Yescoin, which sees a slight variation on the clicker genre where you swipe rather than tap, also announced that it will be releasing a token on TON, after attracting 18 million users in little over a month. 

Telegram Games ‘TapSwap’ and ‘Yescoin’ Launching Tokens on The Open Network

First it was Notcoin—which dropped the biggest gaming token so far in 2024—and then it was the white-hot Hamster Kombat, which is building on the Telegram clicker model with a token airdrop ahead. Now, a pair of rising Telegram games have revealed plans to bring their projects to The Open Network (TON) as well, with token launches ahead. TapSwap and Yescoin, both simple games playable via mini apps on the Telegram messaging platform, revealed plans in separate announcements on Thursday to launch...

Parallel on Epic: Competitive card game Parallel is now in front of a monthly audience of 75 million active users after launching on the Epic Games Store. GG’s 2023 Game of the Year was launched on the prominent PC gaming marketplace last week after entering open beta earlier this year.

The competitive trading card game is built around NFTs minted on Ethereum and layer-2 scaling network Base, although it also features non-tokenized in-game cards. Players who download the free-to-play game on the Epic Games Store can unlock five additional “Apparition Packs” with the non-NFT cards.

 NFT Revolution

Ethereum NFT Card Battler ‘Parallel’ Launches on Epic Games Store

Parallel, an NFT-driven competitive card game built on Ethereum, launched Wednesday on the Epic Games Store, potentially reaching a far larger audience in the process. The Epic Games Store is a prominent PC gaming marketplace, and had 270 million users as of the end of 2023, including some 75 million monthly active users. Epic Games is the creator of free-to-play shooter hit Fortnite and has acquired other games like Rocket League, but the store hosts games from a wide array of studios. Parallel...

Gaming tokens down bad: While the crypto market bleeds, the gaming segment has suffered some of the worst casualties over the last week. Gaming tokens tend to be highly volatile, like meme coins, due in part to the crypto gaming market still being relatively nascent. And last week, top tokens tied to gaming projects took some of the biggest hits of all, with notable projects like Guild of Guardians (GOG), Parallel (PRIME), and Xai (XAI) seeing sizable price drops.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Are Cooling Off—But Gaming Token Prices Are Down Bad

As the price of leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin cools off, gaming tokens are among the worst-hit tokens over the last week, with one major game’s token dropping 40% during the span. After a broadly strong first half of the year for crypto, Bitcoin has dipped by nearly 6% over the past week to $66,830, while Ethereum has fallen a larger 10% to $3,460 as investors wait for spot Ethereum ETFs to start trading in the U.S. But while the crypto market bleeds, the gaming segment has suffered some of the...

ICYMI

• The Open Network’s TON hit an all-time high of $8.25 late Friday as Notcoin’s NOT token stays in demand while Hamster Kombat’s token is coming soon.
• Speaking of which, Notcoin's airdrop claim for early players ends today!
• Oh, and Hamster Kombat said Friday that it now has 150 million players ahead of the token launch.
• Digital avatar startup Ready Player Me is bringing avatars into Ubisoft's Just Dance VR. However, it's unclear whether NFTs will be included, and Ubisoft and RPM have yet to confirm either way.

• High-seas adventure RPG Pirate Nation launched its PIRATE token on Ethereum last week, and it's trading on Coinbase.
• Hamster Kombat might be teasing a pre-market trading feature ahead of its planned token launch in July. The game added a special Pre-Market Trading card in the exchange CEO simulation game, but it's not clear yet whether the actual feature will follow.
• Uniswap Labs acquired Crypto: The Game ahead of its third season.
• Another Telegram game, Catizen, said last week that it hit 15 million players.

GG spotlight

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

'Everyone Deserves to Play': Why Xbox Head Phil Spencer's 'Doom' Comments Struck a Nerve

Have you ever said something and then realized that it was going to come back around to haunt you over and over again? Xbox boss Phil Spencer might be spending his downtime with his head in his hands after his most recent statement about the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages. When taking this new statement in the context of other things Spencer has said and other business decisions Microsoft has made, it calls into question the future direction of the entire Xbox platform. "Doom is definitely one of...

9 Must-See Trailers from the Xbox, Ubisoft, and Summer Game Fest Events

While E3 itself might be a memory, many of the traditions around the late, once-iconic gaming expo are still in place. It's June, and big publishers are showing off the goods they have coming up in the next couple of years. Microsoft, Ubisoft, and others have shown off games at both their own shows and at broader shows like the Summer Games Fest in recent days. The showcases this year ranged from lackluster to surprising—especially for Microsoft, who brought a huge slate for its showcase after a...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Preview: Everything You Need to Know

Get your headset on and hands warm—it's time to dominate some noobs in Call of Duty. Well, it will be later this year, at least. We've gotten a new Call of Duty every year since its second title in 2005, and now we know which one fans will be firing up this fall. Call of Duty has been in hot water lately after the last installment, Modern Warfare III, was met with the worst review average for any core Call of Duty entry in the franchise’s 20-year history. Oof! Can this year’s game turn things ar...

Edited by Andrew Hayward