Hamster Kombat Token Launch

What appears to be Telegram’s most popular clicker game, Hamster Kombat, had its token go live for trading with 60 billion tokens distributed to 131 million qualifying user accounts.

Distribution Details

The distribution was based on Hamster Kombat user participation during season 1 of the tap-to-earn game on the Layer 1 The Open Network (TON) blockchain, closely associated with the popular messaging app Telegram. Since its launch in March, Hamster Kombat said more than 300 million user accounts have signed up to play the game.

Trading began for HMSTER tokens at 8 a.m. ET on Thursday, and HMSTR is listed on several centralized exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Bitfinex, and Bitget.

The 60 billion tokens represent 60% of the total supply of 100 billion HMSTR tokens. According to Hamster Kombat’s team, another 15%, or 15 billion tokens, will be dropped during Season 2 of the game. Due to the size of the airdrop and the number of recipients, the TON Core team has expressed concerns that the TON blockchain might face challenges managing the distribution volume.

“The network will undoubtedly face more technical pressures and possibly some unforeseen issues, but we are unwavering in our commitment to building and addressing these challenges as we move toward mass adoption,” the team stated in its Telegram channel earlier this month.

Previous Token Successes

Hamster Kombat’s token airdrop follows other Telegram-based games like Notcoin and Catizen, which also had their tokens launched for trading. Notcoin’s launch was considered successful, with its market capitalization peaking at around $1.5 billion.

Ineligible Players

After the announcement that only 131 million of the game’s over 300 million signups qualified for tokens, some players complained about the distribution. The game’s creators stated that 2.3 million user accounts deemed “bots and cheaters” were ineligible.

“The airdrop is extremely evenly distributed,” the game’s team told The Block. “We’ve analyzed all player activity and allocated most of the airdrop (about 80%) based on the profit-per-hour rate, which was the most important metric applied to each player. About 20% was allocated to the remaining activities.”

The game’s developers mentioned that 11.25% of the HMSTR tokens will be vested and unlocked ten months after the listing.

Updated Roadmap

On Wednesday, Hamster Kombat outlined its new roadmap. The developers mentioned future plans to use advertising revenue for token buybacks, integrate NFTs in November, and launch in new regions to grow its ecosystem.

“Season 2, which we plan to launch in the coming weeks, will seamlessly connect the platform’s content, including the Hamster Kombat metagame and third-party games,” the team stated. We also plan to launch a progressive web app (PWA) for desktops and Apple and Android devices.

The company launched a mini-app store and an in-app browser supporting Web3 pages amid a series of mini-apps launching on Telegram, a popular messaging app among crypto users.

According to a recent report from Bitget, the TON blockchain has roughly 900 million active users and hosts over 1,100 crypto projects. The TON ecosystem’s daily transaction volume has grown from 100,000 to 1.2 million this past year. TON’s total value locked (TVL) currently stands at about $430 million, according to DeFiLlama.