Author: Zen, PANews
TON ecosystem mini game applications are a topic that cannot be avoided in the crypto industry this year. With the popularity of click-to-earn games such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, the TON ecosystem has ushered in unprecedented prosperity. In particular, with the launch of Telegram game tokens such as Hamster Kombat on the TON network, the number of TON coin holding addresses has increased from only 4.3 million at the beginning of the year to over 100 million.
While large-scale applications seem to be about to prosper, the TON ecosystem has also shown some concerns. Not only are phenomenal projects like Hamster Kombat controversial in themselves, but its "latecomers" have also repeatedly broken the hearts of players and users. It seems that most mini-applications are unable to avoid criticism from the community and the end of their short-lived popularity.
The market value is less than 40 million US dollars, and X Empire cannot escape the airdrop curse
Last week, the Musk-themed Telegram click-to-earn game X Empire launched its X token on the TON blockchain. This small game, which claims to have 50 million players, has been hyped up before and has received support from many mainstream exchanges, including OKX, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, Gate.io and MEXC. However, the massive marketing and hype did not bring about outstanding token price performance, but instead received widespread criticism and complaints from the community.
The community's complaints first broke out after X Empire announced the distribution of X tokens on October 18. These voices mainly came from players who were excluded from the airdrop for unknown reasons. It should be pointed out that X Empire announced on October 8 that its number of players exceeded 50 million, but in the end only 6 million users were eligible to participate in the airdrop.
Project founder Alex Falcon argued that "active friends" is the most important criterion in the final airdrop calculation, on par with hourly profit and task completion. He also said: "Everyone who really invests time in X Empire has the opportunity to get this reward." Prior to this, X Empire had told players that they needed to pay a transaction fee of 0.5 TON to receive the airdrop, but later stated in the announcement that payment was not a necessary condition for receiving the airdrop.
Such inconsistency completely angered the X Empire community, and some even complained directly to Musk on the X platform, including but not limited to "This is a complete scam, very unfair", "This is a scam project in your name, go and interrogate the X Empire team". At present, although Musk himself has nothing to do with X Empire, the project is full of elements related to him. From the game name "Musk Empire" when it was first launched, to using it as an important theme, to every tweet announcement with a picture of Musk's cartoon image, X Empire has taken advantage of Musk's traffic.
In addition, the average trading price of X tokens before their release was $0.0002, but the actual opening price was about half of that price. After the official launch of X tokens, their prices have basically been on a downward trend. On social media, many players claimed that they were unable to make ends meet, and most of them only earned tokens worth less than $10. As of October 25, the price of X tokens was about $0.000054, and the total circulation market value was close to $37 million.
Other choices for "explosive" applications: switching to blockchain or procrastination
After X Empire, MemeFi and Tomarket, two Telegram mini-apps that claim to have over 40 million users, have become the next focus of attention, and their tokens will also be launched in the near future.
In the previous PANews article "Multiple Projects' Airdrop Dates Delayed, Is the TGE of the "Crazy" Top Point-Earning Game Project a Mystery?" , we briefly introduced MemeFi. The project is unique in that it did not choose the Ton network to issue tokens, but chose Linea, a Layer 2 solution based on Ethereum. However, MemeFi, which was about to issue tokens on November 12, suddenly announced that it had transferred its tokens to the Sui network, which is currently in the limelight. The project said that they have worked with Mysten Labs, the creator of the Sui network, to develop strategic initiatives around the launch, including marketing efforts and plans to showcase the broader Sui ecosystem.
So far, MemeFi plans to take a final snapshot of player activity on November 6 to determine how the tokens will be distributed in the airdrop, and the developers are expected to release details about the token distribution on November 8. Previously, the MemeFi token was originally scheduled to be issued on October 9, but it was postponed as the development team reassessed its strategy. Perhaps based on MemeFi's repeated delays, the news of the launch of the token on the Sui network did not make the community excited. Instead, under the official tweet, several users began to recount MemeFi's "relocation history" and made negative remarks.
However, in terms of the degree of community disappointment, Tomarket, which is expected to conduct TGE on October 31, is no less disappointed. As of October 30, Tomarket, which is about to issue tokens, has not yet disclosed the token economics and token distribution method, and the issue of listing, which the community is most concerned about, has not yet received a response. However, according to Tomarket's roadmap, its $TOMA will be issued and listed in October. Now it only talks about TGE but does not mention listing, which naturally arouses great anger in the community. In addition, Tomarket also played a "routine" similar to X Empire, claiming to players that the fourth step of TGE is the "TOMARKET Advanced Medal", which is not mandatory, and users need to pay 1 TON to purchase it.
Oliver Tomassi, founder of Tomarket, tweeted on October 28 that users will be able to determine their $TOMA allocation starting November 1, and said that a portion of $TOMA has been allocated to eligible participants, but the specific amount has not yet been determined. Later, he posted on X: "Say no to hackers, scammers and robots." On October 29, Tomassi tweeted again to promote "Two days left of TGE" and said "The listing is coming soon, and things have to be done one by one (sweating soybeans)"
Although MemeFi and Tomarket have not yet officially issued their tokens or been listed on exchanges, according to their current reputation and the lessons learned from Hamster Kombat and X Empire, it will not be easy for these two projects to make a comeback.
Popular games continue to decline, and the number of active addresses in the Ton ecosystem drops sharply
According to data from the analysis company IntoTheBlock, as of October 28, the number of active addresses in the Ton ecosystem has dropped to 1.18 million, which is significantly smaller than the peak of 5.16 million reached a month ago. In addition, the proportion of active addresses has continued to decline after reaching a high of 6.52% at the end of September. The average proportion of active addresses in the past 30 days has now dropped to 1.76%.
It is not difficult to see that although Hamster Kombat is controversial, it has indeed brought a huge amount of users and traffic to the Ton ecosystem, which also led to its peak data at the end of September. Related reading: "The largest airdrop in history, the average user only earns $3, who is winning the game of Hamster Kombat?"
As the Hamster Kombat super airdrop came to an end, its token HMSTR has basically been in a steady decline, and the video playback volume of its YouTube channel has also dropped from easily breaking 10 million to about 2 million today. According to CoinMarketCap data, as of October 30, the price of HMSTR was about $0.0028, and the full circulation market value was about $286 million. The token price has fallen by more than 67% since its launch. For many Hamster Kombat players, receiving the airdrop and selling it immediately is the greatest respect for the months they have invested.
Why is it difficult for popular games in the Ton ecosystem to maintain their popularity?
Perhaps, when we talk about mass adoption, we should not forget that it is the right thing for blockchain and Web3 technology to benefit more people. If a mini-application with tens of millions of users cannot bring people happiness, convenience or wealth, but instead brings deception, calculation and loss, I believe it will not last long. Then, such a project will be doomed to be abandoned and swept into the industry's garbage dump after TGE and listing.
