Author: Zen, PANews

The TON ecosystem's mini-game applications have become an unavoidable topic in the crypto industry this year. With click-to-earn games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat gaining popularity, the TON ecosystem has experienced unprecedented growth. Particularly, the launch of Telegram game tokens like Hamster Kombat on the TON network has seen the number of TON wallet addresses surge from just 4.3 million at the beginning of the year to over 100 million.

However, beneath the seemingly imminent prosperity of large-scale applications, there are some concerns within the TON ecosystem. Not only does a phenomenon like Hamster Kombat come with numerous controversies, but its "successors" have also frequently disappointed players and users. It seems that the vast majority of mini-applications struggle to avoid criticism from the community, as well as a fleeting existence.

Market Cap Below $40 Million, X Empire Cannot Escape Airdrop Curse

Last week, the Telegram click-to-earn game X Empire, themed around Elon Musk, launched its X token on the TON blockchain. This mini-game, claiming to have 50 million players, had previously generated a lot of hype and received support from many mainstream exchanges, including OKX, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, Gate.io, and MEXC. However, the grand marketing and hype did not translate into impressive token price performance; instead, it faced widespread criticism and complaints from the community.

Community grievances erupted after X Empire announced the X token distribution on October 18, primarily from players who were inexplicably excluded from the airdrop. It is worth noting that X Empire had announced on October 8 that its player count had surpassed 50 million, yet only 6 million users were eligible for the airdrop.

Project founder Alex Falcon argued that "active friends" is the most important criterion in the final airdrop calculation, alongside hourly profits and task completion rates. He also stated, "Anyone who truly invests time in X Empire has a chance to receive this reward." However, prior to this, X Empire had informed players that a transaction fee of 0.5 TON was required to claim the airdrop, only to later announce that payment was not a necessary condition for receiving the airdrop.

Such inconsistency has thoroughly angered the X Empire community, with some even directly complaining to Musk on the X platform, stating grievances such as "this is completely a scam, very unfair" and "this is a scam project using your name, interrogate the X Empire team." Currently, Musk himself has no connection to X Empire, but the project is filled with elements related to him. From initially launching under the name "Musk Empire" to making him a central theme, and even including images of Musk's animated character in every announcement, X Empire has fully leveraged Musk's traffic.

Additionally, the average trading price before the X token issuance was $0.0002, but the actual opening price was about half of that. After the official launch of the X token, its price has generally been on a downward trend. On social media, many players claim they are losing money, with most earning tokens worth less than $10. As of October 25, the price of the X token was approximately $0.000054, with a fully diluted market cap close to $37 million.

Other "Hot" Applications' Choices: Switching Blockchains and Dragging Strategy

Following X Empire, the Telegram mini-apps MemeFi and Tomarket, both claiming to have over 40 million users, have become the next focus, with their tokens set to launch soon.

In a previous article published by PANews titled “Multiple Projects' Airdrop Dates Missed, Is the Frenzy of Top Click-to-Earn Game Projects' TGE a Mystery?”, we briefly introduced MemeFi. The project's unique aspect is that it chose not to issue its token on the Ton network but instead opted for the Ethereum Layer 2 solution, Linea. However, MemeFi recently announced that it would move its token to the currently popular Sui network ahead of its token issuance on November 12. The project team stated that they have collaborated with Sui network creator Mysten Labs to develop strategic initiatives around the launch, including marketing efforts and plans to showcase a broader Sui ecosystem.

So far, MemeFi plans to take a final snapshot of player activity on November 6 to determine the distribution of tokens in the airdrop, with developers expected to release detailed information about token distribution on November 8. Previously, the MemeFi token was scheduled for issuance on October 9 but was postponed due to the development team's reassessment of its strategy. Perhaps due to MemeFi's repeated delays, the news of launching tokens on the Sui network did not excite the community; instead, several users began recounting MemeFi's "relocation history" and expressing pessimistic views in the comments below the official announcement.

However, in terms of community disappointment, Tomarket, which is set to conduct its TGE on October 31, is not far behind. As of October 30, Tomarket, which is about to issue its token, has still not disclosed its tokenomics and distribution methods, and the community's most pressing question about the listing has yet to be answered. According to Tomarket's roadmap, its $TOMA was supposed to be issued and listed in October, but now only discussing TGE without mentioning the listing has naturally led to significant anger within the community. Additionally, Tomarket has adopted a similar "strategy" to X Empire, claiming to players that the fourth step of TGE is a non-mandatory "TOMARKET Senior Medal," which users need to pay 1 TON to purchase.

Tomarket founder Oliver Tomassi tweeted on October 28 that users would be able to determine their $TOMA allocation starting November 1, stating that a portion of $TOMA has already been allocated to eligible participants, but the specific amount has not yet been determined. Later, he posted on X, saying, "Say no to hackers, scammers, and bots." On October 29, Tomassi tweeted again promoting "only two days left until TGE," claiming "the listing is coming soon, and things will be done one by one (sweating bullets)."

Although MemeFi and Tomarket have yet to officially issue tokens and list them, based on the current reputation and the cautionary tales of Hamster Kombat and X Empire, it will not be easy for these two projects to turn things around.

Popular Games Continue to Decline, TON Ecosystem's Active Address Count Plummets

According to data from analysis firm IntoTheBlock, as of October 28, the number of active addresses in the TON ecosystem has dropped to 1.18 million, a significant decrease from the peak of 5.16 million reached a month ago. Additionally, the proportion of active addresses, which peaked at 6.52% at the end of September, has also been on a continuous decline, with the average active address proportion over the past 30 days reduced to 1.76%.

It is evident that despite the controversies surrounding Hamster Kombat, it indeed brought a massive influx of users and traffic to the TON ecosystem, contributing to the peak in data at the end of September. Related reading: “The Largest Airdrop in History, Users Averaging Only $3 Earned, Who is Winning in Hamster Kombat?”

As the super airdrop of Hamster Kombat comes to an end, its token HMSTR has been on a steady decline, with its YouTube channel's video views dropping from over 10 million to around 2 million. According to CoinMarketCap, as of October 30, the price of HMSTR was approximately $0.0028, with a fully diluted market cap of about $286 million, and the token has seen a price drop of over 67% since its launch. For many Hamster Kombat players, receiving the airdrop and immediately selling it is the greatest respect for the time they invested over the months.

Why are popular games in the TON ecosystem struggling to maintain their momentum?

Perhaps when we talk about large-scale adoption, we should not forget that the essence of blockchain and Web3 technology is to benefit a broader group. If a mini-application with tens of millions of users fails to bring joy, convenience, or wealth, but instead leads to deception, calculation, and loss, it is unlikely to last long. Therefore, such projects, after their TGE and listing, are destined to be abandoned and swept into the industry's trash heap.

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