The TON ecosystem mini-game application has become an unavoidable topic in the cryptocurrency industry this year. With the rise of play-to-earn games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, the TON ecosystem has experienced unprecedented growth.
Notably, the launch of game tokens like Hamster Kombat on the TON network has led to an increase in the number of TON wallet addresses from just 4.3 million at the beginning of the year to over 100 million. However, beneath this seemingly impending prosperity of mass adoption, the TON ecosystem has also revealed some concerns. Not only does a phenomenon like Hamster Kombat come with numerous controversies, but its “successors” have frequently disappointed players and users. It appears that the vast majority of mini-applications struggle to avoid criticism from the community and face a fleeting existence.
With a market capitalization of less than $40 million, X Empire cannot escape the airdrop curse. Last week, the Elon Musk-themed Telegram click-to-earn game X Empire launched its X token on the TON blockchain. This mini-game, which claims to have 50 million players, previously generated a frenzy 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 strong token price performance; instead, it ended up facing widespread criticism and complaints from the community.
Community grievances erupted shortly after X Empire announced the X token distribution on October 18, mainly from players who were excluded from the airdrop for unknown reasons. 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 qualified for the airdrop. 
Project founder Alex Falcon argued that “active friends” were the most important criteria in the final airdrop calculation, alongside hourly profits and task completion rates. He also stated, “Everyone who has genuinely invested 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 clarify that payment was not a necessary condition for receiving the airdrop.
This inconsistency has thoroughly infuriated the X Empire community, with some even directly complaining to Musk on the X platform, expressing sentiments such as “This is completely a scam, very unfair” and “This is entirely a scam project leveraging your name; interrogate the X Empire team.” Currently, while Musk himself is not associated with X Empire, the project is replete with elements related to him. From initially using the name Musk Empire upon launch to focusing it as a key theme, and attaching images of Musk’s animated character with every announcement, X Empire has fully leveraged Musk’s popularity.
Moreover, the average trading price before the issuance of the X token 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 have claimed 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 capitalization close to $37 million.
Other popular applications are choosing to switch blockchains and delay their launches. Following X Empire, the Telegram mini-apps MemeFi and Tomarket, both claiming to have over 40 million users, have become the next focal points, with their tokens set to launch soon. In a previous article published by PANews titled “Multiple Projects Miss Airdrop Dates, What’s Behind the Madness of Headline Click-to-Earn Projects?”, we briefly introduced MemeFi. This project stands out because it chose not to issue its token on the TON network, but rather on the Ethereum Layer 2 solution, Linea. However, MemeFi recently announced that it would transfer its token to the currently popular Sui network ahead of its token issuance on November 12. The project claimed to have collaborated with the Sui network development team, Mysten Labs, to develop strategic measures for the launch, including marketing efforts and plans to showcase a broader Sui ecosystem. 
So far, MemeFi plans to conduct its final snapshot of player activity on November 6 to determine the allocation of tokens in the airdrop, and developers expect to release detailed information about token distribution on November 8. Previously, MemeFi’s token was scheduled for issuance on October 9, but was postponed due to the development team reassessing its strategy. However, following MemeFi’s repeated delays, the news of launching tokens on the Sui network did not elicit joy from the community; instead, multiple users began recounting MemeFi’s “relocation history” and expressing pessimistic comments under the official announcement tweet.
Nevertheless, 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, still has not disclosed its tokenomics and distribution methods, leading to unresolved questions from the community regarding its listing. According to Tomarket’s roadmap, its $TOMA was supposed to be issued and listed in October, yet it only mentions TGE while failing to address the listing, naturally inciting significant anger within the community.
Additionally, Tomarket has employed a similar “routine” to X Empire, claiming that the fourth step of TGE involves a non-mandatory “TOMARKET Advanced Badge,” which users need to pay 1 TON to acquire. 
Tomarket founder Oliver Tomassi tweeted on October 28 that users would be able to confirm their $TOMA allocation starting November 1, stating that a portion of $TOMA has already been allocated to eligible participants, but the specific amounts have yet to be determined. Later, he posted on X, saying, “Say no to hackers, scammers, and bots.” On October 29, Tomassi again tweeted to promote “only two days left until TGE,” claiming, “The listing is coming soon, one step at a time.”
Although MemeFi and Tomarket have not yet officially launched their tokens, based on the current reputation and the precedents set by Hamster Kombat and X Empire, it will not be easy for these two projects to turn the tide.
As popular games continue to decline, the number of active addresses in the TON ecosystem has dropped sharply. According to data from analytics firm IntoTheBlock, as of October 28, the number of active addresses in the TON ecosystem has fallen to 1.18 million, a significant reduction compared to the peak of 5.16 million reached a month ago. Furthermore, the proportion of active addresses, which peaked at 6.52% at the end of September, has also been continuously declining; currently, the average active address proportion over the past 30 days has decreased to 1.76%. 
It is evident that although Hamster Kombat has been controversial, it undeniably brought a tremendous influx of users and traffic to the TON ecosystem, contributing to its peak data at the end of September. However, as the super airdrop for Hamster Kombat concluded, its token HMSTR has been in a steady decline, with its YouTube channel’s view count dropping from over 10 million to around 2 million.
According to CoinMarketCap data, as of October 30, the price of HMSTR is approximately $0.0028, with a fully diluted market capitalization of about $286 million, representing a price drop of over 67% since its launch. For many Hamster Kombat players, claiming the airdrop and selling immediately is the greatest respect for the months of time they invested.
Why are popular games in the TON ecosystem struggling to maintain their popularity? Perhaps when we discuss mass adoption, we should not forget that the essence of blockchain and Web3 technology is to benefit a broader group of people. If a mini-application boasting millions of users cannot bring joy, convenience, or wealth, but instead offers deception, calculation, and loss, it is unlikely to last long.
Thus, projects of this nature, once abandoned after TGE and listing, are destined to be swept into the industry’s trash heap.
This article is authorized for reprint from:
PAnews
