Whales Circle as Miners Book Profits and TON Cryptocurrency NOTcoin Drops to $0.0054
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TON cryptocurrency NOTcoin, the brainchild of co-developer Sasha Plotvinov, was launched on major centralized exchanges on May 16 last week amid much fanfare – how will the coin price fare next?
The price briefly spiked, propelling the token into the top 100 cryptocurrencies with a market cap of over $1 billion. However, two hours after trading began, the price had fallen back to $0.0062.
Since then, the price has found a bottom at around $0.0054 on the Binance exchange after hitting a low of $0.0051.
However, the price action is not as bad as it seems at first glance, considering that the $NOT token owners acquired their supply by mining a tap-to-earn token by playing the viral clicker game on Telegram.
The mined in-game token was used to claim the $NOT coin before trading began. Five million people claimed Notcoin within the first 36 hours of trading:
5 million people claimed Notcoin in the first 36 hours of listing.
4 million deposited or staked on exchanges
1 million already claimed on-chain$743 million market cap
Vouchers
795,000 total Notcoin vouchers:530,000 converted to Notion
264,000 on the market (2.6% of total supply) pic.twitter.com/4PpPLVLI2O— Notcoin Ø (@thenotcoin) May 17, 2024
Originally conceived as a way to introduce cryptocurrency to the masses, $NOT’s game guides the newbie through connecting a TON-compatible crypto wallet, saving the seed phrase, and then getting started with the clicks.
With billions of tokens in the bank, so to speak, players took the opportunity to sell at the list price of $0.009471. Trading volume in the first 24 hours reached $1.18 billion.
TON cryptocurrency NOTcoin – from crypto experiment to half a billion dollar market cap
$TON currently has a market cap of $574 million, ranking 121st out of 9,961 tokens listed on Coinmarketcap.
All this is not too bad for a coin that promised its players “probably nothing” as part of its marketing message.
pic.twitter.com/f7UFqMfcik
— Notcoin Ø (@thenotcoin) February 15, 2024
Plotvinov’s game was not just about mindless clicking, as hypnotically pleasant as that seemed to be for some dopamine junkies aspiring to the top of the leaderboard. Rather, the game was designed to educate the masses on how crypto networks work.
For example, rewards were also earned for participating in various campaigns such as installing the TON Space wallet. Telegram premium users also received additional rewards for various tasks and contributions.
The popularity of the clicker game was so great that it even boosted sales of mechanical clickers on e-commerce platforms eBay and Alibaba.
Participation in the Notcoin phenomenon is made possible by the community bot, which leverages Telegram’s proven bot ecosystem to provide a user-friendly experience.
Notcoin has amassed 35 million players of its clicker game, creating a huge audience for the coin.
The Open Network (TON) traces its origins to the Telegram app developed by Nikolai and Pavel Durov (Pavel is Telegram’s CEO). In-game mining ended on April 1, token claiming began on Tuesday.
In addition to selling $NOT, holders can also stake it or simply “hodl” it in their self-governed wallet.
Since Telegram encountered regulatory issues with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the TON network is operated by the TON Foundation and is no longer officially associated with Telegram, despite being effectively the platform’s native token.
Following an X poll of community members in January asking if $NOT should be minted and listed as a token, unsurprisingly 69.9% voted yes.
Binance, OKX and Bybit are among the top exchanges to list $NOT
By diligently cultivating support from crypto OG influencers and enthusiastic support from the clicker game community, a coordinated successful launch was carried out on some of the top crypto trading venues.
Exchanges involved included Binance, OKX and Bybit – the first, third and fourth ranked spot exchanges on Coinmarketcap. There are three days left on the Bybit launch pool to claim free NOTcoin.
Due to the regulatory mess with the SEC, US exchanges have avoided listing TON-based coins.
Coinbase, for example, does not list Toncoin or any related tokens. The same goes for Kraken, Gemini and others.
According to Plotvinov, the Telegram app only has about 100 million crypto-savvy users, but it is expected to reach a billion users by the end of the year.
Notcoin’s mission is to fill this gap by expanding the reach of crypto by developing applications with mass-market appeal. Plotvinov’s Open Builders TON developer studio team is now focused on launching more games and encouraging other developers to build on the TON network.
Telegram is a popular home for a growing number of crypto casinos
As a sign of its growing popularity, Telegram has become home to a number of lucrative crypto casino platforms, notably TG.Casino, Lucky Block and Mega Dice, all of which have Telegram versions of their no-KYC gambling operations on the app. Mega Dice is currently in presale and has raised over $1 million from contributors.
Notcoin plans to relaunch its clicker game, this time with players able to mine $NOT coins directly, rather than an in-game token that must be exchanged for $NOT in the claiming process.
However, since all Notcoins have now been minted and staked, a new play-to-earn model is being worked out.
In an encouraging move for whale buyers, Pavel Durov said in a Telegram post that he is holding onto the $6.8 million worth of $NOTcoins he was gifted until their value has increased 100x.
With such recommendations, $NOT’s trading volume remains high, with Coinmarketcap ranking it as the 40th most traded coin. With the price now finding a bottom, Notcoin buyers are likely to continue to be numerous.
