The virus-like Telegram game Notcoin taunted that in an event, about $8 million worth of NOT tokens will be burned or distributed to the community, signaling a “fresh start.”
Earlier this year, the click-to-earn game garnered attention from over 35 million players, who frantically clicked their screens to collect digital tokens. These coins were later converted into NOT tokens in the largest crypto gaming token release to date, expected to last until 2024.
The success of Notcoin was largely tied to the possibility of airdrops, but now that airdrops are a possibility, the game is seeking new ways to keep players engaged. In turn, the developers have begun burning NOT tokens to reduce supply and reward players, while signaling some kind of “fresh start.”
On Tuesday, the team announced that $3 million worth of unclaimed NOT tokens were burned, making them no longer in circulation. Additionally, the team confirmed to Decrypt that an extra $5 million worth of NOT tokens will be distributed as “bonuses” to community members. The originally announced value was $4.2 million, but this may reflect the ongoing fluctuations in the price of crypto tokens.
In May, Notcoin launched profit missions, allowing players to passively earn cryptocurrency. Depending on your income in the game, you will receive a rank, with the highest rank being platinum. The additional tokens distributed as “bonuses” will be allocated to players at the gold and platinum levels.
Any remaining unclaimed NOT tokens from the airdrop event will go into the Notcoin treasury, with the team confirming that these tokens will be used to support the future development of the project. Ultimately, 95% of NOT tokens will be held by the community, with the remaining 5% being held in the Notcoin treasury.
Hours after this news was announced on Wednesday, the official Notcoin Telegram channel teased some kind of fresh start.
The message read: “Great reset, fresh start.” When you click on the hyperlink in the message, it takes you to the Lost Dogs Co. Telegram channel, which recently released an image featuring NOT coins. This image was also shared within the Notcoin channel.
What are Lost Dogs?
Launched in early 2023, Lost Dogs are a collection of 2222 randomly generated NFTs on the open network (TON) used by Notcoin. According to data from one of the leading TON NFT markets, GetGems, Lost Dogs ranked seventh in total sales in the past 30 days.
GetGems’ listing explains: “Using our special breeding mechanism, you can create over 1.5 million unique dogs.” “To further customize your dog, you can manipulate your dog’s DNA using mutation gene harvesting during the breeding process and unleash the mutation potential of its offspring!”
But the question is: What does this have to do with the click game Notcoin?
Earlier this year, Sasha Plotvinov, founder of Open Builders and co-founder of Notcoin, told Decrypt that the project aims to “be the Netflix of social, viral games.”
He explained that the success of Notcoin will be used to create a launch platform for other independent developers to create their own viral social crypto games. These projects will be allowed to leverage the infrastructure and audience created by Open Builders and continue to drive token-driven economies in games.
As a result, fans began speculating whether the mention of Lost Dogs is the beginning of this initiative — but so far, there is no word.
As Plotvinov said, the future of Notcoin is a Netflix-like environment with playable games and social experiments, where users can jump from one experience to another. This vision is supported by TON and its unique relationship with Telegram, which will allow data and connections to move from one experience to the next.
Whether Lost Dogs is the first step in realizing this plan remains unclear, but with the wider Telegram gaming scene flourishing after its airdrop, something is about to happen with Notcoin.
Andrew Hayward, Editor
