Telegram Crypto Clickers: Has the hype passed?
In 2024, Telegram Mini Apps technology evolved under the banner of “Hamster.” Even people far removed from cryptocurrency, blockchain, and other “tap-to-earn” games had heard of it. You could spot teenagers nonstop “tapping” on a virtual rodent and waiting for the listing on every corner. By the end of the year, the buzz had quieted down. But has the hype really passed for good?
How It All Started
People first started seriously talking about clickers in 2013, when the game Cookie Clicker was released — in it, players had to tap on a cookie, earning virtual in-game currency and gaining experience. It has nothing to do with cryptocurrency, so Cookie Clicker is not of much interest to us. The real breakthrough happened in early 2024, when the Notcoin project launched. Players were promised real coins credited to their Telegram Wallet, and they were not deceived — the listing took place as early as May 16. In the first days, the price of Notcoin dropped from $0.01 to $0.0046, but by June it had jumped to a record $0.025. The creators distributed more than $1 billion to participants.
Notcoin price dynamics by month
This is where the hype we are talking about began. After Notcoin came the very same Hamster Kombat — the “hamster,” which at one point had around 300 million users. People believed in it largely because of Notcoin’s success. But the project was heavily criticized because of listing delays and the pre-listing figures published by the developers. In short — “they promised millions, but it turned out the way it turned out.”
During the period when Hamster Kombat was actively riding the hype, another Telegram Web App with similar mechanics — DOGS — also appeared and disappeared. A little later, in October, X Empire was listed, with its creators using Elon Musk’s image for promotion. All of these coins are available in Telegram Wallet and are officially traded on exchanges.
What About Earnings?
The current state of the market. So, is the hype fading after all?
Of course, most players came to clickers for easy money. You just tap on a hamster or Elon Musk and earn — sounds great. We would like to share the experience of one of our editors and calculate how profitable it actually is.
The experiment was conducted from June 18 to October 24 in X Empire — for exactly 98 days, the editor was “tapping,” logging into the app every day (and even several times a day). Not many friends were invited into the game, which is typical for an average player who did not aim to “game the system.” How much currency was earned in the end:
By a lucky coincidence, the coins were sold almost at the all-time price peak on October 25 — at around $0.0001.
Let’s do some simple calculations:
413 9300,0001$41,39
$41,3996,74₽4004
If we take into account various commissions and other fees, in the end about 3,700 rubles arrived on a Russian bank card. Considering that the player logged into the game 1–2 times a day for 98 days and completed tasks there, each such visit was paid approximately as follows:
3700981,5=₽25,17
About 25 rubles for 10 minutes, or 150 rubles per hour — whether that is a lot or a little, everyone can decide for themselves. But it is important to take several things into account:
To earn a noticeable amount, you need to attract friends. It is also desirable to have several accounts, which already looks more like professional activity.
Not all “tap-to-earn” games in Telegram guarantee payouts. So far, only four have actually released real coins on the TON blockchain — Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, DOGS, and X Empire (we are talking about the coins that appeared in Wallet). And how many hundreds are simply building an audience and openly deceiving users — it is impossible to count.
Even the clickers mentioned above postpone listing dates multiple times. At the moment of your first login, and even after 2–3 months, you still will not know exactly when the coins will reach your balance.
Of course, the biggest reputational blow to “tap-to-earn” apps was dealt by the “Hamster” itself, with its numerous scandals. It may seem unbelievable, but Hamster Kombat attracted the attention of the State Duma because of the excitement surrounding it. Deputies such as Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, seriously expressed their opinion about the “Hamster” and its negative impact.
We are seeing explosive growth in the number of “tap-to-earn” games. TON benefits the most from this fact, as the network is actively increasing its influence. Here are just a few projects that had not yet been listed:
HAMSTER COMBAT 2.0. Yes, the “Hamster” is returning for a second season. It is possible that we will see this trend more and more often.
BLUM. The project was announced in March 2024 by former top Binance executives, which sounds convincing. But since then, the listing dates have remained vague. They promise to distribute the coins by the end of 2024.
YANDEX CLICKER. A game by Yandex where points can be exchanged for various discounts within the company’s ecosystem. A prize draw is planned for November this year. The fact that such major market players have paid attention to “tap-to-earn” games confirms the high level of hype.
PAWS. An analogue of DOGS that evaluates your activity in other drops. In just a couple of weeks, the mini app gained 25 million active users.
TapSwap. Pavel Durov himself praised this app when its audience surpassed 56 million users. But the project’s prospects are still unclear. Users first expected the listing in May, then on July 1, and later on October 30. But so far, nothing has happened.
It is worth noting that users are getting bored with simply “tapping.” That is why creators of new apps are trying to diversify gameplay and add more tasks. And in projects similar to BLUM, there are plans to develop their own decentralized exchange (DEX).
Definitely not — we are only at the beginning of the journey. Yes, Hamster Kombat and X Empire disappointed many users with tiny payouts, but the success of Notcoin is still fresh in memory. Although, for example, Nikita Zuborev, senior analyst at Bestchange.ru, is уверен that “the size of the reward from any clicker will no longer surpass Notcoin.”
If we look at TON network activity statistics, the last two major spikes can confidently be linked to the listings of Hamster Kombat and X Empire.
That means Telegram’s management is directly interested in the development of “tap-to-earn” games, because such games increase interest in their blockchain system. Therefore, we expect the number of clickers to grow in the future, but with an evolutionary shift toward something more complex. After all, “clicking a hamster” gets boring quickly, and the success of projects directly depends on users’ willingness to complete tasks.
And how much have you managed to earn from “hamster-like” apps? And what do you think about this — does this new segment have a future? Share your opinion in the comments.
P.S. If you are thinking about creating your own app in the Telegram Mini Apps ecosystem, welcome to Freeblock. Projects of any complexity in the blockchain world from an international team of experts.
