TON cryptocurrency NOTcoin, the brainchild of co-creator Sasha Plotvinov, launched on major centralized exchanges on 16 May last week to much fanfare – where is the coin price headed next?

The price spiked briefly, which saw the token gatecrash into the top 100 crypto with a market capitalization above $1 billion. However, two hours after the start of trading the price had fallen back to $0.0062.

Since then, the price has found a floor at around $0.0054 on the Binance exchange, after touching a low of $0.0051.

However, the price action is not as bad as it looks at first glance, given that the owners of the $NOT token had acquired their stash through 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 prior to the start of trading. Five million people claimed Notcoin within the first 36 hours of trading:

5 Million people claimed Notcoin in the first 36 hours after the listing.

4M deposited to exchanges or staked
1M claimed on-chain already

$743M Market cap

Vouchers
795k Notcoin Vouchers total:

530k converted to Notion
264k on the market (2.6% total supply) pic.twitter.com/4PpPLVLI2O

— Notcoin Ø (@thenotcoin) May 17, 2024

Originally envisaged as a way of introducing the masses to crypto, $NOT’s game walks the newbie through hooking up 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 advantage of 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 dollars market capitalization

$TON currently has a market capitalization of $574 million, ranking it 121st out the the 9,961 tokens listed on Coinmarketcap.

All of this is not too shabby for a coin that promised its players ‘probably nothing’ as part of its marketing messaging.

pic.twitter.com/f7UFqMfcik

— Notcoin Ø (@thenotcoin) February 15, 2024

Plotvinov’s game wasn’t just about mindless clicking, as hypnotically pleasing as that seemed to be for some dopamine junkies, as they sought prominence on the leaderboard. Rather, the game was primarily envisaged as a way of introducing the masses to how crypto networks worked.

For instance, rewards were also earned from taking part in various campaigns, such as installing the TON Space wallet. Telegram premium users also received extra rewards for various tasks and contributions.

Such was the popularity of the clicker game, it even boosted sales of mechanical clickers on e-commerce platforms eBay and Alibaba.

Enabling participation in the Notcoin phenomenon is its community bot, which leverages Telegram’s tried-and-tested bot ecosystem to deliver a user-friendly experience.

Notcoin has amassed 35 million players of its clicker game, providing a huge captive audience for the coin.

The Open Network (TON) traces its birth back to the Telegram app, developed by Nikolai and Pavel Durov (Pavel is the CEO of Telegram). In-game mining ended on April 1, with token claiming starting on Tuesday.

In addition to selling $NOT, holders can also opt to stake it or simply ‘hodl’ in their self-custody wallet.

Since Telegram ran into regulatory issues with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the TON network has been run by the TON Foundation and is no longer officially connected with Telegram for its governance, although is effectively the native token of the platform.

After an X poll of community members in January asking whether $NOT should be minted and listed as a token, not surprisingly 69.9% voted yes.

Binance, OKX and Bybit are among the top exchanges listing $NOT

Through assiduous cultivation of the support of crypto OG influencers and the enthusiastic backing of the clicker game community, a coordinated successful launch across some of the top crypto trading venues was executed.

Among the exchanges involved were, Binance, OKX and Bybit – the first, third and fourth-ranked spot exchanges on Coinmarketcap. On the Bybit launchpool there are still three days left to get free NOTcoin.

Because of the regulatory kerfuffle with the SEC, US exchanges have avoided listing TON-based coins.

For instance, Coinbase does not list Toncoin or associated tokens. The same goes for Kraken, Gemini, and others.

According to Plotvinov, the Telegram app has only about 100 million crypto-savvy users, but it is expected to reach one billion users by the end of the year.

Notcoin’s mission is to bridge that gap by extending crypto’s reach through building applications with mass market appeal. Plotvinov’s Open Builders TON developer studio team is now pivoting to launch more games and encourage other developers to build on the TON network.

Telegram is a popular home to a growing band of crypto casinos

Indicative of its growing popularity, Telegram has become home to a number of lucrative crypto casino platforms, notably TG.Casino, Lucky Block and Mega Dice, which all have Telegram ‘no kyc’ versions of their gambling businesses 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 directly mine $NOT coin instead of an in-game token that has to be exchanged for $NOT in the claiming process, as previously was the case.

Still, because all Notcoin has now been minted and deployed, a new play-to-earn model is being worked up.

In an encouraging move for whale buyers, in a Telegram post Pavel Durov said he is holding onto the $6.8 million worth of $NOTcoin he was gifted until it grows 100x in value.

With endorsements like that, trading volume in $NOT remains elevated. Coinmarketcap ranks it the 40th most traded coin. With the price now finding a floor, buyers of Notcoin are likely to remain plentiful.

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