Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, received a generous donation from over half a million players of the viral Telegram-based clicker game called Notcoin. The players donated a portion of their in-game coins to Durov as a gesture of gratitude for the messaging app that hosts the crypto game. The donated haul has now surged in value to millions of dollars, and Durov has said he plans to hold onto the tokens until they experience a 100x increase. In February, more than 552,000 players of Notcoin contributed a share of their in-game coins to Durov, resulting in him acquiring over 1.03 billion NOT tokens, which accounts for slightly over 1% of the total Notcoin supply on The Open Network (TON).
As of this writing, the value of these tokens stands at approximately $7.3 million, though it was slightly lower at $6.8 million when Durov made the announcement. Durov, with an estimated fortune of $15.5 billion according to Forbes, is not in dire need of the cash and has no plans to sell the tokens. However, he has stated that if the value of the NOT token surges to $680 million, he will sell them to acquire additional servers for Telegram, further supporting the messaging app’s infrastructure. Notcoin, which launched as this year’s largest gaming token, debuted with a market capitalization of nearly $1.5 billion. As is often the case with new cryptocurrencies, the value of NOT has experienced volatility since its launch, plummeting by 50% to its current price slightly above $0.007, according to CoinMarketCap.
Despite the decline, NOT currently ranks as the 101st most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, amounting to $746 million. Impressively, it amassed trading volume worth over $1 billion within the first 24 hours of its launch. Having temporarily paused its coin-tapping gameplay in April to prepare for the token rollout, Notcoin is set to relaunch its crypto-earning game. The ultimate goal is for Notcoin to serve as a platform for additional games, aspiring to become the “Netflix of social, viral games,” as described by co-creator Sasha Plotvinov in an interview with Decrypt’s GG in April.
Starting in November, TON Space, a self-custodial wallet, will be accessible to Telegram’s global user base without requiring any wallet registration. This feature serves as an extension of the existing custodial version of the Telegram wallet, which has already amassed three million registered users. However, certain jurisdictions, such as the United States, are currently excluded from the self-custodial wallet due to the country’s increased regulatory scrutiny and the geofencing of numerous crypto apps from the market. The launch of a new wallet comes as Telegram TON Blockchain has introduced a new feature that enables Telegram users to transfer Tether (USDT). More recently, the team overseeing The Open Network (TON) blockchain also completed its transition into a Swiss non-profit organization.
