Why Catizen and Hamster Kombat Airdrops Are Delayed

Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz in the Telegram gaming community about two highly anticipated token airdrops: CATI from the puzzle game Catizen and HMSTR from the viral tap-to-earn game (T2E) Hamster Kombat.

Both Catizen and Hamster Kombat, two highly anticipated Telegram games, were expected to launch their tokens on The Open Network (TON) in July and conduct airdrops.

However, as the month draws to a close, neither token has been released, leaving eager players wondering what happened.

Catizen's creators, Pluto Studio, have openly addressed the delay, citing challenges in planning the token generation event (TGE) and airdrop.

Meanwhile, Hamster Kombat has remained tight-lipped about the matter, despite their website still indicating a July date for the TGE.

In the case of Catizen, the planned airdrop involves distributing 43% of all CATI tokens using the TON blockchain, a highly anticipated event within the Catizen community.

However, recent developments have put the giveaway on pause.

According to Pluto Studio, several challenges have arisen during the planning stages, prompting them to reconsider the optimal approach for the TGE and airdrop.

Among the key considerations are securing leading exchanges, ensuring sufficient liquidity, and determining the listing price, all of which are crucial for the token's successful launch.

Moreover, compliance and market sentiment have also played a role in the delay.

To provide further clarity, Pluto Studio has announced that seed round investors, advisors, and the team will receive 0% of the CATI tokens at the TGE.

Instead, there will be a 12-month cliff period followed by a 4-year vesting schedule.

This strategy is designed to align the interests of the developers and the community, ensuring the long-term value of the CATI token.

Despite the delay in launching their token, Pluto Studio has faced player frustration due to a $100,000 donation they made to the animal rights nonprofit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) earlier this month.

This donation was part of an effort to share a portion of the game’s profits with charities helping stray cats.

However, PETA’s controversial history of euthanizing animals that they deem beyond help has caused a backlash.

On July 29, Pluto tweeted that they had ‘received feedback’ about PETA’s practices and had ‘temporarily suspended’ the collaboration.

They clarified that all Catizen donations to PETA would be used solely for feeding, vaccination, rescue, and adoption assistance.

Meanwhile, Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has announced that it will list the CATI token on its pre-market trading platform on July 30.

Moving on to Hamster Kombat, the popular game built within the messaging platform Telegram has also generated a lot of buzz within the crypto community.

In May, Hamster Kombat announced via Twitter their decision to launch their token, HMSTR, on the TON blockchain.

Their website still indicates a July date for the TGE.

However, as July comes to an end, the token has yet to be launched.

Recently, Hamster Kombat addressed the community through another tweet, explaining the situation.

They highlighted the complexity of the technical task involved in the airdrop, considering the scale of Hamster Kombat as one of the biggest projects in the industry, which could result in the largest airdrop in history.

They assured players that they are actively working to make the airdrop happen smoothly, addressing potential network overload issues to ensure that every player receives their tokens.

The year 2024 has been incredibly favorable for Telegram-based crypto games, which have seen heightened interest and massive user growth.

The leading example is Notcoin (NOT), a game launched by Open Builders in early 2024.

The success of Notcoin lies in its simple and engaging T2E mechanism, allowing users to earn cryptocurrency with ease.

Notcoin’s straightforward play model quickly gained popularity, propelling it into the top 100 coins by market cap.

As of July 30, it ranks 63rd with a market cap of over $1.3 billion.

The success of Notcoin has also paved the way for other Telegram-based games like Hamster Kombat and Catizen, which are also leveraging the popularity of the TON blockchain.

Other projects, such as YesCoin (YES) and TapSwap (TAPS), have also seen a surge in usage and popularity, contributing to the overall trend.

With both Catizen and Hamster Kombat yet to launch their tokens or conduct airdrops, the anticipation among players continues to grow.

While Catizen's creators have provided some updates and encountered challenges in planning the event, Hamster Kombat has remained largely silent on the matter.

As the month concludes and we enter August, it remains to be seen whether either game will manage to fulfill their وعد.