Hamster Kombat seems to be following a similar path to other crypto projects that struggle to survive after an airdrop ends and recipients withdraw cash immediately. In this case, it may be because the community’s mass airdrop went against what the members (CEOs) had expected.
Crypto airdrops are strategic ways for these startups to distribute tokens and coins to specific wallet addresses that meet pre-defined conditions. They play a major role in creating awareness and boosting adoption of a crypto project. Hamster Kombat seems to be struggling after its airdrop on September 26, although the airdrop was a positive sign for crypto startups.
Hamster Kombat Airdrop Launches Amid Controversy
The project’s developers described the airdrop as the largest in blockchain history. The game’s developers reported over 300 million accounts and 100 million monthly active users, numbers that make Hamster Kombat the most popular clicker game.
✍️ Hamster Math ✍️
🔥 Season 1 results are finished:
🚀 Over 300 million people have joined Hamster Kombat since March 26, 2024, 131 million have qualified for the airdrop on September 26, and about 2.3 million have been banned for cheating.
📤 30.6 million qualified… pic.twitter.com/LH5eD3i8al
– Hamster Kombat (@hamster_kombat) September 22, 2024
The airdrop was so exciting that TON developers urged blockchain validators to attend to any urgent needs during the distribution process. The call to action was to prevent a potential halt to the expected flow of activity on the chain.
Hamster Kombat has already found itself in the middle of controversy after banning 2.3 million users over alleged cheating and having 6.8 billion tokens returned to them. Some of the banned users took to social media claiming they were unfairly disqualified because they didn’t cheat. More controversy has emerged, with the developers accused of giving a small cut to regular players while influencers get the lion’s share of airdrops.
Binance announced that it will list HMSTR tokens on the Binance Launchpad on September 26 at 12:00 UTC. The quick listing made the exchange the largest beneficiary of HMSTR token inflow according to TON’s Tonviewer data. Binance also leads other exchanges in terms of HMSTR token inflow. Pre-deposits have surpassed 6.2 billion HMSTR and the current balance in the Binance Hot Wallet is 18.1 billion HMSTR (equivalent to 18.17%).
HMSTR caused a traffic surge on major exchanges. The Arbitrum One-based decentralized exchange, Ebi.xyz, received massive traffic from millions of users due to the Hamster Kombat airdrop. The traffic caused delays in airdrop claims, according to the exchange’s press release. The DEX apologized and offered to refund affected users 50,000 EBI each.
Hamster Kombat Airdrop Leaves CEOs Frustrated
The Hamster Kombat airdrop sparked a wave of negative reactions from the crypto community, with most airdrop recipients receiving only a small amount of tokens.
The CEO of Hamster asserted that the project’s token distribution was unfair as legitimate participants were banned. The user also expressed his displeasure that influencers received massive airdrops while real users only received “dust.” The user stated that the project is “not Hamster” but a “scammer.”
Another frustrated Hamster executive explained how farmers had only earned $10 after more than five months of farming. One Hamster executive showed Hamster allocating 8.2 million PPH but only receiving 3,009 HMSTR, equivalent to $20 based on the current market price of HMSTR.
Another user claimed that the Hamster Kombat team failed to mention that 12% of tokens were locked after the listing, and that participants only received between 100 and 5,000 HMSTR tokens.
One cryptocurrency analyst and researcher criticized the project for having an unprofessional team behind its development. The analyst stated that the concept was not original and was initially introduced to the market by Notcoin.
According to cryptocurrency price tracker Coinmarketcap, HMSTR is trading at $0.006867. The token’s price has dropped by 29% in the past 24 hours. It has a market cap of $442 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.08 billion.