NOTcoin, co-created by Sasha Plotvinov, made its debut on major centralized exchanges on May 16, generating significant excitement. After an initial price surge, the token quickly entered the top 100 cryptocurrencies, reaching a market cap of over $1 billion. However, two hours into trading, the price fell to $0.0062. It hit a low of $0.0051 on Binance before stabilizing around $0.0054.
The price movement isn't as dire as it seems, as $NOT token owners mined a tap-to-earn token by playing a viral Telegram clicker game. Players claimed $NOT tokens within 36 hours, with 5 million users participating. The game was designed to introduce newcomers to crypto by helping them set up a TON-compatible wallet, save their seed phrase, and start clicking.
Players sold their tokens for $0.009471, having amassed billions of tokens. In the first 24 hours, trading volume reached $1.18 billion. The TON token, ranked 121st on CoinMarketCap with a market cap of $574 million, is notable for its promise of 'probably nothing' in its marketing.
Participants received incentives for tasks like installing the TON Space wallet, and Telegram premium members earned additional rewards. The game's popularity led to increased sales of mechanical clickers on eBay and Alibaba. Notcoin's community bot, operating in Telegram's bot environment, simplifies involvement.
With 35 million players, Notcoin has a large, engaged audience. The Open Network (TON), developed by Nikolai and Pavel Durov (Telegram CEO), underpins the project. After in-game mining ended on April 1, token claims started on Tuesday. Holders can stake or hold NOT tokens in their self-custody wallets, in addition to selling them. A January poll saw 69.9% of the community voting in favor of minting and listing NOT as a token.