Pixelverse, a popular crypto gaming ecosystem and mini-app creator on Telegram, just announced it’s launching its latest NFT collection “Black Puma” on the TON blockchain.
The collection consists of a limited number of bot avatars with distinct skills and characteristics that are integral for the gameplay experience in Pixelverse’s virtual world. The NFTs will also let holders receive rewards and perks and earn crypto rewards.
According to the news, holders of two or more of Pixelverse’s genesis collection “Pixelverse Earl” will have a higher chance of minting a rare Black Puma bot.
Pixelverse is a Telegram Tap-to-Earn mini game where players complete combat missions and quests to earn crypto rewards in the game’s native token $PIXFI and NFTs in a cyberpunk city. Launched in July of this year, it is part of the growing trend of Telegram “clicker games” like Catizen and Hamster Kombat, the latter of which has attracted hundreds of millions of players.
The move comes shortly after Pixelverse announced a partnership with Azur Games and launched ‘Gems,’ a new in-game currency.
Telegram has nearly a billion users and is very popular with the crypto community. However, its future remains somewhat uncertain as its founder Pavel Dorov was arrested on August 24th in France. The news caused the $TON token to drop by around 15% that day, according to stats from CoinGecko.
Crypto Mini Games on the Rise on Telegram
Pixelverse continuing to innovate on the TON blockchain is good news for The Open Network, which recorded huge growth in 2024 largely due to its crypto-based mini games. Since January, the total value locked (TVL) in TON projects has risen over 2,000%, exploding from $14.23 million on January 1st to its current value of around $314 million.
The success of TON can be largely attributed to its Mini-Apps platform, which debuted in 2023 and enabled the success of apps like Hamster Kombat, a Tap-to-Earn Game where players mine $HMSTR coins as they role-play a hamster CEO of a fictional crypto exchange.
Launched in March, the game quickly went viral and attracted over 116 million users in the first 72 days. By the beginning of August, it had over 300 million users and in some countries like Iran it’s become so popular authorities say its distracting voters. Currently, it’s Telegram’s largest channel with over 53 million members— though its creators remain anonymous and there is no whitepaper.
The success of crypto-based mini games appears to have inspired TON as well. On August 14th, it announced the launch of TON Ventures, a venture capital firm aimed at supporting early-staged crypto projects. Last week, the fund made an investment in Gamee, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands and Web3 mini game studio.
It will be interesting to see if Telegram mini games continue to grow in popularity around the world, especially considering the ongoing controversy surrounding the recent arrest of the platform’s founder. But some are starting to believe they could be the secret to onboarding billions of users into Web3, and so far, the numbers are speaking for themselves.
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