Foresight Ventures: How to Seize Airdrop Opportunities in the TON Ecosystem?

Author: Jonas@Foresight Ventures

The large-scale adoption of Web3 has always been a focus of market attention. For example, the Solana chain aims to break out through the social Meme of the Blinks module, while the Ton chain seeks to do so through Telegram mini-games. Currently, the Ton public chain's market capitalization has entered the top 10, with over 900 million Telegram users and a thriving ecosystem. Many TON ecosystem projects plan to adopt airdrop marketing strategies, providing numerous opportunities for community participants to earn rewards.

1. Tonsquare

Tonsquare is the EVM L2 chain of the Ton public chain, similar to Neon (market cap of $600 million) for Solana and Aurora (market cap of $200 million) for Near. The token TOS plans to airdrop 75% to node KEY holders, with the project team estimating a market cap of over $50 million for TOS.

KEY is an NFT representing the operational nodes of the public chain. After activating a node, it can produce the token TOS, with an estimated yield of about 350%. Future income from KEY will also include cross-chain bridge fees and Gas sharing from new public chains. The generated TOS can also be staked, with staking starting at the end of June 2024 and lasting for 6 months, yielding approximately 300%.

The auction model for node KEY is similar to Gala, where the price continues to rise. The current price is in the second phase (out of a total of 15 phases) and is still in the early stages. Holding more than 3 KEYs allows users to claim Tonsquare NFTs on the testnet, but they need to acquire Gas on the EVM testnet in advance to proceed. The risk is that KEY can only be bought and not sold.

2. Hamster Kombat

Hamster Kombat is a Tap-to-Earn game developed by a Russian team, where players click on hamsters (simulating the role of an exchange CEO) to earn coins. It also encourages players to unlock more rewards through community interaction and allows for the purchase of upgrade cards to increase passive income from mining. Similar Telegram click games include Notcoin (Russian team, 40 million users), Tapswap (Ukrainian team, 60 million users), Yescoin (Chinese team, 20 million users), and HypeSaints.

Hamster Kombat is very popular in third-world countries, with a large number of gold farming studios participating domestically, currently boasting 200 million users. Considering that the first game leader in the Ton ecosystem, Notcoin, has a market cap of $1.5 billion, it is difficult for Hamster Kombat to exceed a market cap of $500 million, so the airdrop amount per account is expected to be limited.

3. Pixelverse

Pixelverse is a cyber-style battle game where users raise pet robots and click to engage in battles (PVP and PVE modes), exploring different maps in the game center. Similar Telegram battle games include Majyo Treasure (airdrop ratio of 85%) and others. The founder is the former head of coin listings for Binance in the Middle East, and the token PIXFI plans to have an airdrop ratio of 25%. Interestingly, PIXFI is an ERC20 token rather than one issued on the TON chain, with plans for a Cosmos-based EVM game public chain called Pixelchain in the future. Pixelverse currently has 30 million users (over 5 million daily active users) and could be a significant opportunity.

4. Pepe Wick

Pepe Wick is a placement shooting game developed by a Chinese team, similar to Plants vs. Zombies. The game requires continuous spending of tokens to upgrade characters, each of which has a limited time, and players can only play for half an hour each day. There are also occasional collective BOSS battles, with TON's prize pool for victories. However, the token PEW plans to have an airdrop ratio of only 6%, so it is estimated not to be a significant opportunity.

5. Mow

Mow is a pixel-style shooting game where players shoot monsters to earn coins and upgrade weapons. The main gameplay involves level challenges and PVP battles, offering strong playability. The project is still in the testing phase, and specific airdrop plans have not yet been disclosed.

6. Catizen

Catizen is a placement cat-raising game developed by a Chinese team, with gameplay similar to match-3 games. Users manage a cat café to cultivate various levels of pets, collect their outputs, and then continue to raise higher-level pets. Players can also purchase game items to accelerate pet hatching. In the future, there are plans to develop a Launchpool, collaborating with over 10 WeChat mini-games to launch chain modifications on the Catizen game platform, with staked token CATI providing eligibility for new listings.

Catizen currently has 23 million users (over 1.5 million daily active users), with 50% of users becoming paying customers, generating $12 million in revenue just three months after launch (many gold farming studios have made deposits). Although the Ton official foundation has invested, is the data a bit too good to be true? The token CATI plans to have an airdrop ratio of up to 42%, and it has the attributes of a new listing platform token, with an announcement for airdrops in July.

7. Chick Coop

Chick Coop is a placement farm game developed by a Chinese team, where players sell eggs daily to upgrade their chicken farms. Currently, it has 1.5 million users (300,000 daily active users). The token CHICK plans to have an airdrop ratio of 34%, and there will also be NFT and staking mechanisms.

8. Travel Frog

Travel Frog is a pet-raising game developed by a Chinese team, where frogs travel to collect items, based on the 2017 game Travel Frog that underwent chain modification. Currently, it has 20,000 users and is still in the testing phase, with the token FROG planning an airdrop ratio of 70% (Travel to Earn), but it will be conducted in four phases.

Future potential airdrops in the Ton ecosystem may include the exchange Blum, football Fanton, lottery Balaton.bet, roulette WGScoin, fishing Wowfish, etc. These are not listed individually here, but can all be found on the growth leaderboard of the TGStat website.

In summary, many mini-game developers in the Ton ecosystem come from the familiar Web2 world, with most being Chinese teams, primarily aiming to attract Ton users. Therefore, before making significant investments to earn rewards, it is advisable to conduct thorough research and preparation, as sharpening the knife does not delay the work of cutting wood.