Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has received a large donation from over half a million players of the viral Telegram-based clicker game called Notcoin. The players donated some of their in-game coins to Durov as a way of showing gratitude for the messaging app that hosts the crypto game. The donated tokens have now increased in value to millions of dollars, and Durov has stated that he plans to hold onto them until they experience a 100x increase in value. This gesture of appreciation from the players shows the strong connection between Durov and the users of the messaging app.
In February, more than 552,000 players of Notcoin contributed a portion of their in-game coins to Durov, resulting in him acquiring over 1.03 billion NOT tokens, which accounts for slightly over 1% of the total Notcoin supply on The Open Network (TON). The current value of these tokens is approximately $7.3 million, although it was slightly lower when Durov made the announcement. Despite his estimated fortune of $15.5 billion, Durov has no immediate plans to sell the tokens but has stated that if the value of the NOT token surges to $680 million, he will sell them to acquire additional servers for the Telegram messaging app, further supporting its infrastructure.
Notcoin, which launched as this year’s largest gaming token, debuted with a market capitalization of nearly $1.5 billion. However, the value of NOT has experienced volatility since its launch, currently priced slightly above $0.007, and ranks as the 101st most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, amounting to $746 million. Impressively, it amassed trading volume worth over $1 billion within the first 24 hours of its launch. Notcoin temporarily paused its coin-tapping gameplay in April to prepare for the token rollout and is set to relaunch its crypto-earning game, with the ultimate goal of becoming a platform for additional games and aspiring to become the “Netflix of social, viral games,” according to co-creator Sasha Plotvinov.
Starting in November, TON Space, a self-custodial wallet, will be accessible to Telegram’s global user base without requiring any wallet registration. This feature serves as an extension of the existing custodial version of the Telegram wallet, which has already amassed three million registered users. However, certain jurisdictions like the United States are currently excluded from the self-custodial wallet due to regulatory scrutiny and geofencing of numerous crypto apps from the market. The launch of a new wallet comes as Telegram TON Blockchain introduces a new feature that enables users to transfer Tether (USDT), and the team overseeing The Open Network (TON) blockchain completes its transition into a Swiss non-profit organization. These developments enhance the functionality and accessibility of Telegram’s blockchain and messaging app for users worldwide.
