Elon Musk-themed Telegram tap-to-earn game X Empire launched its long-awaited X token on The Open Network (TON) on Thursday, with some 6 million players purportedly eligible for the airdrop. However, the token debuted at approximately half the estimated pre-market trading price and has since declined further.
X launched at a price of about $0.000096 according to data from CoinMarketCap and has been volatile throughout the day, dipping as low as approximately $0.00005 before rising to a peak of $0.00013. By press time, it has fallen to roughly $0.00087.
Pre-market traders had been anticipating the price of the latest Telegram game token launch on platforms like Bitget and Kucoin, with an average trading price of $0.0002 ahead of the token launch. However, the actual opening price was about half that amount.
Pre-market trading allows individuals to speculate on the expected price for an upcoming token, although it can be risky—particularly if some tokenomics and airdrop details have yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, X Empire players have expressed dissatisfaction regarding the size of their airdrops on social media, with numerous purported players claiming to have earned $10 or less worth of tokens for participating in the Telegram-based crypto game over the last few months.
This situation marks the latest instance of players feeling underwhelmed by a highly anticipated Telegram game airdrop and token launch, following other recent examples with Hamster Kombat and Catizen. All three games garnered sizable followings—X Empire claimed over 50 million players—but excluded many participants, leading to discontent among some recipients regarding their token allotments.
The recent series of Telegram game airdrops may serve to recalibrate expectations for the next wave of emerging tap-to-earn games on the messaging platform.
The trend began earlier this year with Notcoin, which amassed around 35 million players and ultimately delivered the year’s most significant gaming token launch by a wide margin, with the NOT token peaking at a market cap just shy of $3 billion. However, subsequent tokens from other blockchain-based games have struggled to recapture that success.
At its current price, X Empire holds a market cap of just under $40 million—well below Catizen’s $106 million and Hamster Kombat’s $217 million, not to mention Notcoin’s $786 million cap.
The developers of X Empire have shared plans to launch various Telegram apps that will offer exclusive perks to holders, such as a news feed and a language learning app, and hinted at another upcoming announcement this week via Telegram.
“One month until something big,” the team wrote Thursday