Viral Telegram game Notcoin has teased a “fresh start” amid a campaign that will see approximately $8 million worth of NOT tokens either burned or given out to the community.

The tap-to-earn game captured the attention of over 35 million players who furiously tapped their screens to collect digital tokens earlier this year. These coins were later converted to NOT tokens in the largest crypto gaming token launch of 2024 so far.

Notcoin’s success was largely tied to the looming possibility of an airdrop, but now with that out of the way, the game is finding new ways to keep players engaged. In turn, the developers have started to burn NOT tokens to trim the supply and reward players as well, all while teasing some kind of “fresh start.”

On Tuesday, $3 million worth of unclaimed NOT tokens were burned, the team announced, thus removing them from circulation. Alongside this, the team confirmed to Decrypt, that an additional $5 million of NOT tokens will be distributed as “bonuses” to community members. It was first announced as $4.2 million worth, but that may reflect the constantly changing price of the volatile crypto token.

In May, Notcoin rolled out earnings missions that let players passively earn crypto. Depending on how much you’ve earned in the game, you’re given a rank, with the highest level being Platinum. These additional tokens given out as “bonuses” will be distributed to those in the Gold and Platinum ranks.

Any remaining unclaimed NOT tokens from the airdrop campaign will go to the Notcoin treasury, which the team confirmed will be used to help support the project’s future development. Ultimately, 95% of NOT tokens will be held by the community, with the remaining 5% sitting in the Notcoin treasury.

Hours after this was announced on Wednesday, some type of new beginning was teased in the official Notcoin Telegram channel.

“The great reset, the fresh start,” the message read. When you click the hyperlink in the message, it takes you to the Lost Dogs Co. Telegram channel, which had recently posted a graphic with a NOT coin in it. That graphic was also shared within the Notcoin channel.

What is Lost Dogs?

Launched in early 2023, Lost Dogs is a collection of 2,222 randomly generated NFTs on the The Open Network (TON), the same network that Notcoin uses. According to GetGems, one of the leading TON NFT marketplaces, Lost Dogs has the seventh-largest total sales volume over the past 30 days.

“Using our special breeding mechanism, you can create over 1.5 million unique dogs,” the GetGems listing explains. “To further customize your dogs, you can use the Mutagen Collection to manipulate your Dog’s DNA during breeding and unlock their offspring's mutant potential!”

But the question is: What does this have to do with the clicker game Notcoin?

Earlier this year, Open Builders founder and Notcoin co-creator Sasha Plotvinov told Decrypt that the project is aiming to “become the Netflix of social, viral games.”

He explained that Notcoin’s success would be used to create a launchpad for other, independent developers to create their own viral social crypto games. These projects would be allowed to tap into the infrastructure and audience that the Open Builders has created for itself, and continue to fuel the game’s token-driven economy.

As a result, fans have begun to speculate if this reference to the Lost Dogs may be the beginning of this move—but there’s been nothing announced along those lines just yet.

The future of Notcoin, as set out by Plotvinov, is a Netflix-like environment with playable games and social experiments in which users hop from one experience to another. This vision is underpinned by TON and its unique relationship with Telegram, which will allow for data and connections to be taken from one experience to the next.

Whether Lost Dogs is the first step towards that plan remains unclear—but something is about to happen with Notcoin as a broader Telegram gaming scene flourishes following its airdrop.

Edited by Andrew Hayward