Catizen, a Telegram-based puzzle game, has announced its token will launch on September 20 following a delay that pushed its CATI token—which will be minted on The Open Network (TON)—out from its original July target.

On Thursday, crypto exchange Bybit posted that it will list CATI for spot trading on September 20. Catizen shared the news through its official channels, as well, confirming the date in the process. Tokens can only be spot traded once the token generation event (TGE) takes place, so this is different than offering pre-market trading on a token.

The Telegram mini app rose in popularity due in part to the promise that in-game progression would lead to a portion of an upcoming airdrop. With a token launch date now set, it's likely we’ll see the airdrop take place either on the same day or soon after the token is generated.

Earlier this week, Catizen teased a big event or announcement to take place on September 21. Some players assumed it would be the token launch itself, but it could refer to when the airdrop claim opens up for players.

News of the token listing broke just hours after pre-market trading for CATI expanded to crypto exchange OKX.

At the time of writing, the upcoming CATI token is trading for $0.4377 on OKX’s pre-market, just a few hours after launching. This is currently lower than the two other exchanges offering CATI pre-market trading, with Bitget traders valuing it at $0.46 and Bybit at $0.53.

The purpose of pre-market trading is to allow people to speculate on the eventual price of the token. However, that can be even riskier than trading oft-volatile gaming and meme coins, since tokenomics and airdrop allocations may not be fully disclosed or finalized during pre-market trading. 

Previous Telegram game Notcoin also launched a pre-market trading system for its NOT token, which traded at a peak not far from the initial high the token achieved after launching. The Hamster Kombat token is also being pre-market traded on multiple platforms ahead of its September 26 rollout.

This pre-market expansion comes as players await the CATI token launch and airdrop, which were delayed by the makers of Catizen, Pluto Studio. Originally planned to launch in July, the token was delayed after the developers encountered challenges during planning. 

Now over a month later, players know that the token will be here by September 20 amid a recent rush of other Telegram games also setting their token launches for September. The list also includes Hamster Kombat and Rocky Rabbit, with X Empire (previously called Musk Empire) potentially making the cut, as well.

Edited by Andrew Hayward