Telegram gaming has been one of crypto’s biggest winners in 2024. Hamster Kombat pulled in 300 million players ahead of this week’s airdrop, and Notcoin launched a token that neared a $3 billion market cap—a screen-tapping game yielding one of the 100 biggest coins on the planet.All of this revolves around the tap-to-earn mechanic, a simple concept with a growing list of variations and permutations. But has this model truly evolved upon the fraught play-to-earn gaming craze that dominated the last bull cycle before crashing and burning? Or is tap-to-earn doomed to the same eventual fate of mockery and shrugs from the masses?In 2021, play-to-earn was all the rage with Pokémon-esque monster battler Axie Infinity peaking just shy of 3 million monthly active users. Gamers were required to purchase or borrow three Axie NFTs before they could start playing—a buy-in cost of $600 or more at peak—and then could start winning real crypto tokens by competing.This model was so popular that people in low-income countries started playing the game as a full-time job. At one point, 40% of the game’s players were from the Philippines.Axie was the tip of the spear of a promised revolution that would benefit players for their time, lift people out of poverty, and redefine modern work. And many other games tried to mimic its model

Darkbright Studio announced it has raised $6 million in its seed round, which it's using to build its first title, life-sim RPG Smolbound.

TreasureDAO ($MAGIC) has launched a Ruby testnet V1 and plans to add dual staking of MAGIC and ETH in the future.