Airdrop Army

Hamster Kombat, the wildly popular Telegram-based tap-to-earn game, finally dropped its long-awaited HMSTR token airdrop today. But instead of cheers, some users are voicing disappointment, feeling their time spent as in-game CEOs wasn’t worth it.

Out of 300 million players since the game’s launch in March, 131 million qualified for the airdrop. A cool 60 billion HMSTR tokens were set aside for these so-called CEOs who ran their in-game crypto exchanges. But it wasn’t all sunshine, as a whopping 2.3 million users were cut off, accused of cheating by the game’s overlords.

Players Cry Foul Over ‘Dust’ Payouts

As the airdrop went live, the game’s official X account lit up with complaints. Users, many of them long-time CEOs of their tiny crypto empires, were calling the rewards nothing but “dust”—crypto slang for amounts too tiny to matter. Many players grumbled that their HMSTR stash was worth less than $10, not the windfall they had hoped for.

The smart contract on The Open Network (TON) took heat too. On-chain, frustrated players vented their fury, even cursing the airdrop in Russian.

Airdrop Pushes HMSTR’s Price Down

The flood of HMSTR onto the market didn’t just spark complaints—it hit the token’s price hard. According to CoinGecko, HMSTR fell 41%, dropping from an initial price of $0.012 to just $0.007. CoinMarketCap showed a slightly softer drop, but it was clear—Hamster Kombat players were cashing out fast.

At the time of writing, over 105,000 wallets held HMSTR. A wallet tagged as belonging to Binance now holds nearly 18% of the total supply, suggesting that many players had sent their tokens straight to the exchange.

Global Frenzy But Not for Everyone

Despite the global reach of Hamster Kombat, Google Trends showed an unexpected pattern. Searches for the game skyrocketed in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Somalia. Surprisingly, the United States ranked last in search interest out of 51 regions tracked.

Meanwhile, Turkey—ranked 24th in search interest—played a big role in HMSTR trading. According to CoinGecko, $24 million worth of HMSTR was traded against the Turkish Lira on Binance, showing the region’s crypto appetite. Yet, one player flagged an issue: Binance’s minimum $5 order size for Tether meant that many couldn’t even trade their “dust” HMSTR.

Future of Hamster Kombat’s Economy

While Thursday’s airdrop left a bad taste for some, Hamster Kombat isn’t done. The game has already set aside 15 billion HMSTR tokens for its upcoming second season. But if Thursday’s reaction is any hint, some of its virtual CEOs might not be sticking around to see it.