TapSwap, one of the biggest players in the tap-to-earn networks in Telegram, has continued to disappoint users who have been waiting anxiously for its token generation event (TGE), where holders will be able to convert their coins into fiat currencies.
TapSwap delayed TGE
TapSwap is one of the leading players in the Telegram tap-to-earn industry, where it has accumulated over 70 million users globally.
It is a Telegram mini-application that lets users accumulate TAPS tokens by doing simple tasks like clicking a button, watching its YouTube videos, daily logging, and referrals.
TapSwap’s network has had a strong growth in the past few months because of its ease of use and the potential for big rewards. It also exists in an industry with a large total addressable market since Telegram has almost 1 billion users globally.
TapSwap is a big player in an industry whose other big names are companies like Hamster Kombat, PixelTap, Blum, X Empire, Cats, and Dogs.
Like the other networks, it has been in a strong growth trajectory in the past few months. For example, it has accumulated over 5 million YouTube subscribers and millions of Telegram and X followers.
The challenge, however, is that the developers have continued to delay its token generation event or airdrop.
It was initially scheduled to happen in July and was then postponed to “sometime in the third quarter.” Q3 ended in September without the airdrop happening. Similarly, the first month of the fourth quarter has happened without it happening.
It’s time for some important updates from TapSwap to our amazing community 🫡 We apologize for not being as active on X, but we’ve been busy building the next phase of TapSwap — a brand new, exciting project with real token utility. We acknowledge our past mistakes and are…
Why the delay is happening
In multiple statements, the developers have explained why the TGE has continued to be delayed.
They have argued that listing it so early will lead to substantial losses to the holders since the ecosystem is not developed well yet.
Instead, their view is that the ongoing delay is necessary since it will let them develop the ecosystem and give the token utility after the airdrop.
They have cited other tap-to-earn tokens that have crashed in the past few months. For example, Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) token has crashed by 82% from its highest level after its listing, giving it a fully diluted value (FDV) of $252 million. Before its airdrop, some analysts were expecting it to have an FDV of over $7 billion.
Notcoin token has also crashed by over 82% from the year-to-date high, and is hovering near its lowest level since May.
Pixelverse has also plunged by over 96% from its highest level this year, while DOGS and Catizen have all retreated.
These sell-offs happened because many of the token holders sold their holdings as soon as the listings happened.
Many of these holders have a good memory of how other popular “to earn” tokens panned out over the years. Play-to-earn tokens like Decentraland (MANA), Sandbox (SAND), and Axie Infinity (AXS) initially jumped to their record highs in 2021 and have now imploded, costing investors billions of money.
Similarly, Sweatcoin and StepN’s GMT tokens surged after their airdrop and then plunged as their popularity waned.
Read more: Hamster Kombat, Catizen, DOGS, Notcoin face a rude awakening
Memories of Pi Network
The ongoing TapSwap listing delay is also notable because it sends memories of Pi Network, the first tap-to-earn platform that was launched in 2018. Pi grew and became one of the most popular players in the crypto industry with over 50 million users.
However, six years later, the developers are yet to launch the airdrop, noting that they want to have a good ecosystem to give the token utility in the future.
As part of their airdrop conditions, they have said that they will want to have at least one hundred applications using the token.
Another similarity is that Pi Network and TapSwap developers are making substantial sums of money before the airdrop happens. Pi creators make money whenever people mine the token through ads in the network.
TapSwap creators are also making money inside the mini-application and from adverts on its popular YouTube channel.
The other misconception is that Pi Network and TapSwap developers think that their users are interested in the ecosystem and their future.
In reality, many Tapswap and Pi miners do so because they are interested in making money when it becomes easy to convert the tokens.
This trend explains why many meme coins, which don’t have a utility are doing better than other coins with substantial use. For example, tokens like Popcat, Brett, and Cat in a dogs world have all outperformed popular utility-based tokens like Solana, Ethereum, and Tron.
Therefore, based on the historical performance of other “to earn” tokens, there is a high likelihood that TapSwap and Pi Network tokens will also crash after their airdrop when it happens.
Read more: Will the Pi Network mainnet launch in 2024?
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