Hamster Kombat and Telegram Tap-to-Earn Games: What Kenyans Should Know

In 2024, Telegram filled up with games where you earned “coins” by tapping a cartoon on your screen. Notcoin came first; Hamster Kombat became the giant, claiming 300 million players worldwide — and Kenyans still search for it hundreds of times a month. The promise was simple: collect points now, receive real crypto later through an airdropAirdropFree tokens handed out to promote a project. Many "airdrops" shared on Telegram are scams that ask for your seed phrase. Glossary.

Some of those tokens did arrive. Most were worth far less than players hoped. And the scams built around the games have outlived the hype. Here is what actually happened, and what to watch out for if a new tap-to-earn game lands in your Telegram.

How Telegram tap-to-earn games work

These games are Telegram mini apps — small apps that open inside Telegram, with no Play Store download. You tap a character to earn points, buy in-game “upgrades” with those points to earn faster, invite friends for bonuses and complete tasks such as following channels or watching YouTube videos.

The business model is attention. Millions of daily users make a project valuable to advertisers, exchanges and investors. The team then creates a tokenTokenA crypto asset that runs on top of another blockchain, for example USDT on the TRON network. Glossary, gives part of it to players based on their activity, and lists it on exchanges. Players finally learn what their months of tapping were worth on listing day — and the price on that day depends on how many players rush to sell.

That last point is the catch. When tens of millions of people receive free tokens at the same moment, and most of them want cash, the price usually falls fast.

Notcoin: the game that started the wave

Notcoin launched as a Telegram mini app in January 2024 and, by its token launch, said it had over 35 million players. Players “mined” points by tapping until 1 April 2024, then converted them into NOT tokens. Around 78% of the roughly 102.7 billion NOT supply went to players and holders of in-game vouchers.

NOT started trading on 16 May 2024 on major exchanges including Binance, OKX and Bybit, debuting at around US$0.012 per token. Compared with what came later, Notcoin’s launch was one of the better ones for players: it was early, its supply went mostly to the community, and it created real trading demand. It also convinced hundreds of other teams to copy the format.

Hamster Kombat: 300 million players, small payouts

Hamster Kombat cast you as the CEO of a crypto exchange run by a hamster. It became the most-played tap game of 2024: in mid-2024 its team said it had reached 300 million players, a figure reported by the team itself and never independently audited. The game’s white paper set a total supply of 100 billion HMSTR, with 60% reserved for players.

The airdrop and exchange listing finally took place on 26 September 2024. About 131 million accounts qualified, and the team said it excluded around 2.3 million accounts for cheating. Part of each allocation was locked for later release. Within the first day, HMSTR’s price fell by roughly 40%, according to Decrypt’s reading of CoinGecko data, as players sold.

The reaction was bitter. Players around the world — Nigerian users were especially vocal, according to Nairametrics — posted that months of daily tapping had earned them “dust” — commonly reported as under US$10. By November 2024, Nairametrics estimated, the monthly player base had dropped from over 300 million to around 41 million. Some exchanges later removed HMSTR trading pairs; Bitfinex, for example, delisted it in May 2025. The team promised new seasons and games, but the token never came close to the expectations of the hype months.

We deliberately do not quote current prices for NOT or HMSTR: they change constantly and most game tokens trade far below their launch levels. Check live prices on an exchange before believing any screenshot.

TON, Toncoin (now Gram) and Telegram wallets

Both games run on The Open Network (TON), a blockchain closely tied to Telegram. Telegram began the project in 2018, abandoned it in 2020 after a legal fight with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and the community carried it on. More recently, Telegram moved closer to the network again: founder Pavel Durov announced on 1 June 2026 that the native coin, Toncoin (TON), would be renamed Gram (GRAM), its original name. The blockchain itself is still called TON.

To receive airdrops, players had to connect a TON walletCrypto walletAn app or device that holds the keys to your crypto. The coins stay on the blockchain; the wallet proves they are yours. Glossary. The one most Kenyans used is built into Telegram (the @wallet bot), and it has two very different parts:

Either option is fine for small amounts. What matters is understanding which one you are using: with the custodial wallet, your Telegram account is the key, so protect it with a cloud password (Telegram’s two-step verification) and never share login codes. With the self-custodial one, your seed phrase is the key, so write it on paper and never type it anywhere except the official app. For a wider comparison, read our wallet guide.

The scams that follow every airdrop

The games are mostly over; the scams are not. Security firms including Kaspersky reported fake Hamster Kombat airdrops designed to steal wallet credentials, and fake “withdrawal” websites that asked players to log in with Telegram — handing the scammers the account. The same scripts now target every new tap game, and the TON-to-Gram rename gave them fresh material.

These are the patterns we see most often in Kenyan Telegram and WhatsApp groups:

• “Claim your airdrop” links that ask you to connect a wallet and then enter your seed phrase or approve a transaction. Approving can let a malicious contract drain everything in the wallet. This is phishingPhishingFake websites, SMS or WhatsApp messages that copy a real brand to steal your login, OTP or seed phrase. Glossary.
• “Unlock fee” or “gas fee” demands: “Your 2,000 HMSTR is ready, pay KSh 1,500 to activate withdrawal.” Real airdrops never require a fee paid to a person.
• Fake M-Pesa conversion agents who promise to buy your in-game coins for shillings, take a “registration fee” and vanish.
• Fake bots with near-identical names, one letter different from the official one, often promoted in comments under real announcements.
• “Convert TON to GRAM” messages. The rename needed no action from ordinary holders; the TON ecosystem itself warned these are scams.
• Telegram account takeover: “Enter the code we sent you to verify your rewards.” That code is your Telegram login, and the scammer then messages your contacts.

• Only open games and bots from the official channel; check the exact username.
• Never type your seed phrase into any bot, website or form — no exception.
• Never share a Telegram login code; turn on Telegram two-step verification.
• Never pay a fee to receive an airdrop or 'unlock' a withdrawal.
• Use a separate wallet with nothing else in it for connecting to new games.
• If you are scammed, report it to the platform and to the DCI, and warn your groups.

Our crypto scams guide covers more Kenyan schemes, including the “account manager” and fake-investment patterns that often recruit from the same Telegram groups.

The hidden cost for Kenyan players

Tap games feel free, but they are not. You pay with three things.

Time. The games are designed to bring you back several times a day: energy refills, daily ciphers, combo cards. Here is an illustrative example. If you played 30 minutes a day for six months — about 90 hours — and your airdrop sold for US$10, you earned roughly 11 US cents an hour. Most casual jobs in Kenya pay far more than that.

Data and battery. Mini apps load graphics, videos and ads. On a prepaid bundle, heavy daily play eats into data you might need for work or school. We cannot give a precise figure because usage varies by game and phone, but if your bundles run out faster than usual, check Telegram’s data usage in your phone settings.

Attention and risk. The bigger cost is exposure. Every game asks you to join more channels and click more links, which puts you in front of the scammers above. Players who lost money usually did not lose it in the game — they lost it to a fake bot that looked like the game.

Should you play? A sensible approach

If you enjoy the games, there is nothing wrong with tapping a hamster on the matatu. Just treat it as entertainment with a lottery ticket attached, not as a side income. Never put money in, never pay to withdraw, and never connect a wallet that holds your real savings.

If you do receive tokens, sell them on a known exchange, convert to USDT and follow our crypto to M-Pesa guide to cash out. Keep a note of what you received and what you sold for, because gains can be taxable. And if you are new to crypto in general, start with what is cryptocurrency and the rest of our Learn hub before you hand any app access to your wallet.