This Week in Crypto Games: TON Exclusive to Telegram, Betting with TRUMP, Ronin Gets Meme Coins

The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in!

Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games.

Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tidbits you might have missed. We also showcase a few of our original stories from the week.

Biggest news

Telegram and TON go exclusive: On Tuesday, Telegram and The Open Network Foundation announced an exclusivity deal that will require Telegram mini apps—the biggest of which are games like Hamster Kombat and Trump's Empire—with crypto integrations to use TON, with Telegram also providing various benefits to projects that utilize the network.

Telegram is actually the original creator of TON, which was first known as the Telegram Open Network, but the messaging app dumped the project in 2020 due to regulatory scrutiny. Development continued externally via a community of builders, who eventually launched TON as The Open Network.

Betting with TRUMP: Crypto casino Rivalry added the recently launched TRUMP Solana meme coin as a form of payment on the platform. This move took place last weekend, shortly after the coin dropped, and ahead of Donald Trump being inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on Monday.

Users of the Rivalry betting site can deposit and wager their TRUMP tokens, as well as use it as a form of payment on the platform. Those choosing to wager TRUMP on Rivalry will receive exclusive rewards until February 1, in the form of a multiplier on NUTZ tokens earned for each bet.

Rivalry claimed that the move made it the first betting operator to accept the official TRUMP token. 

Ronin meme coins: Ethereum gaming sidechain network Ronin got its own meme coin launchpad on Tuesday. Tama Meme operates similarly to Pump.fun, the Solana token creation site, allowing for anyone to launch a token in just a few clicks.

Created by Moku, a developer with backing from Ronin creator Sky Mavis, Tama Meme is part of Ronin’s continued expansion under “Operation Leviosa”—an initiative to open up the previously curated Ronin ecosystem and welcome more games, applications, and decentralized finance platforms.

ICYMI

• Atari announced it will release physical “patch packs” through DYLI, a new blockchain-powered collectibles marketplace
• Mythos fantasy game Football Rivals—a tie-in to mobile game NFL Rivals—went live on Telegram.
• Solana horse racing game Photo Finish Line teamed up with BlockBet for betting and simulcast integrations.

• GOAT Gaming claims it will release AI agents that can play “hundreds” of video games for you, including Crypto Crawler, Waifu Clash, and Kitty Solitaire.
• Crypto hero shooter BloodLoop burned 25% of its token supply on Tuesday.
• What Is This Sorcery, a crypto trading card game, announced it will launch on Ethereum layer-2 network Abstract “soon.”
• Game developers are more concerned about AI now than last year, a GDC report showed.
• Trading card game Parallel has committed $1 million in PRIME prizes to the next esports season to start in March (after the Las Vegas championship), with $2 million pledged for the third season in 2026.

• Valhalla Foundation, a mobile gaming organization, launched its GOD token in partnership with InfiniGods on Hyperliquid.
• LINE, a free messaging app, got its own Web3 mini-game platform called Mini Dapps.
• "Metaverse Filipino Worker," a documentary short, was released about people from the Philippines that work inside the metaverse.

• Immutable, a crypto gaming platform, partnered with MetaGravity to bring its games Edge of Chaos: Dungeons and Apocalypse to the Immutable network.
• Fishing Frenzy, a wholesome mobile fishing game, is coming to the Ronin network.

• On Wednesday, airdrop claims were opened for Telegram art game Not Pixel.
• DappRadar released its 2024 crypto games report, finding that the industry grew nearly five times from the end of 2023.
• Seraph, a Diablo-like crypto action RPG, attracted over 900,000 users in December, according to DappBay.

GG spotlight

Here are a few of our original stories from this past week that we think are well worth a weekend read:

Edited by Andrew Hayward