Pavel Durov Pledges to Retain $7M Notcoin Gift Until It’s Worth 100 Times More

In the digital realm of cryptocurrency gaming, Notcoin’s user base showed remarkable generosity ahead of the anticipated launch of the NOT token last Thursday. A substantial number of participants, exceeding half a million, from the popular clicker game on Telegram took the initiative to donate a portion of their in-game assets to Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. The gesture has now translated into a multi-million dollar boon, with Durov expressing his intention to retain these assets in anticipation of a significant uptick in value.

The contribution, made by more than 552,000 players back in February, was part of a commendatory initiative by the Notcoin team, known as Open Builders. This was to acknowledge Durov for the pivotal messaging application that has become a crucial infrastructure for the crypto gaming community. As a result, Durov found himself in possession of over 1.03 billion NOT tokens, equating to a little more than 1% of Notcoin’s total supply circulating on The Open Network (TON). The value of this generous donation stands at approximately $7.3 million at present, marking a slight increase from $6.8 million noted in Durov’s recent update.

Despite Durov’s sizable $15.5 billion fortune, as estimated by Forbes, he has opted not to liquidate his holdings. Instead, he harbors plans to further bolster Telegram’s infrastructure should the NOT token experience a surge in its valuation. “Half a million Notcoin users gifted me $6.8 million worth of Notcoin! Thank you,” Durov conveyed through a message on Telegram, laying out his vision to enhance the platform’s server capabilities once the tokens’ value escalates to a target figure.

This year, Notcoin emerged as the most significant gaming token launch, debuting with a near $1.5 billion market capitalization early Thursday. However, amidst the often volatile nature of new cryptocurrencies, NOT experienced a sharp depreciation, plummeting by 50% to just over $0.007, as reported by CoinMarketCap. Regardless, with NOT positioned as the 101st most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap at $746 million and generating over $1 billion in trading volume within its first day, the token has marked its presence in the competitive crypto space.

April saw a temporary halt in Notcoin’s coin-tapping gameplay as preparations for the token rollout were underway. The game’s relaunch is poised to not only reintroduce its unique crypto-earning mechanism but also set the stage for an array of additional gaming experiences. The ambition is to mold Notcoin into the ‘Netflix of social, viral games,’ as co-creator Sasha Plotvinov shared with Decrypt’s GG earlier this campaign season. This development highlights a significant stride towards broadening the horizon of cryptocurrency-enabled gaming ventures.