When you think about crypto, you probably imagine charts, wallets, and complicated jargon.
@The Notcoin Official flipped that idea on its head. It started as a tiny game inside Telegram where all you did was tap a coin on your screen and somehow, it turned into one of the biggest Web3 success stories of all time.
Let me walk you through how something so simple became a movement.
It All Started as a Joke That Got Serious
Back in late 2023, a group called Open Builders with backing from the TON Foundation launched Notcoin inside Telegram. There were no promises, no serious roadmaps. In fact, their whitepaper was literally nine blank pages. The tagline? It’s probably nothing.
And yet people couldn’t stop playing.
Why? Because there was zero friction.
No wallets. No crypto knowledge needed. You just opened a Telegram chat with the Notcoin bot, saw a shiny coin, and started tapping. That’s it. Every tap “mined” a bit of in-game currency.
At first, the coins weren’t worth anything. But the game was fun, competitive, and social. And if you invited friends, you earned more coins. Soon, Telegram chats were full of people obsessively tapping, comparing scores, and climbing leaderboards.
From a Few Thousand Players to Tens of Millions
The growth was ridiculous. During the beta, a few hundred thousand people joined.
When the game officially launched in January 2024, five million players joined in the first week.
By the end of the first month, 20 million.
A couple of months later, over 35 million.
That’s more users than many serious crypto projects ever dream of. And Notcoin did it without fancy marketing — it spread through pure word-of-mouth and Telegram’s massive user base.
How the Game Actually Worked
Notcoin’s core was simple:
You tapped the coin to earn points.
You had an energy bar so you couldn’t tap forever — energy recharged over time.
You could boost your earnings with upgrades like Turbo mode, Multitap, or an Auto-tapper that clicked for you.
There were daily quests that gave you extra coins for trying out TON blockchain apps or joining certain Telegram channels.
You could join Squads (linked to Telegram groups) and compete against other teams for bragging rights and rewards.
The secret sauce was competition and community.
Leaderboards made people grind harder, squads turned it into a team sport, and referral bonuses kept the player base growing like crazy.
The Big Reveal: NOT Token
By early 2024, everyone was asking the same question:
Are these coins ever going to be worth anything?
In May 2024, the answer dropped.
Notcoin launched its official crypto token — NOT— on the TON blockchain. Players could swap their in-game coins for real tokens (at a rate of 1 NOT for every 1,000 in-game coins). The entire supply was released on day one, with most going directly to players.
The result? Chaos. In a good way.
Exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Bybit listed NOT instantly. Within hours, trading volume passed $1 billion. The token’s market cap shot into the billions, making it one of the biggest gaming token launches ever.
From Tapping to Exploring
Once the tapping phase ended in April 2024, the team had a choice: fade into meme history or evolve.
They chose to evolve.
Notcoin became an explore-to-earn platform.
Instead of tapping endlessly, players could earn $NOT by doing things like testing TON apps, holding certain tokens, or joining community events. This turned Notcoin into a gateway for the entire TON ecosystem.
They also launched @Earn, a Telegram-based launchpool that lets users hold certain tokens and passively earn new ones. The first token they launched this way was $BUILD, a community coin for Telegram developers.
Why Notcoin Mattered
Notcoin didn’t just onboard millions to crypto — it did it without people even realizing they were getting into Web3.
You didn’t have to care about blockchain to enjoy the game. But once you played, you started learning — about wallets, tokens, and other TON apps.
It also proved something bigger: if a game is fun and easy, crypto can go mainstream.
No complex setup. No financial risk. Just a simple hook and a social reason to stay.
What’s Next
The team says the original game will return in a new form.
Rewards won’t just come from minting new $NOT — they’ll be sponsored by partner projects who want access to Notcoin’s huge audience.
They’re also building features like:
A built-in token trading bot inside Telegram
A platform for other mini-games to plug into Notcoin’s ecosystem
Staking tiers with perks for top players and token holders
The ultimate goal is to make Notcoin not just a game, but a hub for fun, social, crypto-powered experiences inside Telegram.
Final Thoughts
Notcoin started as a meme, exploded into a cultural moment, and is now shaping the future of Telegram gaming.
It’s proof that sometimes, the simplest ideas — tapping a coin in a chat — can bring millions of people into a space they never thought they’d enter.
If the next chapter is as viral as the first, Notcoin won’t just be remembered as that Telegram tapping game — it’ll be remembered as the project that cracked the code for mass Web3 adoption.