Pixelverse PIXFI token rises nearly 50% in first hours after airdrop

Pixelverse airdropped 10% of PIXFI’s total supply to holders of its Rare, Epic, and Legendary non-fungible token (NFT) collections.

Pixelverse, a non-fungible token (NFT) and gaming platform on The Open Network launched its native token, PIXFI, in a much-anticipated airdrop on July 18.

According to CoinMarketCap, The Open Network (TON) token traded up almost 50% in the first hours after listing and approached approximately $200 million in fully diluted market capitalization before pulling back later in the day.

The PIXFI token is now listed on several centralized exchanges, including Bybit, HTX, Gate, Bitget, MEXC, according to another Pixelverse X post.

Pixelverse airdropped 10% of PIXFI’s total supply to holders of its Rare, Epic, and Legendary NFT collections, according to a post by Pixelverse on the X platform. The project will distribute another 20% of its tokens to Pixelverse and Pixelchain users over time.

Pixelverse is the project behind the hit Telegram game PixelTap, a cyberpunk-themed minigame that reportedly attracted 50 million new users in June alone. It resides on TON, a layer-1 blockchain originally developed by the team behind the Telegram messaging app and now managed by the TON Foundation.

Related: Pixelverse to put Pudgy Penguin character on Telegram mini game

The airdrop was designed to avoid the sharp selloffs that often follow free token distributions. Airdropped tokens are automatically “staked” for additional rewards and immediately withdrawing the tokens comes with a 90% penalty, Pixelverse said on X.

“Although early airdrops were seen as a way to reward real users and were welcomed by the community, farming and sybil attacking have since taken over amongst industrious users and airdrops these days usually lead to community outrage and negative price action on tokens,” Pixeverse said in its airdrop documentation.

PixelTap — along with other Web3 gaming hits such as Hamster Kombat — pioneered the “Tap-to-Earn” social gaming phenomenon, which rewards players for regular engagements. Gamers adopt in-game characters modelled after iconic memes — such as Doge from the Dogecoin memecoin — that wage upwards of 10 million battles daily, according to Pixelverse.

On July 16, Pixelverse announced that it would introduce the character “Pudgy” — the face of the popular NFT collection Pudgy Penguins — into the PixelTap game.

In May, Pixelverse closed a $5.5 million funding round led by Delphi Ventures, Merit Circle, Mechanism Capital.