Immutable SEC Threat, ‘Tomarket’ Airdrop, and ‘Hamster Kombat’ Down Bad

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

Immutable SEC notice: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells notice to Immutable sometime within the past month, a company spokesperson told Decrypt on Thursday, warning the Ethereum gaming platform’s maker that it could face an enforcement action soon.

James Ferguson, CEO of Immutable, and Digital Worlds Foundation, which helped issue Immutable’s IMX token, also received letters detailing the alleged violations. Immutable claims that the SEC did not specify the alleged misconduct in full, but the company believes the allegations are rooted in IMX token sales from 2021.

IMX plunged following the news, and is currently down 30% over the last 30 days as of this writing.

Tomarket airdrop: The makers of Telegram crypto game Tomarket said they generated the TOMA token on The Open Network (TON) as planned on Thursday, then revealed airdrop allocations to excited players on Friday.

But the token hasn’t been listed anywhere yet and can’t be traded, with Tomarket effectively beginning another rewards farming period ahead of a potential listing. The move has sparked some confusion amongst players, while other users claim they were deemed ineligible for the airdrop without reason. The developers will review such claims in the coming week and adjust allocations as needed.

HMSTR hits new low: Hamster Kombat’s second season—focused on developing and publishing video games—was supposed to launch by the end of October. It didn’t, and the Telegram game’s HMSTR token has plunged to new lows since then.

It fell as far as $0.0022 on Sunday, per data from CoinMarketCap, now down 77% from the all-time high price set when the token launched on September 26.

Pudgy Penguins game: Ethereum NFT-based project Pudgy Penguins announced on Thursday that it is set to release a mobile game called Pudgy Party. Developed in collaboration with Mythical Games, best known as the developersof NFL Rivals, the game will launch globally on iOS and Android platforms in 2025.

Pudgy Party will be a knockout royale game similar to Fall Guys, but will focus more closely on teamwork and shared rewards in a vibrant and accessible environment. Players will be forced to work together and develop strategies so they can navigate challenges and obstacles to work their way through till the end of the game.

ICYMI

• W-Coin revealed details for its long-awaited Telegram game airdrop, set for December.
• Off the Grid added Donald Trump and Kamala Harris-themed skins ahead of the U.S. election.

• A teenager accused of raising crypto and offering cyber expertise to Al Qaeda has been granted bail with restricted digital access, allowing him to use his PlayStation offline-only.
• The classic Samurai Shodown fighting franchise will come to Sui and the SuiPlay0X1 handheld with MMORPG spinoff Samurai Shodown R.
• The makers of Ethereum card battler Parallel announced they will host a $250,000 esports championship in Las Vegas.

• Nifty Island has completed its play-to-airdrop campaign after several months and plans to launch its ISLAND token in the coming weeks.
• Pixelcraft Studios launched the Geist mainnet, a members-only Ethereum chain specifically built for gaming.
• Top-down hero shooter The Machines Arena launched the second season of its play-to-airdrop campaign.
• Ethereum game Pixel Heroes Adventure on sidechain network Ronin launched its open beta.

• Sci-fi roguelite game Wanderers chose Ethereum layer-2 network Treasure.
  
• Harris-Walz 2024 campaign launched a Fortnite map called Freedom Town.
• Degens claim that they’ve started launching tokens from inside Minecraft.
• Someone got Doom running on Nintendo’s new smart alarm clock.

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