Tap‑to‑Earn in 2025 – What Delivered and What Crashed

Tap‑to‑Earn in 2025 – the Reality Behind the Hype

In 2025, the tap‑to‑earn (T2E) boom unraveled as fragile economics and user churn exposed the limits of clicker-style crypto games.

Notcoin: early pioneer, steep decline

Notcoin launched as a simple tap‑to‑earn mini‑app on Telegram in early 2024. It onboarded over 30 million players and paid out its $NOT token in a May 2024 airdrop. However, the token has since collapsed over 90% from its peak, trading near $0.0019 by mid‑2025. Its co‑founders recently declared the T2E genre “probably dead” as the ecosystem pivots toward more engaging formats. 

Hamster Kombat: viral rise, rapid fallout

Launched on Telegram in March 2024, Hamster Kombat attracted over 250–300 million users in months, partly via invitations, viral rewards, and simplified gameplay.  It offered both tapping and passive income mechanics via mining cards and bonuses. 

Despite massive scale, retention collapsed –  active users declined by 85%, triggering a crash in the HMSTR token after its airdrop. Today its price is down 75% from high. 

 Analysts warn of heavy sell‑off pressure following the token launch, similar to Notcoin. Investigations also flagged regional concerns – including possible political ties and murky ownership.

Industry shift: T2E losing traction

By May 2025, Notcoin developers confirmed that tap‑to‑earn games have become unsustainable, as players demand engaging play rather than tapping mechanics alone.