Everything You Need to Know Ahead of the ‘X Empire’ Telegram Game Airdrop – Decrypt

The hotly anticipated X Empire token launch and airdrop is fast approaching. Millions of players have been tapping away at the Elon Musk-themed game through its regular cycle and a bonus “Chill Phase,” all because of the promise of an upcoming airdrop.

On October 24 at 12pm UTC, the X token will launch onto The Open Network (TON) alongside an airdrop to a portion of its player base, which topped 50 million players during the final phase.

Those who qualified had their slice of the pie revealed to them on Friday, but players were left without a share—going directly to Mr. Musk himself to complain, despite no official connection to the game. Developers said that about 6 million players were ultimately eligible to claim tokens.

Despite the pushback, eligible users will want to claim their airdrop and know what they can do with their X tokens. If that’s you, then don’t worry, as we’ve collected all the information you need ahead of the big day.

How can I claim the airdrop?

Now that X Empire has officially paused gameplay, all you’ll see now when you open the Telegram mini app is a page detailing the airdrop.

In a large orange box, you will see the amount of X tokens that you have earned through both phases of the game. Underneath this box, you will see an option to donate your tokens to charity, to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, or to the X Empire team—but please remember that any donated tokens will not be airdropped to your wallet.

Below both the orange box and charity option, you will find a number of withdrawal options. This includes a number of centralized exchanges (including OKX, Bybit, and Bitget), an airdrop straight into the Telegram Wallet app, and finally an “on-chain” option for other self-custody wallets.

Withdrawing to an exchange or the Telegram Wallet app won’t come with fees, though you will have to pay a network fee for the “on-chain” option for other wallets. Luckily, the average fee on TON is only about $0.02, so it’s not a huge deal.

Before selecting a centralized exchange option, ensure you have already created an account and completed the know-your-customer (KYC) process. After doing this and selecting your desired exchange on X Empire, you’ll simply be required to enter your ID and deposit address to claim your tokens.

This process will be very similar for the on-chain and Telegram wallet withdrawal options, albeit without KYC.

If you purchased one of the NFTs created for pre-market trading, the X Empire mini app also has an explainer detailing the process for redeeming these NFTs for X tokens.

What can I do with the token?

As with every token, you could sell it—but for how much is still yet to be seen. Pre-market trading on Bitget and KuCoin currently estimates that X will be valued at approximately $0.0002. However, it’s important to note that this is purely speculation, and more often than not the pre-market price doesn’t align with the actual price once the token is generated.

But that’s not all you can do with X, as X Empire is planning a number of new apps and partnerships that will utilize the soon-to-launch token.

The project claims that mini app partners will “very soon” announce an airdrop for X token holders, some of which have already been revealed. For example, TON app Memes Lab and play-to-earn game Staff Only will both allocate 2% of their total token supplies to reward active X holders.

“All these projects are already well-established companies with large audiences and potential, and we will tell you about each one individually,” a Telegram post stated.

Equally, X Empire is working on a collection of “utility apps” that promise to use the X token, including a news feed, language learning app, and sleep tracker. How these apps will specifically benefit X token holders remains to be seen.

What happens after the airdrop?

Besides those apps, X Empire’s flagship tap-to-earn game is likely to continue in some form. Following the airdrop, 25% of the total token supply remains allocated for “new users and phases.” It’s important to note that this initial airdrop covers 75% of the total supply—meaning that the next phase will likely reward players with fewer tokens.

When exactly X Empire will enter its third phase has yet to be announced. Previous Telegram tap-to-earn games have looked to reinvent themselves to keep players interested in what is otherwise a monotonous genre, and we may see the same from X Empire.

Hamster Kombat, for example, revealed its season two overhaul, which will see players build a video game studio and platform rather than running a hamster-operated crypto exchange. This is set for release “at the end of October,” a month after its September airdrop.

How X Empire will keep players interested in its tap-to-earn component has yet to be announced, however, with all eyes currently on Thursday’s big airdrop.

Edited by Andrew Hayward