Telegram Game ‘Zoo’ Begins Airdrop Claim Ahead of TON Token Launch

Popular Telegram game Zoo has started its airdrop claim period for its soon-to-launch ZOO token on The Open Network (TON).

As of Tuesday, users were able to claim their earned ZOO tokens inside the Telegram mini app. During this period, claims are handled off-chain, meaning that the user will not have to pay any fees. Once this period ends on February 25 at 9am UTC, users will be required to claim on-chain and pay a 0.1 TON ($0.35) fee, according to Zoo’s FAQ page. 

Millions of players have built their digital zoos within the Telegram mini app from its December 2024 launch until the “mining phase” ended last month. The game played like a combination of classic Facebook title Farmville and simulation game Zoo Tycoon, with players building enclosures for animals that attract visitors, thus earning the player in-game Zoo tokens. 

It was previously confirmed by the developers that Zoo tokens would correspond 1:1 with the airdropped tokens. However, last week the team said that it would simplify the process and slim down the supply by cutting the last three numbers from the tally when converting—so if you earned 1,000,000,000 in-game tokens, then you’d get 1,000,000 on-chain ZOO tokens.

It’s the same method that original tap-to-earn sensation Notcoin (NOT) employed early last year ahead of its own TON airdrop. The total ZOO token supply will be 264,084,737,391, the team said. However, users have yet to know the dollar value of the token, nor is there pre-market trading to speculate on its price.

ZOO will be listed and available to trade on multiple exchanges, including KuCoin and Bitget, on February 25 at 12pm UTC—the same time that on-chain claims open.

Earlier this month, Zoo released its tokenomics, revealing that 66% of the total supply would be assigned to those that played the game during its mining phase. The remaining 34% has been assigned to a vague and wide-ranging category of “further development, marketing, listings, liquidity, community incentives, market makers, team rewards, and more.”

Previous Telegram games have attempted to reinvent themselves after their token airdrops, as a way to keep users interested in the project. Hamster Kombat, the most popular Telegram game of all time with over 300 million players, started its second season on Tuesday following its September airdrop. Whether it can attract nearly as many players again remains to be seen.

Edited by Andrew Hayward