‘Hamster Kombat’ Pre-Market Trading Expands as Viral Telegram Game’s Token Launch Nears

Another cryptocurrency exchange began offering pre-market trading for Hamster Kombat‘s HMSTR token on Monday, offering an additional way for traders to get in on the Telegram gaming phenomenon as its token launch approaches.

Bybit is the latest exchange to join the fray, enabling trading of in-game points ahead of the on-chain token launch. As of this writing, HMSTR is trading for approximately $0.12 in USDT stablecoin on Bybit’s pre-market platform.

The developers of Hamster Kombat have yet to announce the conversation rate at which they will award players on-chain tokens in exchange for the in-game coins they earned. For example, Telegram game Notcoin—the original Telegram tap-to-earn gaming sensation—gave players 1 NOT token per 1,000 in-game coins earned earlier this year.

That uncertainty makes pre-market trading even more of a gamble, since there’s no assurance that Hamster Kombat will give out tokens at a 1:1 ratio. Bybit’s listing announcement tells users that the exchange will “help you convert your point orders to regular token orders once the project team announces the official conversion rate.”

Still, that uncertainty hasn’t stopped exchanges from lining up to offer pre-market trading on Hamster Kombat. Bybit joins a list of exchanges that includes Gate.io, Bitget, and KuCoin in offering the option, all three of which started doing so in June.

Hamster Kombat has quickly become a gaming phenomenon in recent weeks, attracting a claimed 238 million users, according to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov late last week. The simple crypto exchange simulation, which runs in a “mini app” within the Telegram messaging platform, expands upon Notcoin’s tap-to-earn premise with a variety of new features.

Players are jumping into the game in droves ahead of the planned token launch on The Open Network (TON), which is targeted for sometime still in July. For more on what to expect from the Hamster Kombat token launch, read our GG airdrop guide.

Source