Telegram CEO touts Catizen crypto game earning $16 million from in-app purchases

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov took to his messaging app to announce the tap-to-earn crypto game Catizen has "earned" $16 million from in-app purchases.

"Catizen is a mini game on Telegram with over 26 million players. The game has already earned $16 million from in-app purchases and donated 1% of it to rescue stray cats," Durov posted on Tuesday.

Durov said on Monday that Telegram now has approximately 950 million users worldwide.

Pluto Studio is the publisher of the Telegram game Catizen which, like other similar titles accessible through the Telegram app, such as Hamster Kombat, is built on The Open Network (or TON) blockchain. Binance Labs has backed the company, The Block reported earlier Tuesday.

"Catizen introduced millions of people to blockchain, because it uses TON-based smart contracts for its in-game rewards," Durov said. "Their team also built tools for other developers to easily launch their games on Telegram and TON."

Ricky Wong, co-founder of Pluto Studio, told The Block the average revenue per user has increased to $30.7 per paying user this week.

Simple tap-to-earn games like Notcoin, Yescoin, Hamster Kombat and Catizen have been amassing tens of millions of users in recent months. Both Catizen and Hamster Kombat are expected to launch tokens soon.