Catizen
Play-to-earn Telegram mini-app built around merge-cats mechanics, with the CATI jetton. One of the first TON projects to combine real gameplay with in-app purchases.
Aliases: cati
Catizen is a Telegram mini-app built around a merge mechanic (combine two identical cats to get a stronger one) and an idle income loop. Unlike pure tap-to-earn projects, Catizen positioned itself from the start as a game-with-real-gameplay and a long retention cycle, not a short farming campaign.
Gameplay
The core loop borrows from classic idle-merge mobile games:
- Cats of various levels appear on the board.
- Merging two identical cats produces a higher-tier cat.
- Cats generate in-game currency (fish) passively over time.
- The currency is spent on new cats, boosters, and unlocking additional boards.
- Side activities — mini-games, events, quests, referrals — layer on top.
There is no “tap energy bar” gating the main loop. The primary resources are time and merge strategy, which biases the audience toward players who actually enjoy the game rather than pure airdrop farmers.
Monetization
Catizen was one of the first TON mini-apps with transparent in-app monetization:
- Direct purchases of boosters and premium cats for TON.
- Telegram Stars as an alternative payment rail.
- Subscriptions and season passes with exclusive content.
This is the key difference from Notcoin and Hamster Kombat: a meaningful share of Catizen’s revenue came not from “future airdrop expectation” but from active players paying for content, giving the project sustainable economics before the token even launched.
The CATI drop
CATI was issued as a TON jetton and distributed via airdrop to active players. Allocation took into account account level, time played, spending, and referral activity. CATI was listed on major centralized exchanges, which provided liquidity. After the drop, the token was integrated as an in-game currency for premium activities, intended to sustain demand beyond the initial launch hype.
Versus tap-to-earn
| Aspect | Tap-to-earn (Notcoin, HMSTR) | Catizen (P2E) |
|---|---|---|
| Core gameplay | Tap plus upgrades | Merge plus idle |
| Revenue source | Ads plus drop hype | In-app purchases plus Stars |
| Post-drop retention | Weak | Stronger due to game loop |
| Skill ceiling | Low | Moderate |
Catizen matters as proof that Telegram mini-apps can support not only the “farm points, wait for drop” pattern but also the classic mobile-game model with in-app purchases.
Why it matters
Together with other game-first mini-apps, Catizen shifted the conversation about TON gaming away from pure “digital farming” toward a real gaming industry inside Telegram. At the infrastructure level it accelerated payment rails — Telegram Stars adoption, TON-denominated in-app purchases, and NFT items used as in-game assets — and demonstrated that retention, not just acquisition, can be solved within the messenger.