Catizen CATI

According to the project, Catizen is a cat-themed social entertainment experience and gaming bot on Telegram, built on TON. Its open beta launched on 19 March 2024. The team says the game is meant to grow into a Web3 hub with a mini-app centre, a Launchpool and an Open Task platform. It starts from Telegram and is set to expand to several chains and platforms. The docs say the game does not mint CATI directly. Instead, tokens are distributed through airdrops calculated from each player's in-game contribution and activity.

Catizen was developed and published by Pluto Studio Limited, which the project describes as a game studio with more than 30 developers. The docs name David Mak as co-founder and CEO and Ricky Wong as co-founder and CFO. Alongside the studio is the Catizen Foundation Company, which according to the docs is chaired by Tim Wong. The project describes it as a non-profit with several roles: it oversees DAO governance, manages token issuance and resource distribution, signs mini apps and games for the game centre and airdrops tokens to contributors.

In September 2024 Binance announced Catizen as the 59th project on Binance Launchpool, where users could farm CATI by locking BNB and FDUSD. Trading on Binance opened on 20 September 2024 at 11:00 UTC with CATI/USDT, CATI/BNB, CATI/FDUSD and CATI/TRY pairs. Binance applied its seed tag to the token, and the listing time was amended on the day itself. The project's roadmap dates both the token launch and the completion of the first airdrop to 20 September 2024. The tokenomics docs say 30.5% of the supply was released at launch. A Binance Square post adds that CATI listed on several other exchanges from the same date and that the Season 1 airdrop went to players.

According to the docs, CATI has a total supply of 1 billion tokens that will never be increased. The largest share, 43%, goes to the airdrop and ecosystem. Of this, 34% is for airdrops: 15% was unlocked at launch for Season 1 players, and 19% is set aside for quarterly seasons over 12 quarters. The remaining 9% is for the Launchpool. The rest is split between the team (20%), treasury (15%), investors (10%), advisors (7%) and liquidity (5%). Treasury, team, investor and advisor tokens have a 12-month cliff followed by 48 months of linear release.

The roadmap says Pluto Studio raised a funding round from HashKey Capital, TOP, Folius Ventures and Binance Labs in the third quarter of 2024, without stating amounts. On 30 July 2024 HashKey Capital announced its investment in Pluto Studio, which it called the publisher behind Catizen, without disclosing the amount. According to The Block, TON Ventures, a venture firm founded by former TON Foundation members, has already backed more than a dozen startups, including Catizen. Separately, the project's 2024 annual report says Catizen was backed by both TON Foundation and the MNT Foundation. The report does not describe the form of that backing.

The Launchpool is Catizen's in-game programme, run alongside the Task Center. According to the docs, holders who stake, play and vote can earn third-party tokens or in-game rewards there. The roadmap says the first Launchpool, for $wCATI, opened on 28 April 2024 with more than 170,000 participants. The 2024 annual report says 23 million CATI were staked in one campaign. The report also says that Andrew, a TON Foundation board member, announced at the Gateway event that the CATI Launchpool would expand into Telegram's non-custodial wallet. On governance, the docs planned DAO voting via TON Vote and Snapshot to start within 12 months after launch. Possible buybacks or burns, for example from 50% of game-centre revenue, are subject to DAO votes. The annual report adds that the Catizen Foundation can buy back or burn CATI from surplus treasury funds. The roadmap names Elliptic as a partner for AML and on-chain compliance.

For the fourth quarter of 2024, the roadmap listed opening the Launchpool and Game Center to the public, with 5 launchpool projects and 20 games. Its plans for 2025 include a task platform with Web3 advertising and AI Cat companions, with a full launch in the second quarter. They also include games on the LINE Dapp Portal and more than 30 mini-apps by the third quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2025, the roadmap sets the goal of at least one listed company holding CATI as a treasury asset.