Another animal coin is popular, this time it is a real-life on-chain hamster competition Hamsters.gg

After PEPE frog, another animal coin with meme attributes but actually from the real world has become popular. This time, the community has set its sights on the sawtooth hamster.

Hamsters.gg quietly went live on July 11. The project currently consists of three developers and rodent managers who run the website and broadcast a series of hamster competitions live via Twitch. The website claims to host "the world's first live hamster competition" and soon gathered a group of loyal cryptocurrency degen (gamblers) who hope to gain wealth with a team of six-inch-long rodents, including racing hamsters named "Popcorn", "Buster", "Sparky", "Oliver" and so on.

The race starts at a fixed time, and four hamsters are placed in a custom race track each time. After the race starts, the valves of each track will be opened automatically, and the hamster that reaches the finish line first wins. Before the race starts, those who are interested in betting can use BUSD to bet before the race starts. Although deposits can be accepted in Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain, payments seem to rely entirely on BSC.

According to PANews' review of the race records, most hamsters tend to lie still, with only one or two consciously running towards the finish line. The cameras in each track will capture the hamsters' movements, and each race basically ends within one minute.

According to Decrypt, although it looks like a live match, the match was actually recorded in advance. According to Dani, an anonymous core developer of the platform, this is done to prevent the possibility of the live broadcast capturing the hamster's death during the match, or causing the match to continue indefinitely if the hamster decides not to move.

When asked how such a setup would prevent Dani and his team members from placing their own bets on hamsters they knew would win, the developer responded: "Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee this."

Winning bettors can split the betting pool equally, and Hamster will take a 5% commission from all bets. Although bets are placed in stablecoins, the platform has also launched the token HAMS. According to the white paper of the project, the platform takes a 5% commission, and 4% will be distributed to token holders. According to the official announcement on July 23, the platform has accumulated about $4,355 in revenue sharing in the past three days, and the official will share it. According to the latest official information, coin holders will automatically receive a share after the game.

According to on-chain data, HAMS has risen by 22,305.20% in the past 7 days. Such an increase has also caused a certain FOMO sentiment, but since the trading volume of HAMS was not high in the early stage, it is easy to raise the price. At present, the cumulative trading volume in the past 7 days is 36.39 million US dollars.

Developer Dani insists he got involved for his love of the sport, but also for rodents. A few years ago, he says he tried a "similar concept." This time, Dani incorporated token economics—HAMS tokens can reward holders with a taste of the casino's share of losing bets. He also switched to hamsters: "They're cuter, they don't have tails, and they come in a lot of colors," he explains. Dani and his team have a total of nine hamsters; he insists they're "treated very well." Because many so-called animal protectors have been criticizing them for such competitions that are not good for the health of hamsters.

In addition to the risks of gambling supervision, the project also has many technical problems. The official updated some bugs a few days ago to restore normal operations. In addition, there are many fake social accounts and other information of the platform in the community. Users are requested to confirm whether it is official information before operation.