Uzbek regulators have not banned citizens from playing the Hamster Kombat Clicker game on Telegram, but removing coins from the game will likely be a problem.
Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Promising Projects (NAPP), a key regulatory body that oversees the e-commerce and cryptocurrency sector, issued an announcement on June 25 clarifying the legal status of Hamster Kombat.
Hamster Kombat coins are not cryptocurrencies, at least for now
In the statement, NAPP emphasized that Hamster Kombat is not a typical for-profit game, as its in-game coins have no collateral or real interest.
In contrast, in for-profit games, players are rewarded with assets that have real monetary value and can be traded, such as cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
For example, in a game like Axie Infinity, players can collect Axies – collectible creatures used to fight others in the game or trade in markets.
According to NAPP, residents of Uzbekistan are free to play Hamster Kombat and collect in-game tokens, as they are not real cryptocurrencies and are not blockchain-based. Hamster Kombat codes are also outside the scope of the NAPP regulations for this reason.
“It is, however, possible that Hamster Kombat coins will migrate to the blockchain in the future and thus become crypto-assets,” the authority noted.
Hamster Kombat token sale likely to be a problem
Although mining and collecting tokens in Hamster Kombat is not illegal in Uzbekistan, selling tokens in the game will likely be an issue for many due to local regulations.
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According to NAPP, Hamster Kombat players will only be allowed to sell in-game tokens once the underlying token has been approved as a crypto-asset and listed on a regulated national exchange.
“However, the value of these crypto assets often declines shortly after listing due to the lack of useful functions,” NAPP added.
This news comes just days after local media outlet Uzbek-MDK reported that Uzbek prosecutors will jail Hamster Combat players who attempt to cash in chips in the game.
Previously, a local court reportedly sentenced a 24-year-old man to 10 days of administrative imprisonment for selling Notcoin (NOT) tokens for 800,000 Uzbek soms, worth $63.
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