Telegram Empire on Verifications: A Breakdown of the Major Project

The Major project launched during the peak era of tap-to-earn games, but after the hype died down, the owners found another monetization model. The project now sells verification for crypto tokens — effectively turning a checkmark and access to Telegram support into a product.

We broke down how the game ended for millions of participants, how Major monetizes trust, and who exactly built an online empire on verifications.

From tap-to-earn to verifications

The game launched in July 2024: stars for daily activity, referrals, team participation — all in pursuit of a $MAJOR token airdrop. Within three days, 4.5 million players had connected to the bot, and eventually over 50 million — making Major the top app on Telegram.

The listing took place on November 28, 2024, on KuCoin. Before the listing, the team carried out a wave of account bans — targeting not only bots but also real players, with no transparent explanation of the criteria. 

Those who made it through the selection didn't always receive what was promised either: some players saw messages like "your activity in the game was insufficient to receive tokens" after the allocation, and the team never publicly disclosed exactly how much activity was required to qualify.

On listing day, the token surged to an all-time high of $1.4 before quickly crashing to ten cents. Those who managed to withdraw their tokens immediately after the listing could have made some profit. 

The project's owner is an IT entrepreneur operating under the pseudonym Roxman — an active figure in the Telegram ecosystem with a personal channel of over 10 million subscribers. Alongside Major, he is developing a second project: the economic simulator Friends Factory.

On the day of the token listing in November 2024, Durov wrote in his own channel that Major was one of his favorite success stories in the Telegram ecosystem, and that he personally had a soft spot for Roxman, whom he had been following since before the launch of Fabrika and Major. The same post revealed another detail: Roxman gifted Durov 1% of the $MAJOR token supply, and the Telegram founder publicly pledged not to sell them for the next 10 years.

Despite his public profile, friendship with Durov, and active channel, Roxman's real name has never been officially disclosed — only the pseudonym and a link to an Instagram account under the same handle. 

How Major monetizes verifications

In March 2025, Pavel Durov personally assigned a checkmark to the Major account as part of the "Verification 2.0" mechanism — one of the rare cases where the Telegram founder verified a third-party project. That news hook became the foundation of Major's subsequent business model.

The project's official verification offering is called Business Card — a monthly or annual subscription after which a channel, group, bot, or personal profile receives a special badge. 

Payment is accepted in $MAJOR, $USDT, and TON. The project positions the service as "the final element of your image" and a "custom checkmark" that can be gifted to someone else's channel or bot — meaning verification has been packaged as a gift format.

What's specifically promised:

• Priority support — verification holders get access to a private group where Major specialists handle tickets promptly.
• Checkmark — a trust signal that is not issued without prior review.
• Premium community — access to other owners of verified profiles.

According to its terms, Major does not verify projects offering "financial services, investments, signals, or other dubious services," and reserves the right to decline without explanation. 

An annual Business Card costs 2,490 USDT for a personal profile, 1,490 for a channel, and 3,990 USDT for a bot — prices are fixed and do not depend on audience size or project activity.

The catalog of verified projects allows for a rough estimate of the business's scale: as of August, it lists 64 channels and 49 bots and mini-apps. These two categories alone, at annual pricing, generate approximately $290,870 in revenue per year. 

This is a conservative estimate — personal profiles with verification are not shown in the public catalog. Major does not disclose how many users have purchased a personal checkmark, so the actual revenue from verifications could be significantly higher.

In practice, the stated moderation doesn't work as promised. Users regularly report suspicious channels and accounts bearing Major checkmarks. This comes as no surprise, since anyone with the funds can obtain a checkmark by paying for the service anonymously.

Interestingly, Telegram does not verify personal accounts at all, and large active channels, groups, and bots often wait months to receive a badge. Major's personal verification exists solely thanks to a one-time exception Durov made for the project itself — and Major has built an entire business vertical on that foundation, one that is inaccessible through any official channel.

Conclusion

Major is one of the most compelling examples of how verification is sold as a status symbol and a gateway to support that, in practice, simply does not exist on Telegram. But as long as the messenger offers no alternative, demand for this format isn't going anywhere.