A Brief History of Web3 Airdrops: A Review of Twelve Iconic 'Rug Pull' Projects
**Summary: A History of Web3 Airdrop "Rug Pulls" – 12 Iconic Cases**
The era of Web3 airdrops has shifted from a golden age of mutual benefit between early users and projects to a landscape dominated by systematic exploitation. This article reviews 12 infamous "anti-airdrop" projects that eroded user trust:
1. **Hop Protocol (HOP):** Pioneered a "community witch-hunt" model, encouraging users to report Sybil addresses to claim their rewards, fostering a toxic environment of mutual harm.
2. **Blast:** Introduced the exploitative "points system," locking user funds for meager returns that often underperformed risk-free yields, turning airdrop hunting into a rigged casino.
3. **LayerZero (ZRO):** After 18 months of user-funded gas fees, it implemented a harsh "guilty until proven innocent" Sybil filter, forcing users to "self-confess" or face zero rewards, destroying multi-chain interaction narratives.
4. **zkSync (ZK):** Prioritized "funds held at a specific time" over long-term activity, betraying early contributors who spent significant gas and rewarding insiders, crushing L2 airdrop expectations.
5. **Infinex:** Lured users with NFT and point systems, only to announce a high FDV, a mandatory 1-year lockup, and chaotic rules at its public sale, betraying its community.
6. **Linea:** Perfected user exploitation with endless, grueling Galxe Odyssey tasks and KYC requirements, reducing airdrop hunting to a low-wage, full-time job.
7. **Grass:** Exploited users' physical resources (bandwidth/IP) for DePIN data, rewarding them with tokens worth less than the electricity and proxy costs incurred.
8. **Monad:** Allocated a mere ~3.3% of its airdrop to the community after extensive testnet participation, favoring KOLs and insiders and dampening enthusiasm for new L1s.
9. **Babylon:** Forced Ethereum-style staking onto Bitcoin, causing users massive losses from failed transactions due to high fees and network congestion, damaging trust in L2s.
10. **Backpack:** Encouraged massive trading volume for points, then applied strict KYC and Sybil rules last minute, resulting in massive losses for users and cementing a negative stereotype for projects with Chinese founders.
11. **EdgeX:** Perpetual DEX users lost significant fees for minimal rewards, while "insider" addresses received enormous allocations, exposing blatant corruption and killing the Perp DEX airdrop narrative.
12. **Genius:** The final straw: users were forced to choose between immediately claiming only 30% of their airdrop, locking tokens for a year for 100%, or a 100% burn for a gas fee refund, shattering trust in "elite-backed" narratives.
**Conclusion** marks the painful end of the airdrop era. This collective "rug pull" was a co-created disaster of speculation and greed. The collapse, while brutal, forces a return to fundamentals: sustainable products with real product-market fit are paramount. This is not just the end of airdrops but a potential rebirth for Web3, weeding out exploitative projects and rewarding those that build genuine community value.
marsbit04/14 03:14
