SaTT and TokenBot accused CoinMarketCap’s management of conducting $6.6 million worth of fraudulent airdrops.
Popular crypto data aggregator CoinMarketCap conducted 18 airdrops since July 2022, and they all had signs of fraud. This is reported by Cointelegraph with reference to representatives of SaTT and TokenBot projects. They carried out their own investigation and provided the results.
More specifically, the matter concerns airdrops led by TopGoal, OwlDAO, AgeofGods, SaTT, and TokenBot, among others. The strange behavior of airdrops’ participants prompted project representatives to investigate on-chain data in more detail. They discovered the following:
- 20,953 of the 25,000 participants of SaTT’s airdrop transferred tokens to 21 addresses almost immediately after receiving them. All the assets were sold off on the same day, yielding $142,000 for scammers. The price of SATT collapsed by 70%.
- 3,300 out of 4,000 participants of TokenBot’s airdrop transferred assets to one wallet, and then they were sold off immediately. As a result, the project’s liquidity pool lost about $20,000, while the price of TKB tokens fell by 65%.
Other airdrops mentioned by SaTT and TokenBot followed a similar pattern. According to their data, the total amount of damage caused by 18 airdrops “infected by fraud” was about $6.6 million. Only SaTT, TokenBot, and AgeofGods sent complaints to CoinMarketCap about malicious actions during token airdrops.
CoinMarketCap initiated an internal investigation. Speaking to Cointelegraph, representatives said that “bots are an issue that touches nearly every industry.” The affected projects suggest that airdrop fraud is being perpetrated by “either a group of hackers [who] injected tons of fake accounts, or it was actually an inside job.”
Total losses from crypto attackers in 2022 amounted to ~$3.9 billion. Scammers were responsible for 4.4% (~$171.6 million), with hackers stealing the rest.
