An airdrop campaign organized by the popular cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinMarketCap was tainted by fraud. According to Cointelegraph, representatives of the SaTT and TokenBot projects said this.
According to them, the assets provided to raise awareness about the projects were instead sent to a restricted set of addresses rather than distributed among thousands of users. This suggests possible manipulation of the system. Subsequently, the sale of the tokens had a negative effect on their price.
A similar story emerged with TokenBot’s airdrop. Of 4,000 token recipients, 3,300 ultimately transferred the assets to a single wallet.
«Obviously, someone came up with a way to “play” in CMC», — said TokenBot co-founder Shaun Newsom.
The senior executive said there would be no apologies from the aggregator. CoinMarketCap representatives pledged to investigate the incident and return with an updated list of project winners.
According to SaTT’s CEO, since July 2022 the platform conducted 18 more “infected” campaigns totalling $6.6 million.
«Either a group of hackers injected tonnes of fake accounts [into the airdrop on the CMC website] […], or it is insider work», he suggested.
In a conversation with Cointelegraph, a CoinMarketCap representative stressed that at least four of the identified SaTT projects have not yet distributed rewards. This undermines claims of “malicious” activity. He also noted that only three projects — SaTT, AgeOfGods, and TokenBot — flagged potential airdrop issues to the site.
The CMC executive acknowledged that bots remain an unresolved problem.
«We are continually working to improve our systems and services to limit the capabilities of bots. We are closely collaborating with projects to find solutions and help resolve any current issues», he added.
CoinMarketCap uses CAPTCHA and email verification requirements for participants. Work is underway to integrate two-factor authentication.
On January 9, took place an airdrop of Flare blockchain tokens, designed to enable dapps interoperable with other networks and the internet dapps.
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