The Pulse: Crypto airdrops going to select communities reminds us it’s an insiders game

The evolution of the airdrop has reached its next phase.

Crypto airdrops used to be a surprise gift in the form of tokens for early adopters, each of whom would receive as much as tens of thousands of dollars. But over time, the realization that projects can launch tokens via airdrops has given rise to an ongoing battle between projects trying to distribute tokens to their real users and people trying to farm the airdrops.

The latest twist in this saga is that projects are distributing some of their airdrops to popular communities, especially communities built around NFT projects. But why? Well, there could be a number of reasons.

A big one is engagement. NFT projects that typically make the list include Mad Lads, Milady’s, and Pudgy Penguins – all communities known for highly passionate X and increasing engagement. This kind of commitment is so powerful that even Su Zhu turned to Milady to try to restore his reputation after the collapse of his hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Another example could be the enrichment of insiders. It’s a lot of power to decide on an airdrop for a potentially multi-billion dollar project. Crypto’s fastest-growing project Ethena — which is not without risks — gave some of its airdrop to NFT projects SchizoPosters and Redacted Remilio Babies, communities that include two of its top contributors, it noted. The stated reason? “Why not,” says founder Guy Young Postedbefore writing solely “Remilio” to end the message, a style adopted by many of his community members.

This approach of getting crypto diehards to push a project on social media is nothing new. It is known in the industry that influencers, also known as Key Opinion Leaders, are given scandalously short lockups on tokens assigned to them for shilling projects. Some even receive large portions of the token supply.

In a similar – albeit more legitimate – vein, Monad’s recent raise was aimed at getting as many crypto influencers on board as possible. The project mentioned twelve angel investors in the announcement post before gesturing to “others,” of which there appear to be many. Some even went so far joke it would be easier to mention the number of people who are not on the list. Even I was asked to join (although I respectfully declined).

“I keep seeing people tweeting about what a great go-to-market strategy Monad has,” said Jill Gunter, Chief Strategy Officer at Espresso Systems, mused about

None of this is particularly surprising either. Crypto owners love to deify influencers, monitor their trades and usually become their exit liquidity. For example, look at how Ansem stepped into Cobie’s shoes. But it does highlight how crypto has become a social game.

This could be great for those in the know with $30,000 NFTs that give them access to private Discord groups — especially since these airdrop allocations have the potential to pump their bags, so to speak. But the downside is that it could start to alienate the rest of crypto, especially those new to the space. Although, to be honest, I’m not sure they care.

Now on to a selection of stories that caught my attention this week.

The SEC is taking its biggest chance yet on DeFi

The Securities and Exchange Commission has gone after large centralized crypto companies such as Coinbase, Ripple, Binance and others, as well as smaller DeFi projects like Ooki DAO – but this is the first time it has gone after a large established DeFi project: Uniswap.

The SEC sent Uniswap Labs, the organization that developed the decentralized finance protocol (DeFi) of the same name, a Wells Notice on Wednesday, my colleague Elizabeth Napolitano writes. A Wells Notice is a formal notice that the SEC intends to file charges against a defendant.

The crypto industry responded by calling it a “war on DeFi,” with many proponents willing to side with Uniswap. “This is a new area for them to move into, although it certainly doesn’t surprise me or anyone else that they continue to open new areas or new fronts in the fight against crypto,” noted Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulatory studies at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute.

However, some say this could be good for crypto. I shared the stage with Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier during Paris Blockchain Week on Thursday and when asked about the topic, he responded that this could finally give the industry the answers – and clarity – it has been craving.

Bitcoin ETFs are coming to Hong Kong

Hong Kong regulators could approve spot ETFs based on bitcoin and ether as early as Monday, Napolitano wrote, citing Bloomberg. The first batch of issuers aims to launch both types of spot ETFs by the end of April.

This echoes comments from Livio Weng, CEO of HashKey Exchange, who told my colleague Timmy Shen that the fund issuers in partnership with HashKey have completed the development of their spot Bitcoin ETFs – which means it’s time.

While this is a notable milestone, similar crypto products have existed in Europe without anywhere near the impact of their US counterparts. So it is unclear whether Hong Kong will have any more impact.

Bitcoin will halve in a week

There are only seven days to go until the Bitcoin Halving, the fourth in its history, and as always the question is being asked whether it has already been priced in.

On the one hand, Coinbase analysts say it may already be priced in, as Bitcoin hits a new all-time high just a few weeks before the halving takes place. This could mean “the security has already been priced in by smart traders,” they said.

On the other, Matt Ballensweig, head of Go Network at BitGo, said the halving in each cycle is usually not priced in. He cited the Bitcoin ETFs as an example of a similar event that, in his opinion, was not priced in as the price rose sharply. after the products were approved.

Either way, make sure to track the halving on The Block’s new Bitcoin Halving Countdown tracker.

That’s all from me this week. Be sure to come back every weekend for the next editions of The Pulse.