Web3 startup aPriori announced on Friday that the suspicious activities related to its recent airdrop are not associated with its team. Previously, investors expressed concerns that a single entity claimed a disproportionate amount of token distribution.
According to data from blockchain analysis platform Bubblemaps, a mysterious entity claimed approximately 60% of the recent aPriori (APR) token airdrop through 14,000 interconnected cryptocurrency wallets. This pattern resembles a "witching" airdrop operation, where a single actor uses multiple wallets to maximize rewards.
APriori lowered the qualification threshold for its Monad mainnet airdrop to reward "real users," but stated on Friday that it found "no evidence that anyone from the contributing team or foundation claimed the airdrop."
Cointelegraph was unable to verify the controlling party of the wallet cluster and has contacted aPriori for more details.
Bubblemaps CEO Nick Vaiman stated that the project's initial response seemed "understated," adding that aPriori suggested there may have been a leak that allowed someone to exploit the airdrop. "They said there was a leak, and someone took advantage of that information," Vaiman told Cointelegraph.
APriori is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2023. In August, aPriori raised $20 million to expand its trading infrastructure platform, with investors including Pantera Capital, HashKey Capital, and Primitive Ventures, bringing its total funding to $30 million.
APriori updated the parameters for the upcoming airdrop distribution, announcing that the distribution will primarily be based on "social contributions."
The startup also increased the unlockable proportion of its airdrop distribution from 12% to 15%, meaning that when the Monad mainnet goes live on November 24, users can receive an additional 3% of the airdrop.
According to aPriori's updated technical documentation, the remaining 85% will be claimable six months after the mainnet launch.
Users hoping to unlock the full amount can deposit assets equivalent to ten times the value of their airdrop within 14 days to qualify for unlocking the remaining 85% of the claimable amount.
Following aPriori's announcement, opinions among crypto investors were mixed, with skepticism regarding the lack of details in the internal investigation.
"The second phase of the scam is coming. They are actually paying bots to hype themselves up," crypto investor IbrahimXBT said in a response on X on Friday.
Some users also expressed support for the aPriori team, blaming the airdrop claiming issue on professional airdrop farmers.
"This is 100% fake, this FUD is manipulated by competitors," crypto investor FastLife stated in a post on X on November 11, adding, "It's the airdrop farmers' fault."
In the crypto space, professional airdrop farmers (or "squatters") are entities that interact with emerging protocols solely to obtain airdrop rewards, often using multiple wallets to stack rewards.
During the Arbitrum ARB airdrop in March 2023, airdrop farmers consolidated tokens worth $3.3 million, pooling tokens from 1,496 wallets into just two wallets they controlled.
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Original article: “aPriori denies insider involvement, mysterious entity claims most APR airdrop”
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