Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Asher (@Asher_0210)

The crypto market is experiencing a winter, and it is also a winter for yield farming. Another project severely impacted by adverse yield farming and trust collapse appeared in 2026. Yesterday afternoon, edgeX launched its token EDGE airdrop query page, and the "yield farmers" suffered another blow, with almost all early users "being adversely farmed."

The data has been off from the start

The problems with edgeX did not start on the day of the airdrop.

Earlier, its platform data had already raised questions. KOL Feng Wu Xiang stated, "A Perp Dex with a TVL of only about $200 million can maintain an open contract scale of over $1 billion, with an average leverage exceeding 5 times. Such a structure significantly differs from similar products."

What raises more suspicion is its performance in extreme market conditions. High-leveraged Perp Dexs are almost inevitably subject to chain liquidations when they experience severe volatility, but edgeX showed almost no significant liquidation during similar market conditions, which is itself unreasonable. Coupled with front-end delays and slippage issues, the trading experience is skewed, with many users actually losing money immediately upon placing orders. At the same time, its data structure shows a significant contrast, with almost no corresponding hype on social media, yet maintaining daily trading volumes above $5 billion, second only to Hyperliquid.

Additionally, on-chain detective ZachXBT discovered that the market-making addresses of edgeX are on-chain associated with MEXC and speculated that they are related to the previous attacks on Hyperliquid involving Jelly Jelly and Zerebro, which led to a daily TVL loss of about $200 million. Meanwhile, MEXC's official blog continues to promote edgeX and has launched pre-market trading, indicating that their relationship evidently exceeds ordinary cooperation.

In this context, the market gradually formed a speculation that a considerable portion of edgeX's trading volume does not come from genuine user contributions but is artificially stacked through market-making and wash trading, with ordinary users continuing to provide transaction fees.

"Same points, different rights," airdrop rules sparked controversy

edgeX previously stated during the Genesis phase that 25% to 30% of tokens would be allocated to the community, but during the TGE claiming process yesterday, no clear allocation rules were announced, making it difficult for users to verify the allocation logic.

More controversial is the phenomenon of "same points, different rights." Within the same point range, new wallets can often receive hundreds of thousands of EDGE, while long-term users who continuously trade receive only a few thousand or even less. The project team stated that there are weight differences in points from different sources but did not disclose specific rules or calculation methods.

KOL Bing Frog stated, "Why is there same points, different rights and arbitrary rule changes? Because a project that was designed from the start to rely on fake trading to inflate data, to tell stories to boost valuations, and to collaborate with back-end market-making groups for interest transfer fundamentally cannot respect users or the community." Similar negative voices quickly fermented in the community, and trust in edgeX completely collapsed.

"Insider trading" confirmed, multiple addresses fit "Created within 4 to 10 days + Directly funded Gas from CEX hot wallets + Huge airdrop claims"

According to multiple users including @jeg6322, @muarmemuar, and @btctianze providing feedback through on-chain data, the edgeX token airdrop contains numerous "insider trading" addresses that received airdrop amounts far exceeding those of ordinary users.

Further analysis reveals that the on-chain behavior of the addresses in the image is highly consistent; they are newly created EOA accounts (created within 4 to 10 days) with few historical transactions and DEX interaction records, completing airdrop token claims shortly after the airdrop opened, and the funding for Gas predominantly comes from hot wallets of exchanges like Gate.io, OKX, and Binance, a pattern typically aligned with institutional or team fund allocation methods.

Furthermore, on-chain data shows that, including the aforementioned addresses, over 80 newly created and interrelated wallets collectively claimed a total of approximately 180 million EDGE tokens.

Additionally, there is a significant difference in allocation weights. The single point value of "insider trading" addresses can exceed $100, while that of ordinary users generally remains below $2. Some early users reported that with 940 points, they received less than 300 tokens, equating to about 0.2 tokens per point, valuing it at approximately $1.3.

Official response to community negative sentiment: closing X comment sections and deleting posts or kicking members on TG/Discord

After edgeX announced the airdrop claiming yesterday, in response to community skepticism about the "same points, different rights" of the airdrop tokens, the official team directly chose to close the comment sections of subsequent posts.

Additionally, similar actions took place in edgeX's official Telegram and Discord communities. The group activated a 15-minute slow mode and strengthened entry verification to filter some users; more directly, for members publicly questioning, sharing chat records, or expressing dissatisfaction within the group, administrators quickly resorted to deleting posts, muting, or even directly kicking them out. Some users reported being removed from the group chat immediately for posting records of conversations with the officials, preventing them from continuing the discussion.

Conclusion

When users spend real money to generate volume but cannot even clarify how the rules are calculated, the situation has already shifted. What was originally an investment for returns has now completely turned into being manipulated.

Almost all users of edgeX have been adversely farmed, and it is not just an unexpected result of a single airdrop, but rather a complete chain of early trading project harvesting—attracting traffic through points, amplifying trading volume, realizing profits on transaction fees, and, on the other hand, dumping in the secondary market during TGE through a large number of "insider trading" addresses.

When "everyone being adversely farmed" is no longer an isolated case but gradually becomes a common experience, yield farming has shifted from a previously certain opportunity to a highly asymmetric game. For users who still insist on yield farming at this stage, controlling costs and scrutinizing expectations may be more crucial than merely chasing potential returns.

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