From Sahara to Tradoor: A Review of Recent “Fancy Drop” Tactics Among Altcoins

Chainfeeds Guide:

Airdrops turn into “shorts,” and project benefits become cash machines for insiders.

Source:

Author:

Odaily

Opinion:

Odaily: On the evening of November 29, Sahara AI’s token SAHARA plummeted by more than 50% in a short period, and the price has not significantly rebounded since, currently quoted at $0.03869. The next day, the Sahara AI team quickly issued a statement with three main points: First, neither the team nor investors sold tokens, as all are still in a lock-up period, with the first unlock (June 2026) still a year away; second, there are no issues with the smart contract, no hacking or tampering occurred, and no abnormal token transfers took place; lastly, although the business is being adjusted, there are no major problems, and the team is integrating resources to focus on the areas with the greatest growth potential. Despite the official statement sounding “harmless,” the community’s attention is elsewhere. Crypto KOL “Crypto Fearless” pointed out that the SAHARA crash may have been triggered by a proactive market maker being liquidated in succession, with this market maker operating several projects, and Sahara AI was just “collateral damage.” However, the official team denied this, stating that their market makers only include Amber Group and Herring Global, neither of which have been investigated or liquidated. The team believes the crash was mainly due to large-scale liquidations of perpetual contracts and concentrated short selling, a structural market stampede, and they are still communicating with exchanges and will disclose further information after verification. The Monad ecosystem’s highly funded project aPriori’s token APR launched its TGE early on BNB Chain, going live on Binance Alpha and Binance Futures on October 23. The opening price once surged to $0.7, but then fell all the way to $0.13. What truly sparked community outrage was that 60% of the project’s airdrop was claimed by a single entity using 14,000 interconnected wallets. These wallets each deposited 0.001 BNB in a short period and then transferred APR to new wallets. Even more disappointing, the project team did not respond for a long time after being questioned by Bubblemaps and on-chain analysts, only speaking up on November 21, merely stating that “no evidence was found of the team or foundation claiming the airdrop,” and trying to shift attention to the Monad mainnet airdrop. This evasive response failed to quell doubts, and community sentiment shifted from disappointment to anger. The airdrop being exploited, official updates stopping, and admins disappearing led to a rapid loss of community trust in just a few weeks. The Irys project, which raised nearly $20 millions and focuses on an L1 data-intelligent public chain, faced “insider trading” suspicions due to on-chain activity before its airdrop and mainnet launch. Bubblemaps data showed that on November 28, 900 addresses received ETH from Bitget and claimed about 20% of the airdrop tokens the day before, with these addresses displaying high consistency, matching the characteristics of a Sybil cluster. Further tracking revealed these tokens were ultimately transferred to exchanges and sold, with about $4 millions flowing into the market. The official response stated the incident was unrelated to the team or investors, reflected on the lack of Sybil resistance in the airdrop design, and promised improvements. Similar issues occurred with the Tradoor project, whose token TRADOOR surged to $6.64 on December 1, then plummeted nearly 80% within 24 hours. The top ten holders controlled 98% of the supply, DEX liquidity was low, and delayed airdrops and staking loopholes exacerbated the user trust crisis. In the current crypto market environment, experts advise investors to adopt prudent strategies to cope with volatility. High-risk altcoins may rebound in the short term, but “taking profits when possible” remains the safest choice.