AI is one of the hottest narratives in crypto today, which is why many were excited over the Kaito airdrop. However, reactions to the launch of Kaito’s AI-focused crypto airdrop were mixed, as many complained about low rewards.
The majority of the rewards went to major figures in crypto, including influencers who promoted the project. Moreover, some of these influencers promptly sold off their coins as soon as they started trading; just three crypto influencers netted a combined $655k from sales.
On Thursday, February 20, the Kaito airdrop officially went live, and the token started trading after the initial distribution. Kato, the coin powering an AI-based search engine, rewarded Yappers. These were people who signed up for the Kaito Yapper program and shared insightful content about crypto.
Still, many smaller “yappers” were not satisfied with their rewards. A large share of these rewards went to big players in the crypto space, including executives like Vitalik Buterin and many crypto influencers. Meanwhile, some of these influencers who promoted the tokens sold early.
Crypto Influencers Dump Kaito Coins
According to crypto research firm Arkam, Ansem, Mert, and Anthony Sassano were among the major sellers. The presale leaderboard shows that all three were among the top 20 most rewarded Kaito influencers. Mert Mumtaz, co-founder of Helius, received an allocation of 0.70%, or $340,000, and allegedly sold 80% of it.
Zion Thomas (@blknoiz06), known as Ansem “The Solana Guy,” promoted the token on X. He sold his entire 0.47% allocation, valued at $230k. Anthony Sassano (sassal0x), a co-founder of the educational platform EthHub and a host of the Daily Gwei Podcast, sold 0.44% or $185k.
In addition to these issues, investigator RunnerXBT highlighted questions about tokenomics. While 10% of the allocation goes toward the initial airdrop, the allocation for insiders, which includes the team and early investors, is 43.3%.
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