A cryptocurrency airdrop farmer has experienced a significant financial loss, forfeiting over $112,000 in newly issued tokens due to a series of failed blockchain transactions.
In the cryptocurrency space, an airdrop farmer is an individual or entity that engages with new protocols primarily to obtain airdrop rewards. These farmers often utilize multiple wallets to maximize their potential earnings.
The wallet identified as “0x7f4” initially received approximately $112,700 worth of Monad (MON) tokens. This reward was a consequence of the wallet's prior activity leading up to the protocol's launch.
However, in an unfortunate turn of events, the trader effectively lost their entire $112,000 allocation. This occurred across hundreds of failed blockchain transactions, each of which incurred gas fees despite not being successfully completed. Blockchain data from Solscan illustrates the extensive nature of these failed transactions.
Crypto investor Joe highlighted the situation in a post on X, stating, "Congratulations to 0x7f4e...fa7d who managed to spend their entire Monad airdrop (112.7k) on failed txn fees."
This incident serves as a critical reminder for users to conduct test transactions before executing large-scale transfers. This practice involves sending a small amount of funds to the intended destination address to confirm that the transfer parameters are accurate.
Analysis of the transaction patterns suggests that the user behind the wallet likely initiated hundreds of transactions in rapid succession, possibly utilizing a script. The failure to notice that the initial transactions had begun to fail led to the accumulation of gas fees across numerous unsuccessful attempts.
Security Concerns Emerge Around Monad Claim Portal
The financial mishap for the airdrop farmer occurred amidst reports from other Monad airdrop recipients who claimed to have not received their allocated tokens. According to Cos, the founder of the blockchain security firm SlowMist, a vulnerability within the Monad claim portal was exploited.
Cos explained that this vulnerability allowed malicious actors to link a user's airdrop allocation to a wallet controlled by the attacker. Consequently, multiple users reported that their airdrop shares were "bound to a hacker’s address" before they could be properly disseminated.
The exploit reportedly enabled attackers to "hijack" a user's session on the claim page. This allowed them to redirect the airdrop to their own address without requiring any form of wallet confirmation from the legitimate user.
Airdrop farmers have long presented a challenge for emerging cryptocurrency projects. Their methods often focus on extracting value by quickly selling tokens immediately after an airdrop, which can impact the token's initial price stability.
In March 2023, it was reported that airdrop hunters had consolidated a substantial amount of tokens. Specifically, they gathered $3.3 million worth of tokens from Arbitrum's ARB airdrop, consolidating them from 1,496 individual wallets into just two controlled wallets.
Earlier in February, the non-fungible token (NFT) platform OpenSea temporarily halted its airdrop reward system. This decision followed significant user backlash, as the newly implemented mechanics were criticized for promoting wash trading and prioritizing fee generation over genuine user activity.