aPriori denies insider involvement as coordinated cluster captures 80% of airdrop

Web3 startup aPriori on Friday rejected accusations that members of its team were part of a sybil attack on the project’s October airdrop, after blockchain investigators Bubblemaps and ZachXBT observed a coordinated cluster of wallets securing 60% of the distribution. 

The YZi Labs-backed project’s APR token genesis airdrop in late October was meant to reward early contributors, testnet participants, and holders of partner NFTs, including MadLads and Moonbirds. However, netizens found that a single entity controlling 14,000 wallets took more than half of the airdrop supply, which aPriori insists it was not involved in.

“aPriori is aware of reports regarding possible Sybil activity targeting the $APR launch. We found no evidence that anyone on the contributing team or from the foundation has claimed the airdrop,” the project team’s message written on social platform X, read.

The San-Francisco-based firm, founded in 2023, had raised $20 million in August in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, HashKey Capital, and Primitive Ventures, at a $30 million valuation.

Crypto Twitter unconvinced aPriori was not part of the Sybil attack

According to data reviewed on BSCScan, cited in Cryptopolitan’s November 4 report, roughly 5,800 wallet addresses with matching transactional patterns had collected about four-fifths of the total APR distributed on the chain. 

Bubblemaps later posted on X that the tally had grown to 14,000 wallets, which took 60% of the allocation between October 19 and 20. Each of the thousands of wallets involved received small amounts of BNB, just enough to cover gas fees for the impending claim transactions. 

ZachXBT, alongside other investigators, said the uniformity of the transactions came from a single operator or a small group, which created and managed the entire network of claim addresses to extract outsized rewards, a known form of exploitation known as a Sybil attack.

In response to the accusations of completing a “rug pull” on its investors, aPriori introduced new guidelines to “reward genuine users” for its upcoming Monad Mainnet airdrop, which goes live on November 24. 

Under the updated framework, users will be able to unlock 15% of their allocation immediately upon the mainnet’s launch, up from the previous 12% threshold, and claimants will access a slightly larger share of their tokens on day one.

Participants can also unlock an additional 45% by depositing assets equal to five times the value of their initial allocation for a 14-day period. The remaining 85% of tokens of the airdrop allocation will become claimable six months after the network goes live, according to aPriori’s new technical documentation.

Community did not receive aPriori’s Sybil attack ‘findings’ well

Despite the reassurance from aPriori that its team was not involved in the airdrop mishap, several users accused the project of withholding information and failing to address concerns sufficiently. 

One X user said the team’s “innocent” statement was a predictable attempt to deflect blame, alleging that the project was trying to “milk” its user base again after the community showed its dissatisfaction. 

“The second phase of rug is coming. They’re literally paying botters to hype them up rn,” user IbrahimXBT reckoned.

Another member of crypto Twitter claimed the presale had struggled to sell out despite support from Coinbase, as he asked investors to block promoters who continue to endorse the project.

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