On-chain evidence reveals $4M sybil attack on Avantis airdrop
On-chain evidence has emerged showing that Avantis’ recent airdrop was exploited in a $4 million sybil attack.
- One entity used 300+ wallets to drain $4M in AVNT tokens during Airdrop 1.
- The exploit followed AVNT’s exchange debut on Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitunix, with listings on Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb driving the token to a $1.57 ATH.
Blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps just released a detailed breakdown of a coordinated Sybil attack that exploited the recent Avantis (AVNT) airdrop. The data suggests a single actor effectively gamed the eligibility criteria, undermining the airdrop’s intent to fairly reward real community participants.
“AVNT made headlines last week after a 12.5% airdrop. Some users walked away with 6 figures – but one entity may have taken much more,” Bubblemaps wrote in a post on X.
According to Bubblemaps’ findings, a single entity managed to drain $4 million worth of AVNT tokens across 300+ wallet addresses. The wallets, many of which were dormant prior to the airdrop, followed identical patterns:
- Funded from Coinbase
- Received USD Coin (USDC) from a narrow cluster of sources
- Swapped assets on the Avantis platform
- Claimed the AVNT airdrop
- Consolidated tokens into fewer addresses
- Transferred funds to CEXs like Bybit and Gate in lockstep
“This was clearly coordinated,” Bubblemaps stated, noting that the attack closely mirrored the previous sybil incident involving the MYX token.
Exchange debuts and 12.5% airdrop fuelled Avantis rally
The Sybil attack revelations came just days after AVNT — the native token of Avantis, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on the Base network — was listed on Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitunix on Sept. 9.
Further momentum came on Sept. 15 with triple listings on Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb, propelling AVNT into a parabolic rally. The token surged to a new all-time high of $1.57, pushing its market cap from $180 million to $298 million and daily trading volume past $2 billion.
The exchange activity amplified the impact of Avantis’s Airdrop 1, which launched on Sept. 9 alongside its initial listings. The campaign distributed 12.5% of the total AVNT supply to over 65,000 eligible wallets, based on on-chain activity.
