CoinMarketCap accused of fraud

Cointelegraph journalists talked to the heads of two cryptocurrency startups who accused CoinMarketCap of fraud and unfair airdrops. According to the representatives of SaTT and TokenBot, during the airdrops, most tokens ended up under the control of a few wallets, although tens of thousands of users were supposed to receive the gift digital assets.

What is an airdrop? Cryptocurrency airdrop is a marketing strategy used by startups to promote their projects and new tokens. An airdrop involves the free distribution of cryptocurrency among users. By cooperating with CoinMarketCap, the largest website tracking the prices of digital assets, startups expect to attract the attention of new users and increase the overall interest in their tokens.

As it became known, SaTT ordered an advertising airdrop from CoinMarketCap back in December. At that time, 25,000 random wallets were supposed to be allocated to 4,000 SATTs each. However, this did not happen. Most of the digital assets were accumulated on 21 wallets (20,953 addresses transferred their tokens to the above wallets). Later, all the cryptocurrency from the 21 wallets was sold for $ 142,000, which collapsed the SATT rate by 70%.

A similar situation occurred with the TokenBot project, which ordered a promotional distribution of TKB tokens to 30,000 random wallets. When the addresses of the 30,000 winners became known, TokenBot co-founder Sean Newsum decided to play it safe and send the cryptocurrency to only 4,000 wallets at first. However, history repeated itself: 3300 addresses eventually transferred funds to one wallet. The company estimated its loss at $ 20,000.

In response to TokenBot’s complaint, CoinMarketCap representatives apologized and promised to look into the situation. The service will investigate the airdrop and update the list of winners.