Kaito Airdrop: Whales Dump Their Allocations as the Token Loses 90% of Its Value

Kaito (KAITO), the mindshare heatmap producer, finally launched its native token, followed by immediate listings. The KAITO allocation was tied to social media presence, or ‘yaps’, with months-long leaderboard competition.

Kaito (KAITO) finally launched its native token, aiming to introduce a fun friend-tech experience on Base. The airdrop was hyped up, with high-profile crypto influencers set to receive a bulk of the airdrop. However, many recipients quickly sold their KAITO holdings.

The KAITO airdrop was specifically designed to target high-profile accounts, rewarding them with tokens based on their ‘yaps’ or social media activity. This aimed to revive friend-tech or social media tokenization. After the airdrop, KAITO could also be staked for additional incentives.

Unfortunately, just hours after KAITO started trading and gained listings, the early whale recipients immediately started selling their allocations.

Top crypto influencer Anthony Sassano quickly topped the leaderboard, selling 166,397 KAITO. This came shortly after KAITO started trading on Kraken, its largest listing on an established centralized exchange.

Other top vanity addresses, like icobeast.eth, also sold their KAITO holdings, as did several notable Farcaster users. KAITO deliberately targeted top accounts, putting AIXBT, the AI agent X handle, at the top. In one case, icobeast.eth sold all 159,296.93 KAITO just an hour after the allocation through several transactions and swaps on Uniswap V4.

One whale sold the entire KAITO allocation through Uniswap V4. | Source: Basescan

KAITO launched on Base, hoping to tap the low-fee network for a fun friend-tech experience. Instead, the airdrop turned into another chance to offload tokens. KAITO had a total of 29,969 token holders within the first day of the airdrop.

Some may have to pay an unlocking fee of around $4 to gain access to their tokens. Early whales, however, were faster and were able to swap KAITO through decentralized markets immediately. KAITO is being swapped on DEX pairs, though with limited liquidity under $500K.

Airdrops have sold in the first days, though KAITO was expected to have a cult status and bring together other crypto influencers. Some have decided to hold in exchange for badges, but the initial reaction for many recipients was to lock in gains first, then gauge the new market conditions for long-term KAITO holding.

KAITO allocations were overhyped

By its initial design, the KAITO airdrop and the preceding campaign were targeting high-profile Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). The market was skeptical even before the launch, as KOLs often sold the tokens they shilled with little concern for long-term performance.

Before the airdrop, expectations were set for a dollar value of $100 per ‘yap’ point. This led to outsized allocations for top accounts. The leading influencers and crypto handles were expecting allocations in the millions.

Upadate on $KAITOStill a decent stimmy for those who got it. But waaay below those silly influencer/KOL valuations ?

And yes, they are dumping it like no man's business ? https://t.co/iEGxrnqhEq pic.twitter.com/GFFVlhTuoj

— FT (@FTPager) February 20, 2025

The biggest concern was that KOLs would use other traders as exit liquidity to maximize their initial airdrop.

The current estimate was that KOLs and all other eligible users received around $21 per ‘yap’ point. This translated into a price equivalent of $1.40 for KAITO soon after the launch.

KAITO immediately gained a Binance listing, with Kraken following soon after. However, the high-profile exchanges did not manage to preserve KAITO’s positions. The token started sliding in the initial trading hours, sinking to $0.92.

The Kaito Genesis NFT collection, which was one of the avenues of KAITO token allocations, also lost 90% of its value.

Kaito NFT lost 90% of its floor price just after the airdrop. | Source: NFTPriceFloor

The collection had a price floor at 11.90 ETH just days before the airdrop, but went on to slide to 1.62 ETH.

KAITO was the first token allocation belonging to an off-chain, tokenless project that mostly dealt with crypto data and analytics. Alongside Kaito, similar airdrops are expected from Bubblemaps, Arkham, and even Nansen. In the early stages, the airdrop increases engagement with other products and data while also targeting influencers.

The current KAITO airdrop leaves 10% of the tokens for the Kaito Foundation, along with a significant allocation for business development.

As KAITO started trading with a valuation above $1B, the airdrop also worked as a source of liquidity and funding. The Kaito service thus managed to find financing while avoiding VC-