Wormhole Airdrop Extravaganza Lures Scammers, Hackers, and Meme-Coiners in $850 Million Bonanza

Wormhole's $850 million airdrop has attracted scammers and hackers, who have targeted users with malicious links and fake accounts. The official X accounts of the Wormhole founder and the project itself have been compromised, promoting suspected wallet drainers. Meanwhile, opportunistic developers have launched a parody "warmhole" memecoin, which has surged in value.

Wormhole Airdrop Bonanza Draws Scammers, Hackers, and Meme-Coiners in $850 Million Extravaganza

The Wormhole cross-chain bridging platform's massive $850 million airdrop of its native governance token (W) has attracted a swarm of crypto scammers, hackers, and meme-coin enthusiasts.

Scam Accounts and Malicious Links Proliferate

Independent blockchain investigator ZachXBT sounded the alarm on April 3, highlighting the prevalence of convincing scam accounts impersonating Wormhole's official announcement post. These accounts, often adorned with "gold checkmarks," aimed to deceive unsuspecting users.

Furthermore, the official Twitter account of Wormhole founder Robinson Burkey was compromised, with malicious links to suspected wallet drainers being posted several hours after the airdrop announcement. Burkey's account has since been made private.

W Token's Volatile Launch and Airdrop Value

The W token debuted on April 3 at a price of $1.66 on the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) OpenBook, boasting a total market capitalization of $2.98 billion at launch. However, its price has since plummeted by 19.5% to its current trading price of $1.34.

The bridging protocol allocated 674 million tokens (6.75% of the total supply) for the airdrop, resulting in a current total airdrop value of $896 million for eligible users.

Memecoin Parody Exploits Airdrop Hype

Opportunistic memecoin developers seized the moment, launching a parody token dubbed "warmhole" in the wake of the Wormhole airdrop announcement. This memecoin skyrocketed from a market cap of $100,000 at launch to a peak value of $8.3 million within six hours, marking an astonishing gain of 83,000%.

Some users facetiously suggested that if Wormhole airdrop recipients had instantly traded their W tokens for the warmhole memecoin, they would have become billionaires.

Solana-Exclusive Token and Future Expansion

Currently, the W token is only available on the Solana network. However, the project plans to make it available as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network and other layer-2 networks in the near future.

Collaboration to Combat Crypto Scams

Amidst the airdrop frenzy, news emerged of the formation of the "SEAL 911" team of white hats dedicated to fighting crypto hacks in real time. This team aims to provide swift response and recovery support to victims of crypto crimes.