Apriori Airdrop backed by CZ Capital faces scrutiny: nearly 80% of Tokens secretly created wallets to seize.

The trading infrastructure startup Apriori, backed by CZ's venture capital department, is facing serious scrutiny due to its APR Token's “Genesis Airdrop” event. Blockchain data shows that over 5,800 secretly created Wallet clusters quietly claimed about 80% of the Airdrop Tokens on the BNB Chain, strongly suggesting the presence of a Sybil attack or insider information leakage.

Apriori Airdrop Fairness in Question: Systematic Claiming Behavior of Cluster Wallets

Apriori conducted the “genesis airdrop” of the APR Token on October 23 on Ethereum and BNB Chain, aimed at rewarding early contributors, testnet users, and holders from partner communities such as MadLads and Moonbirds.

• Amazing concentration: Blockchain analysis reveals that approximately 80% of the tokens claimed on BNB Chain are controlled by a single cluster of over 5,800 wallets.
• Characteristics of Sybil attacks: This pattern is a typical feature of Sybil attacks, where airdrop hunters deploy thousands of wallets to claim rewards multiple times.
• Source of funds in question: On-chain data shows that these cluster wallets received a small amount of BNB from 13 addresses to pay for claiming transaction fees a few days before Apriori announced the eligibility for claiming on the BNB Chain (from October 19 to 20), raising serious doubts about whether internal information was exploited.

On-chain behavior reveals insider information: New wallets and concentrated profits of inactive users

Further analysis of these cluster wallets almost completely rules out the possibility of them being real users, pointing to highly coordinated automated operations.

• Identity Characteristics: Among the top 200 APR holders, almost all are newly created wallets established between October 5 and 6, which have had little meaningful trading history or on-chain activity aside from receiving Airdrop Tokens.
• Behavioral patterns converge: Analysts point out that these wallets exhibit almost identical trading patterns and behaviors, strongly suggesting that they are under automated control or coordination.
• Project party silence: Apriori and its founder Ray Song have not responded to multiple requests for comments.

Industry Alarm: The Apriori Incident Reignites the Risk of Large-Scale Sybil Attacks

The APR Token of Apriori reached a market value of about $93 million on its first day, but the price has since plummeted by more than 60%, highlighting the immediate damage that airdrop fraud can inflict on token value.

• History Repeats: This incident is another example of the airdrop scandal in the cryptocurrency space, where both zkSync and Io.net on Solana previously suffered from large-scale Sybil attacks.
• Erosion of Trust: Analysts warn that such Sybil attacks have become a recurring problem in the industry, severely eroding market trust in token distribution events.
• Investor Warning: Investors in Apriori include institutions such as YZi Labs, and the plummet of its Token has not only harmed early supporters but also posed challenges to the due diligence of these venture capital firms.

Conclusion

The Apriori Airdrop event exposed significant vulnerabilities in fairness and accountability under the decentralized narrative. Even with the backing of top engineers from CZ-affiliated capital and Jump Trading, the project team failed to adequately protect the airdrop mechanism, ultimately leading to potential internal information leaks that allowed Sybil attackers to steal the majority of the rewards, severely damaging the initial credibility of the APR Token.