AltLayer’s Executive Quells Community Backlash Over $100 Million Airdrop Distribution

AltLayer’s Head of Growth has described events leading up to gains by a few non-fungible token (NFT) holders as a coincidence. Additionally, Dorothy called for more community support in the future.

In a reaction to widespread criticism of handling a recent airdrop, the executive took to X (formerly Twitter) to address issues leading up to the token distribution.

Dear AltLayer community,

I think it’s fair to say that I put my heart and soul into creating the OG Badge and Oh Ottie! NFT collections with support from our amazing designer and tech team.

As our community may know, both NFT collections were dropped as fair mint and announced… https://t.co/Q5yRburIsy pic.twitter.com/CzeYMQMIzN

— 多多 | Dorothy (@Dorothy_defi) January 26, 2024

Issues raised by the community included unfair distribution of tokens to a selected few. Allegedly, some users got up to $135,000, and accrued massive gains from selling NFTs after selection.

Dorothy described some events as a coincidence after it was alleged that users got a particular type of NFT just for selection during the airdrop.

“As our community may know, both NFT collections were dropped as fair mint and announced with future token airdrop two years ago as community engagement activities.” 

The platform rolled out Oh Ottie and OG Badge NFTs before the airdrop. Ownership of these NFTs was used as a criterion for distributing rewards.

AltLayer Community Reports Irregularities with Oh Ottie NFTs

The first issue broke when users flagged on-chain transactions on a wallet that got two Oh Ottie NFTs last year, the first in March and the second in May from a wallet linked to Dorothy.

The NFTs held by the user were listed before the snapshot making them eligible for the airdrop. The address received $135,000 in the airdrop and sold the assets.

Calling that particular issue a coincidence, she added that it would not be unusual for a dengen trader to take profits after unusual price swings.

This issue was further fueled when user @WazzCrypto spotted similar activities with NFT holders who listed their assets before the snapshot but were still eligible for the airdrop.

“AltLayer OG Badge dropped 70% after the official snapshot announcement on Twitter. From 7.77 $ETH to 2.3 $ETH in a matter of minutes, a few select wallets sold these NFTs minutes before the snapshot announcement, and managed to secure big profits.”

Accusations of Uneven AltLayer Airdrop Distribution

In addition to these claims, the recurring issue of uneven distribution of tokens has been flagged in several community airdrops in the crypto ecosystem.

AltLayer’s airdrop saw $100 million worth of assets distributed to over 550,000 community members with a majority of the value reserved for a few based on the NFTs held.

The largest category has 467,000 users who received 111 million Alt tokens shortlisted from participants in the Altitude Campaign.

The next group comprised 95,000 users who previously staked TIA tokens and received 30 million Alt tokens. Other groups also received rewards based on certain requirements listed by the team.

Notably, the biggest beneficiaries were holders of the OG Badge NFTs who received about $50,000 worth of tokens each. The group comprised 400 users, and about 100 NFTs were reserved for team members and cryptocurrency influencers.