Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps has flagged what it claimed could be the largest Sybil attack in crypto history, identifying around 100 freshly funded wallets that claimed 9.8 million MYX tokens, worth $170 million, from a recent airdr…
Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps has flagged what it claimed could be the largest Sybil attack in crypto history, identifying around 100 freshly funded wallets that claimed 9.8 million MYX tokens, worth $170 million, from a recent airdrop.
In a series of X posts on Wednesday, Bubblemaps revealed that the wallets received similar amounts of BNB (BNB) from crypto exchange OKX within minutes of each other, nearly a month before the airdrop.
“Everyone is talking about MYX hitting a $17B FDV A 20x in under 48 hours,” Bubblemaps wrote. “But we spotted something unusual. Something no one is mentioning,” it added.
The analytics firm noted that these wallets had no prior activity and claimed MYX at nearly the same time, around 5:30 am on May 7. “It’s hard to believe this was random,” Bubblemaps said, suggesting this could be the “biggest airdrop Sybil of all time.”
Related: Token airdrops targeted by farm accounts and ‘Sybil attacks’
MYX responds to Sybil claims
In response to the Sybil claims, MYX Finance defended its token distribution, asserting that rewards were based on actual trading and liquidity provider contributions. It also cited anti-Sybil safeguards under its “Cambrian” campaign.
However, the platform admitted that some high-volume users requested address changes before launch and said such requests were permitted to encourage participation.
“As a decentralized perpetual DEX [decentralized exchange], we always prioritize user participation, and even in cases where a single entity participates extensively, we acknowledge and respect that participation,” MYX said.
Bubblemaps dismissed MYX’s response as vague and even AI-generated, claiming it “somehow makes things even more suspicious.”
At the time of writing, MYX is trading at $17.33, up by 6.47% over the past day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. However, it is down by more than 12% from its all-time high of $18.52 registered on Tuesday.
Related: Whales, Sybil attacks and low trust: Can DAOs avoid centralization pitfalls?
Inside a 30,000-phone airdrop farm
As Cointelegraph Magazine reported in July, crypto airdrop manipulation has become a sophisticated business. In Vietnam, Mirai Labs CEO Corey Wilton toured a phone farm packed with over 30,000 devices, each equipped with SIM cards, spoofed IPs, and unique fingerprints, to mimic real users and exploit token giveaways.
The operation goes beyond farming. Its main business is manufacturing: collecting old phones, modifying them and selling “airdrop farm kits” internationally. These kits, containing around 20 phones each, allow buyers to plug in and immediately start spoofing activity across multiple wallets.
Controlled by a single master device, hundreds of phones can operate in sync, which is ideal for bypassing Sybil detection systems used in most Web3 campaigns.
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