Avantis airdrop hit by $4M Sybil attack, 300 wallets compromised

On chain analysis shows the Avantis airdrop sybil attack siphoned roughly $4 million in AVNT tokens undermining the airdrop’s goal to reward genuine community participants.

Bubblemaps’ findings show a single entity drained $4 million worth of AVNT across more than 300 wallet addresses a classic pattern in an Avantis airdrop sybil attack. Many of the implicated wallets were dormant before the event and then followed nearly identical flows:

• funded from Coinbase
• received USD from a narrow cluster of sources
• swapped assets on Avantis
• claimed the airdrop
• consolidated tokens
• transferred funds to centralized exchanges

Listings Wave And 12.5% Airdrop Drive Avantis Momentum

AVNT drew attention last week with its 12.5% airdrop which saw some participants received six figure rewards. However, blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps suggested that a single entity may have captured a significantly larger share. In a post on X, the firm said the Avantis Sybil attack resembled a similar exploit on MYX, describing the operation as

“clearly coordinated.” the post said.

The flagged wallets’ behavior funding, identical swaps, simultaneous claims, consolidation and coordinated withdrawals to Bybit and Gate fits textbook Avantis airdrop sybil attack activity; the same Avantis airdrop sybil attack pattern has appeared in prior airdrop exploits researchers noted.

Those revelations arrived days after AVNT’s initial Sept. 9 listings on Coinbase, Kraken and Bitunix and ahead of follow on listings on Binance, Upbit and Bithumb a sequence that amplified the damage of the Avantis airdrop sybil attack as price and volume spiked. The token reached an all time high near $1.57 briefly pushing market cap and liquidity metrics sharply higher and making the exploited haul more consequential.

Avantis’ Airdrop 1 distributed 12.5% of the total AVNT supply to more than 65,000 eligible wallets based on on chain activity. The emergence of the Avantis airdrop sybil attack highlights how well intentioned distribution rules can be gamed without stronger identity or behavior based guards.

Avantis and the major exchanges named in the flows have not publicly confirmed every detail. On chain observers say the Avantis airdrop sybil attack underscores an urgent need for more robust anti Sybil checks, refined eligibility criteria and post distribution monitoring to better protect future token distributions and genuine community members.