A recent Solana token presale encountered significant distribution issues when a sophisticated bot farm reportedly used over a thousand wallets to monopolize nearly the entire sale in mere seconds, leaving genuine participants unable to acquire tokens. This incident highlights the growing challenges faced by decentralized launches in ensuring fair access.
The Presale Hijack and Its Swift Response
The "Wet" (WET) token presale, organized via the decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter by Solana-based automated market maker HumidiFi, sold out almost instantly. However, it was quickly revealed that a single actor had dominated the sale by deploying over 1,000 wallets, effectively cornering the market. In response to this blatant Sybil attack, HumidiFi promptly canceled the entire launch. The team announced a plan to create a new token and conduct a prorated airdrop exclusively for legitimate buyers, including Wetlist participants and JUP stakers, while explicitly excluding the exploitative bot operator. A new public sale is slated for the near future.
Unmasking the Bot Farm: On-Chain Analytics in Action
Blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps played a crucial role in identifying the entity behind the attack. By observing unusual wallet clustering during the sale, Bubblemaps traced over 1,100 of the 1,530 participating wallets back to a single actor. Their analysis revealed identical funding and activity patterns: newly created wallets with no prior on-chain history, all funded by a handful of central wallets within a tight timeframe, receiving similar amounts of Solana (SOL) tokens. A crucial slip-up by one of the groups even allowed Bubblemaps to link the attack to a specific Twitter account, further solidifying their findings.
The Persistent Threat of Sybil Attacks in Crypto
This incident underscores the escalating threat of Sybil attacks in token presales and airdrops across the blockchain ecosystem. Bubblemaps CEO Nick Vaiman emphasized that such attacks, where a single entity controls multiple identities to manipulate distributions, are becoming increasingly common and pose a critical security risk. Previous instances in November saw similar exploits in aPriori and Edel Finance token distributions. To counter these sophisticated threats, experts recommend that project teams implement robust "Know Your Customer" (KYC) measures, utilize advanced algorithms for Sybil detection, perform manual reviews of participants, or engage professional Sybil detection services to safeguard fair distribution and maintain trust within the community.
