• Two wallets have consolidated over $2 million worth of ARB tokens through almost 1,500 other wallets.
• Some suspect that the increase in activity on Arbitrum was faked due to this consolidation of ARB tokens from the airdrop.
• ARB is currently trading at 80% down since the launch of its governance token on Thursday.
ARB Airdrop Consolidation
Two addresses consolidated more than $2 million worth of ARB tokens via almost 1,500 other wallets. This significant uptick in activity on Arbitrum is suspicious and has caused people to question if it’s fake.
Is Arbitrum Activity Fake?
Arbitrum launched its ARB token on Thursday and airdropped more than 11% of it to early Arbitrum users. However, two wallet addresses have amassed over 1.4 million ARB tokens from the airdrop worth more than $2.1 million at the time of writing. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain found that one wallet received ARB from 866 other wallets, while the other got it from 630 addresses; an indication that some people have gamed the system and led to increased activity on Arbitrum.
The Impact
At one point, the combined amount of transactions from the top two Layer-2 networks – Arbitrum and Optimism – overtook Ethereum mainnet transactions; however now that there are suspicions about fake activities on Arbitrum, its governance token ARB is currently trading at $1.43, down 80% on the day according to data from CoinGecko.
Behind the Wallets
It’s unclear who is behind these two wallets that have amassed substantial amounts of ARB tokens but some speculate they might be insiders or others close to the project.
Airdrop Farming Risk
Airdrop farming has become a risk for projects who reward their users as it can lead to centralization, fake volumes, and other issues which could prevent projects from succeeding in their goals