Controversial Airdrop Ignites Outrage from Solana DeFi Community: Here’s How Kamino Fought Back

• Kamino Finance Changes Earning Parameters Ahead of Airdrop
• Longtime Kamino Users Stand to Benefit, But Details Still Missing. It’s not easy to give out free crypto these days. This paradoxical reality has hit Solana-based crypto yields protocol Kamino, which on Monday announced changes to the mechanisms for its upcoming airdrop of the KMNO token.

• 02:31

  Bitcoin Jumps Over $72K; Dogwifhat Community Plans for Vegas

• 01:07

  Bitcoin Traders Lock $20M in the $200K Call Option

• 02:22

  Can Bitcoin Match Gold’s Position in Investors’ Portfolios? US To Appeal Do Kwon’s Extradition

• 01:05

  Spot Bitcoin ETFs Have ‘a Long Way Left to Go,’ Economist Says

The new rules will give additional rewards to veteran users of Kamino, but the exact details are still unknown. In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Kamino acknowledged the frustration of its users and promised to listen to their concerns.

This change highlights the potential pitfalls of using points to distribute tokens on Solana. While it can be a way to quantify user contributions and rank them, it also leaves room for manipulation when the rules are too transparent. This was the case for Kamino.

Usually, protocols do not disclose the full details of their points system until the airdrop is complete, in order to prevent gaming. However, Kamino announced its points program immediately after the successful Jito airdrop in December, choosing to be transparent from the start.

Earlier this month, Kamino confirmed that a token airdrop was coming in April and that users’ allocations would be tied to the number of points they earned through participation in DeFi products like borrowing, lending, and staking Solana tokens. Many users were eagerly awaiting this news and had deposited large amounts of crypto to earn points and receive more KMNO tokens. However, the airdrop announcement changed the rules and said that allocations would be based solely on the number of tokens users held at the end of the month, causing frustration for many.

In response to the announcement, Kamino’s total value locked has increased by 69% in the past five days, according to data from DeFiLlama. This is due to an influx of deposits from users hoping to earn more KMNO tokens before the snapshot is taken.

This move will slightly lessen the impact of latecomer deposits. Starting Tuesday, Kamino will no longer offer high points-earning incentives for depositing into a wide range of products; instead, it will focus on SOL and stablecoins, which are more commonly sought after. This means deposits made in pools that previously earned 5x as many points will now earn less under the new rules.

However, it is still unclear what will happen for “OG” (original) users of Kamino. The platform stated in their post that they will receive extra airdropped tokens, but did not define who qualifies as an “OG” user or how many tokens they will receive.