Another anti-rug project has emerged...
Following the last update on the token airdrop with a total token supply of 21% (divided into three seasons: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, each season accounts for 7%), yesterday, YZi Labs, with an investment of "tens of millions of dollars" and CZ joining as an advisor, updated the Season 1 airdrop document for Genius. According to the latest content, a total of 70 million GENIUS tokens will be distributed during TGE. Early users have two ways to claim:
· Choose to Claim Immediately at TGE: The immediate claiming period is 7 days after TGE. If a user chooses to claim immediately, 70% of the tokens will be automatically burned. For example, if a user's total claim amount is 100 GENIUS tokens and chooses to claim immediately, they will lose 70 GENIUS, ultimately receiving only 30 GENIUS, and the remaining 70 GENIUS will be permanently destroyed;
· Choose to Lock for One Year and Claim at TGE: This claiming option will not be subject to any penalty. Users do not need to take any action and need to wait for the airdrop claiming window to close. Subsequently, the user's token allocation will be locked in the smart contract for one year. For example, if a user's total claim amount is 100 GENIUS tokens and chooses to lock for one year before claiming, they will receive 100 GENIUS after one year.
According to the latest information from the official Telegram, Genius explained that this airdrop distribution plan aims to provide an exit path for users who are not interested in the project's long-term development and to reward those who stay and truly believe in this product.
What's even more interesting is that the official document includes a section where CZ's previous tweet is quoted (Tweet content: "If you have ever envied those who bought cryptocurrencies at a low price and survived the cycle, think about what they did at such a moment.")
This airdrop claiming rule has ignited strong dissatisfaction in the rug pull community.
YZi Labs Invests "Tens of Millions of Dollars," with CZ Serving as Advisor, in Genius
Genius is a privacy-centric decentralized trading platform that offers spot, perpetual contract, and copy trading, supporting over 10 blockchains including BNB Chain and Solana. Its goal is to become Binance's on-chain alternative, bringing the speed, liquidity, and privacy experience of CEX to the blockchain while remaining fully self-custodial and non-custodial (users hold their private keys).
As early as October 2024, Genius announced the completion of a $6 million seed round with CMCC Global leading the investment and participation from institutions such as Cadenza Ventures, AVA Labs, Arca, and Flow Traders.
Then, on January 13 of this year, Genius announced that YZi Labs had invested "tens of millions of dollars" in it, with CZ personally joining as an advisor.
Textbook-Level Anti-Rug Pull Process: From Hype to Rule Reversal
After the rules were announced, the community's most immediate feeling was "betrayal." Community members complained that with CZ's endorsement and a detailed TGE timeline, everyone was willing to spend real money over several months to increase trading volume, only to be informed just before the TGE that they had to "cut 70% off" — "either take the scraps and leave or spend another year with the project team."
If we dissect the whole process, this incident looks more like a textbook-level anti-rug pull process of continuously adjusting expectations and finally revising the rules on the eve of TGE.
Initially, the narrative presented was almost undisputed: funding, advisors, airdrop ratio, and timing were all clearly laid out, with logical flow and clear expectations. In this framework, continuing to increase volume, time, and money investment instead became the "rational choice" of rug pullers.
Subsequently, the expectations began to be recalibrated. Airdrop ratio reductions, allocation structure adjustments — these changes were not uncommon, and even in the market environment at that time, there was some room for explanation. Many rug pullers chose to continue investing in this stage, fundamentally accepting the new expectation of "reduced but still profitable returns."
The real turning point came on the eve of TGE. After the claiming rules were redesigned, the originally established distribution turned into a multiple-choice question with constraints — either accept a significant loss for liquidity or bear the time cost for the full amount. At this point, the gap between expectation and reality was rapidly magnified.
Cost Re-evaluation: Apart from Early Users, Recent "Whale-Washing" Users May Face Collective "Whale-Mugging"
According to feedback from several long-time participants in the "carpet-pulling" community, the cost of obtaining GP points through transaction volume in recent weeks is roughly between 0.025 and 0.045 USD per point.
However, for a project that has been launched for only a few months and has yet to even fix its turntable function, early users find it difficult to maintain high expectations for the listing price or second-quarter airdrop. In such an expectation, most people are more likely to choose to burn 70% during TGE, immediately claim the remaining 30%, which means that the actual cost is directly magnified. As a result, the true cost has escalated to 0.083 to 0.15 USD per point.
According to user Nathan's compilation, if the total points are 200 million, for users who have earned GP points by washing transactions in recent weeks, Genius's listing FDV must be at least as high as 8 billion USD to avoid "whale-mugging".
Perhaps only the earliest users will truly not lose money.
Team Response: Burning All Airdropped Tokens Can Refund All Fees Generated in Genius
Since the announcement of the airdrop rules, the Genius community has been filled with dissatisfaction. This morning, after listening to the community's feedback, the team posted in the official Telegram channel, stating that an "refund" option will be added during airdrop claiming. Choosing the refund option means burning 100% of the GENIUS token airdrop allocation in exchange for the fees collected by Genius. Users can apply for a refund within 48 hours after the TGE ends, and the refund will be credited within 48 hours after claiming. In addition, regarding the calculation of Genius fees, users need to understand the following two points:
What is refunded is the net fee, not the absolute fee. Genius has distributed over $7 million in cashback to the trading community and over $1.3 million in referral rewards to traders. The team calculates the net fee that users actually paid to the trading terminal, which has deducted the above fees;
If a user conducts a transaction with a total fee of 20 basis points, where 15 basis points are charged by the underlying decentralized trading platform (such as PancakeSwap), and the Genius terminal only charges 5 basis points, Genius can only refund users these 5 basis points.
Genius cannot refund the full transaction fee to users because the fee paid to Genius is different from the fee paid to the underlying provider.
