CZ-Backed Apriori Airdrop Under Fire as Wallets Made in Secret Claim 80% of Tokens

Apriori, a trading infrastructure startup backed by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s venture arm, is facing scrutiny after blockchain data revealed that thousands of newly created wallets secretly claimed most of its token ￰1￱ October 23, Apriori distributed its APR token across Ethereum and BNB Chain as part of a “Genesis Airdrop” meant to reward early contributors, testnet users, and NFT holders from partner communities such as MadLads and Moonbirds. However, blockchain analysis reviewed by investigators shows that roughly 80% of the tokens on BNB Chain were claimed by more than 5,800 wallets linked to a single clustered ￰2￱ pattern suggests an organized Sybil attack , a tactic where airdrop hunters deploy thousands of wallets to claim rewards multiple ￰3￱ Job or Coincidence?

Wallet Patterns Cast Doubt on Apriori’s Airdrop Fairness According to On-chain data, the cluster of wallets was created and funded days before Apriori publicly announced that its token would be claimable on BNB Chain, raising questions about whether inside information may have been used. ⌘ Apriori: What Happened Behind the Scenes click to read better When I heard about what happened with @aPriori , I decided to collect some data and today, I finally finished the ￰4￱ can find the links to ￰5￱ ￰6￱ files in the comment ￰7￱ this… ￰8￱ — NAGI (MON to $1) (@Nagiiiiseishiro) October 24, 2025 Between October 19 and 20, these wallets were each funded with small amounts of BNB from just 13 addresses, enough to execute airdrop claim ￰9￱ 13 wallets, which funneled the funds, remain ￰10￱ who reviewed the data said the activity occurred before the eligibility criteria were published on October 22, suggesting prior knowledge of the airdrop’s network and ￰11￱ analysis of the top 200 APR holders found that nearly all were newly created between October 5 and 6, had no meaningful trading history, and engaged in little to no on-chain activity beyond receiving the ￰12￱ three wallets among the top holders appeared to belong to genuine users with prior transactions and NFT ￰13￱ rest showed almost identical trading behavior and transaction patterns, indicating automated control or ￰14￱ and its founder, Ray Song, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Apriori’s investors include YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), HashKey Capital, Pantera Capital, and Primitive ￰15￱ is excited to announce a $20M fundraise, bringing our total funding to $30M. We’re building the intelligent order flow coordination layer so traders, liquidity providers, and validators win ￰16￱ you to our investors and ￰17￱ — aPriori ⌘ (@aPriori) August 28, 2025 The startup, developed by former engineers from Jump Trading, Coinbase, and Citadel Securities, raised $30 million to build an “execution layer” for on-chain crypto markets, using high-frequency trading strategies to improve efficiency and reduce the effects of maximal extractable value.) September 11, 2025 Last year, zkSync and Solana-based ￰18￱ suffered large-scale Sybil exploits , with attackers using automated wallets and fake GPU reports to claim millions in ￰19￱ Labs also blacklisted hundreds of thousands of suspected Sybil addresses last year in an effort to protect its token ￰20￱ Labs has identified 800,000 addresses as potential sybil addresses, rendering them ineligible for the full token allocation. #LayerZero #Airdrop ￰0￱ — ￰21￱ (@cryptonews) May 20, 2024 Such tactics remain difficult to detect and ￰22￱ warn that such Sybil attacks have become a recurring issue in the industry, eroding trust in token distribution events.