In recent weeks, Binance Wallet has captured up to 80% of the volume of decentralized trading among popular Web3 wallets. This increase in activity is due to the launch of a gamified rewards system.
At the end of April, the largest cryptocurrency exchange introduced a new system for participation in TGE through Binance Wallet and obtaining airdrops — Alpha Points. Since then, earning through activities requires accumulating a certain number of points. Moreover, the threshold has constantly increased: initially, 45 were required, then 65, later 137 — and so on up to 205.
Alpha Points are awarded for holding assets on a centralized exchange and/or wallet and trading volume on the Binance Alpha platform through the Binance Wallet.
The gradation for holding funds is as follows:
$100-1000 — 1 point;
$1000-10,000 — 2;
$10,000-100,000 — 3;
$100,000 and above — 4.
In trading, each additional point is awarded for doubling trading volume. The scheme looks like this:
for a trading volume of $2, 1 point is awarded;
for $4 — 2;
for $8 — 3;
for $16 — 4;
for $32 — 5 and so on.
Points are awarded every day for activity over the past 15 days. Points older than this period are automatically deducted.
To consistently earn 180 points, it is necessary to hold between $1000 and $10,000 on the exchange and make trades of at least $1024.
Additionally, a mechanism for deducting Alpha Points has been introduced — participation in TGE or receiving an airdrop incurs a charge of 15 points.
Rewards in the context of TGE and airdrops vary from campaign to campaign. On May 15, users with 187 points or more received 198 NXPC tokens — $724 at the exchange rate at the time of writing.
In almost all previous instances, the reward was significantly lower — about $100 in the case of selling assets at the moment of receipt. The increased profit from NXPC is linked to the rise in the token's price immediately after listing.
Additionally, it is worth considering the costs of gaining entry to participate. To earn 15 points for volume, an exchange of $32,768 is required. Losses due to slippage and fees will amount to about $10-20 depending on the chosen network and token. To earn 14 points, the trading volume and associated costs can be halved.
At the same time, there is a high risk of engaging in activity for 15 days, spending dozens of dollars on exchanges, but still not reaching the necessary level for access to the airdrop or TGE.
In the case of TGE, earnings often amount to around $50-80. However, participation in the campaign requires using up to three BNB, which may decrease in price.
In the network, there are users with 246 points. To achieve this result, it is necessary to hold $10,000-100,000 on the exchange and provide a trading volume of $8192 or $16,384 every day.
Criticism
The gamified system of earning and spending points to obtain an airdrop has noticeably stimulated trading volumes through the Web3 wallet of the popular exchange. The BNB network is in the highest demand among drop hunters of Binance Alpha.
Binance Alpha has been criticized for unfair token distribution: a significant portion goes to exchange users who do not participate in the project’s development and act solely out of self-interest. Meanwhile, early supporters of the ecosystem either receive no reward at all or receive significantly less.