Author: Stacy Muur
Compiled by: Felix, PANewss
The crypto market has always been narrative-driven. However, in 2025, a new mechanism for capturing attention took center stage: the KaitoAI Earn leaderboard. These incentive activities reward early researchers, commentators, and meme creators (collectively known as 'yappers'), allowing them to generate buzz before the project launch in exchange for future token allocations.
Its operational model is now well-known:
Reward early user recognition.
Fabricate stories.
Create demand before TGE.
It does work. The leaderboard can enhance visibility, trading volume, and social recognition. But the question is:
Can this attention be sustained?
Once token issuance and airdrops are claimed, those 'noisy' players will turn to the next token issuance. Prices drop, trading volume shrinks, and participation gradually declines.
This article critically analyzes multiple Kaito-related projects, including $SKATE, $HUMA, $QUAI, and $SOON, to explore whether the hype can be sustained after the token's launch. A trend is emerging: the narrative is designed to attract attention, not to maintain momentum.
Let's start with SKATE.
Skate: High trading volume, numerous listings, and stagnation post-Kaito.
$SKATE is a token associated with the Solana modular gaming layer, which had strong momentum at launch. With listing support from well-known exchanges including Binance and Bitget, along with in-depth promotional Kaito Earn activities, SKATE had sufficient liquidity and high visibility at launch.
TGE: June 10, 2025.
Issuance price (opening price): $0.06506.
First-day closing price: $0.05094.
First-day trading volume: $41.46 million.
Initial FDV: approximately $65 million.
Current price (July 7): $0.04065.
Current FDV: approximately $40.65 million.
Post-TGE drop: approximately 37.5%.
Current 24-hour trading volume: $8.46 million.
Trading volume / market cap ratio (July 7): approximately 139%.
SKATE's early trading showcased a strong start. On June 10, the token's attention surged sharply, peaking at $0.06539, but quickly retraced to around $0.05094, experiencing about 22% retracement on the first day.
Subsequently, similar trends were observed when other projects under Kaito launched:
In mid-June: supported by post-listing momentum, the price rebounded to the range of $0.051 to $0.048 (June 11 to 16).
From June 21 to 23: trading volume fluctuated significantly (single-day trading volume around $110 million), but lacked strong directional trends.
From June 30 to July 4: a brief fluctuation occurred, soaring to $0.06234 before quickly dropping.
From July 5 to 7: the price fell back to $0.04065, down about 37% since TGE and about 22% since the high on July 4.
Social buzz also peaked in the early stages but then rapidly declined. Within 7 to 10 days post-launch, Kaito contributors shifted their attention to new leaderboard projects and token activities, resulting in a noticeable drop in mentions and participation.
Summary: Rotation outweighs retention.
SKATE has all the favorable conditions: launch on major CEXs, high liquidity, and reward-oriented Kaito ecosystem narratives. However, the attention on SKATE did not last. Despite SKATE's daily trading volume approaching 140% of its market capitalization, SKATE remains a high-turnover asset with no long-term holders.
The story of SKATE is similar to other tokens in the Kaito Earn ecosystem:
Pre-launch hype.
Immediate trading volume pull after launch.
Airdrop claims and quick exits.
Narrative depletion within weeks.
SKATE's market performance further confirms criticisms leveled at projects driven by Kaito: high visibility, low user stickiness.
Huma: Launchpool hype, Kaito rewards at 0.5%, first-day rotation amount reached $300 million.
Huma is a decentralized payment financing protocol (PayFi) that utilizes Binance and Kaito's complete tech stack to issue its native token HUMA on May 26, 2025.
The Binance Launchpool activity allowed users to mine HUMA by staking BNB, FDUSD, or USDC from May 23 to 26. Additionally, Huma also launched Kaito Earn activities, distributing 0.5% of the total supply across three 'Seasons'.
First season allocation:
0.1% allocated to the top 500 participants on Kaito leaderboard.
0.1% allocated to contributors in the Solana, DeFi, and RWA categories.
Allocated to SOL wallet registrants and Kaito ecosystem token holders.
Binance began trading on May 26 at 21:00 (UTC+8). As of May 27:
TGE (opening price): $0.06683.
First-day closing price: $0.05936.
Opening retracement: approximately 11.2%.
First-day trading volume: $310.37 million.
First-day market cap: $102.89 million.
Current price (July 7): $0.03083.
Current market cap: $53.44 million.
FDV: $308.6 million.
Trading volume / market cap ratio (July 7): ~33%.
Despite the hype from Launchpool and Kaito Earn, most of HUMA's trades are rotational. The rewards for the first season are available from day one, and the second season has already been previewed, which increased selling pressure rather than encouraging long-term holding.
After briefly stabilizing around $0.05 in early June, the price continued to fall over the next month, dropping 40% from June 9 to July 7. This trend reflects not only profit-taking but also a lack of sustained demand. Daily trading volume shrank by over 90% from its peak on the first day, while the FDV ($308 million) and actual market cap ($53 million) gap continued to widen, further reinforcing the market's view that much of HUMA's appeal is driven by events rather than the product itself.
Summary: HUMA exhibits a typical Kaito Earn model: impressive data, massive liquidity, but a lack of lasting appeal. Its launch aimed to increase visibility rather than secure steadfast support, and due to a lack of post-launch utility and demand, early attention comes quickly and leaves just as fast.
Quai: massive distribution, deep Kaito integration, strong launch... then falling into silence.
Quai is a decentralized multithreaded blockchain protocol that has conducted the most generous and deeply integrated Kaito Earn activity to date. From January 17 to April 17, 2025, the project allocated a total of 6 million $QUAI tokens to reward content contributors:
5.5 million QUAI for the Kaito leaderboard.
500,000 QUAI for the Quai exclusive leaderboard.
From April 29 to May 12, users could claim through the Kipper platform. Weekly snapshots tracked contributors, with top yappers like @0xalank, @basedPavel, and @Abhijeetcg receiving up to 5.95% of individual recognition shares, significantly higher than SKATE or HUMA.
Although the Quai mainnet launched on January 29, the token could only be freely traded after exchange data was released on February 22.
QUAI's first-day performance (February 22, 2025):
Opening price: $0.09884.
Highest price: $0.2263.
Closing price: $0.1929.
Trading volume: $10.14 million.
Subsequent trend: rotation, reversal, and a long cooling period.
QUAI is one of the most eye-catching new projects under Kaito's tokens. Its price soared from $0.09884 to $0.2263 during the day, an increase of 129%, eventually closing at $0.1929, a rise of 95%.
But this has already been the peak.
In the following weeks:
February 23 to 26: price rapidly dropped to about $0.17 to $0.18.
March 1 to 15: price continued to decline to the $0.12 to $0.08 range, reflecting the common performance of capital rotation post-hype.
April to May: despite several small rebound attempts, support gradually weakened.
June to July: the token's price ranged between $0.06 and $0.07, with a trading price of $0.05266 as of July 7, down about 73% from the closing price and about 76.7% from the highest price.
Trading volume also indicates the situation:
From $10 million on the first day to about $3 million now, indicating a sharp drop in activity.
Even the second phase of Kaito rewards did not significantly boost demand post-TGE.
Summary: QUAI has many advantages: substantial Kaito allocation, strong brand influence, a highly anticipated TGE, and robust early price performance. However, attention shifts quickly. Even top yapper participants have failed to solidify their secondary market interest.
QUAI's current trading price has fallen below the issuance price and has not seen a significant rebound since March, demonstrating that early liquidity does not equate to lasting confidence.
Soon: Integrated with Kaito, booming on the Binance Alpha platform, and reality-tested.
Soon, a high-performance Solana Optimistic Network (SVM-based rollup), ran one of the most structured and community-consolidated Kaito Earn activities in early 2025. During the three-month activity period, 450,000 SOON tokens (approximately 0.045% of total supply) were allocated to the top 100 yapper participants.
Event date: February 19, 2025 - May 19, 2025.
Claim period: May 23, 2025, to June 23, 2025.
Eligibility: Kaito leaderboard contributors, early NFT holders, builder badge owners.
This event is not just a reward airdrop, but an integration of SOON's brand image. Participating users will receive 'Sooner' roles, badges, and social status, reinforcing that Kaito yappers are a key force in the early spread of SOON.
TGE and market release: from hot discussion to soaring popularity.
The SOON token was launched on May 23 and listed on Binance Alpha on May 24. The token opened at $0.4527, briefly reaching $0.4776, and closed at $0.4007 on the same day. The first-day trading volume exceeded $103 million, reflecting significant speculative activity and exchange amplification effects.
Some market indicators (as of July 7, 2025):
TGE date: May 23, 2025.
First-day opening price: $0.4527.
First-day closing price: $0.4007.
First-day trading volume: $103.1 million.
Current price: $0.1529.
Market cap: approximately $26.9 million.
Opening retracement: approximately 66.2%.
Maximum retracement: approximately 68.0%.
Trading volume / market cap ratio (July 7): approximately 97%.
What happened after the first day?
After the initial excitement, SOON followed the now-familiar post-Kaito era curve:
From late May to mid-June: SOON remained in the $0.29 to $0.39 range, with little fluctuation and a slow decline.
In late June: support levels fell below $0.25, with trading volume increasing from June 27 to 30, showing a trend of accelerated decline.
From July 5 to 7: SOON plummeted 40% in 48 hours, from $0.22 to $0.13, before slightly rebounding to $0.15.
This drop coincided with the end of the claim period (June 23), after which many claimants likely sold their tokens, and attention shifted to other Kaito activities.
Summary: The sooner you sell, the better?
SOON has all the elements for a successful launch: strong infrastructure promotion, exposure on the Binance Alpha platform, and community incentive mechanisms. However, the token fell by 66% within six weeks, indicating that the hype did not translate into steadfast support.
The Kaito Earn model has become predictable:
Narrative-driven airdrop → High trading volume on the first day → Quick rotation of airdrops → Price drops as attention shifts.
Even though SOON genuinely tried to integrate into the community culture, its market performance became a typical case of attention fragility. It gained a high-profile start backed by Kaito, yet could not prevent subsequent silence.
Conclusion: Narratives are cheap, beliefs are scarce.
The Kaito Earn model has proven to be a powerful engine for gaining attention prior to project launches, but a common pattern is gradually emerging among projects like SKATE, HUMA, QUAI, and SOON: attention surges at TGE but fails to convert into long-term belief.
Despite differences in industries (gaming, infrastructure, PayFi), listing platforms (Binance, Bitget), and reward mechanisms, the results are surprisingly similar:
Tokens soared on the first day.
Airdrop recipients rotate.
Price trends stabilize over weeks.
This is not a flaw of Kaito itself; as a content discovery layer, it performs excellently. However, the current model incentivizes narrative creation rather than long-term belief. Due to a lack of utility, retention mechanisms, or sustained product demand, most tokens released through this channel are caught in a cycle of attention/exit.
Unless this cycle is broken and tokens are designed to reward holding rather than merely speculation, the Kaito model may remain as follows: a powerful launch platform, but rarely achieving a successful landing.
Related reading: Overview of all Kaito platform gameplay: Yap To Earn analysis.
