New issues in the crypto space are turning into a performance art—project teams raise the threshold to the ceiling while yields plummet to the floor price. Today's SIGMA airdrop has a threshold of 245 points paired with a limited 640 shares, resembling the distribution of coupons at a train station during the Spring Festival; before the rush starts, we already know a stampede is coming.
The 'Yield Collapse' of the New Issue Market
A Cruel Demonstration of CAKE:
Oversubscription by 300 times, the probability of winning is lower than the lottery for a Beijing car license plate.
A return of 0.4% is equivalent to risking $1000 for $4.
After calculating the gas costs and time losses, the actual yield is negative.
This reveals a paradox: the more people chase popular projects, the actual returns resemble 'mosquito legs'. When the entire market falls into a cycle of 'anxiety without new issues, and more anxiety with new issues', it indicates that the new issue strategy is failing.
The design of SIGMA airdrop's 'Hunger Games'
Ingenious triple harvesting:
Threshold filtering: The requirement of 245 points forces users to increase trading volume, contributing to the platform's transaction fees.
Quantity control: The setting of 640 shares ensures that the vast majority are in the denominator.
Price anchoring: The pre-market price of 0.07U creates the illusion for participants that 'getting in means earning $44'.
The most ironic thing is that while you are exhausted running between CDL and BTG currency pairs, the platform has already recouped the airdrop costs through your trading behavior.
Point grinding traps and encirclement risks
The current most dangerous game:
Must choose volatile point currency pairs (CDL/BTG)
Reverse order settings need to be precise to 'second-level judgments'
Easy to be attacked by quantitative robots when liquidity is insufficient
Some users have calculated: To gather 245 points, one might bear a slippage loss of 2-3% when trading between BTG/USDT, not to mention the risk of sudden spikes. When the cost of grinding points approaches expected returns, participation turns into 'working for the platform'.
The vicious cycle of new project ecology
The new tricks from project teams:
Creating a false sense of scarcity with 'low total supply + high threshold'
Completing the cold start by leveraging community FOMO emotions
The actual delivered value is far lower than the advertised expectations.
The forced internal competition among participants:
Old players have no choice but to form 'point grinding teams' for mutual support
Newbies are attracted by high-yield promotions but often end up as cannon fodder
Everyone is complaining, but no one dares to exit the game
Just like the BLUAI project in the afternoon, knowing it’s a first-come-first-served lottery model, everyone still sets their alarms ready to compete for speed—not because they believe they can make money, but because they fear missing any 'what if'.
Breakthrough thinking: From 'mindless participation' to 'precise hunting'
Transformations worth trying:
Abandon low-guarantee projects: Directly say 'no' to projects that are over 100 times oversubscribed.
Focus on ecological dividends: True contributions in early project testing networks, community building, etc.
Arbitrage strategy upgrade: Using cross-platform price differences to hedge new project costs.
Some teams have already transformed to do 'new project evaluations', using data models to calculate real expected returns, helping users filter out 80% of the useless projects.
Deep warning
When the act of participating in new projects shifts from 'value discovery' to 'emotional gambling', the smartest players in this market have long quietly retreated. The remaining 'chives' complain while grinding points, resembling those gamblers in a casino who say 'this is the last hand' yet continue to bet.
Perhaps it is time to wake up to the reality: in the framework of zero-sum games, it is always the big players who set the rules, mathematicians who calculate probabilities, and ordinary people who provide liquidity. When you are frustrated about not being able to grab the SIGMA airdrop, the platform is celebrating in the background for gaining another batch of loyal users.
