The race for Alpha Points: a trap for drop hunters or a gold mine for Binance?
In recent weeks, Binance Wallet has concentrated 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 participating in TGE through Binance Wallet and receiving airdrops — Alpha Points. Since then, to earn through activities, a certain number of points must be collected. Furthermore, the threshold has been constantly raised: first it required 45, 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 the trading volume on the Binance Alpha platform through Binance Wallet.
The gradation for fund storage is as follows:
$100-1,000 — 1 point;
$1,000-10,000 — 2;
$10,000-100,000 — 3;
$100,000 and above — 4.
In trading, each additional point is awarded for doubling the trading volume. The scheme looks as follows:
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 daily for activity over the past 15 days. Points older than this period are automatically deducted.
To consistently earn 180 points, one must hold between $1,000 and $10,000 on the exchange and make trades of at least $1,024.
Additionally, a mechanism for deducting Alpha Points has been introduced — participation in TGE or receiving an airdrop costs 15 points.
Rewards within TGE and airdrops vary from campaign to campaign. On May 15, users with 187 or more points received 198 NXPC tokens — $724 at the exchange rate at the time of writing.
Almost every previous time, the reward was significantly lower — about $100 in the case of selling assets at the moment of receipt. The increased profit from NXPC is associated with the token's price surge immediately after listing.
Additionally, it is worth considering the costs for admission to participate. To get 15 points for volume, a trade 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 collect 14 points, the volume of operations and associated costs can be halved.
At the same time, there is a high risk of being active for 15 days, burning dozens of dollars on exchanges, but still not reaching the required level for admission to the airdrop or TGE.
In the case of TGE, earnings often amount to about $50-80. However, participating 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 ensure a trading volume of $8,192 or $16,384 each day.
Criticism
The gamified system for earning and spending points to receive airdrops has significantly stimulated trading volumes through the Web3 wallet of the popular exchange. The BNB network is in the highest demand among Binance alpha drop hunters.
Binance Alpha is 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. At the same time, early supporters of the ecosystem are either left unrewarded or receive significantly less.
