The crypto market is a theater of echoes. This week, two projects—Amadeus Protocol and Flop Labs—announced a “points event” and “role application.” The tweet threads ignited. Wallets warmed. Gas fees spiked. Yet, if you peel back the layers of hype, what remains is not a protocol, but a promise. A promise wrapped in a points system, backed by an anonymous team, and sold to a community hungry for the next airdrop.
This is not a criticism of a single project. It is a diagnosis of a systemic pattern. We are in a bull market where euphoria masks technical flaws. The noise of “points” and “roles” drowns out the signal of substance. I have spent the last decade watching this cycle repeat—first as an ICO auditor in 2017, then as a DeFi liquidity researcher in 2020, and now as a macro watcher in Mexico City. The pattern is familiar: projects use the promise of future tokens to attract users, but they deliver little in return. The question is not whether you will get the airdrop, but whether the ecosystem can afford the cost of these distractions.
Context: The Bull Market’s Favorite Drug
We are in a cycle defined by attention. The 2024–2025 bull market has been fueled by ETF inflows, institutional adoption, and a resurgence of retail speculation. But underneath the surface, the market is fragmented. Liquidity is spread thin across thousands of tokens. The most effective way to gain traction is no longer a great product—it is a great narrative. And the most powerful narrative today is the “airdrop.”
Points events are the modern version of the 2017 ICO white paper. They are a placeholder for value. They require no code, no audit, no product. They simply require a frontend, a Twitter account, and a promise. The user provides liquidity—in the form of gas fees, time, and data—and the project provides a future claim. The economics are simple: the project captures immediate value (gas fees, user data, mindshare) in exchange for a deferred liability (a token that may or may not have value).
From my work on cross-border payments in Latin America, I have seen how these dynamics affect real people. In 2020, I studied how unstable stablecoin pegs disrupted remittances. The same pattern emerges here: users are drawn into a system where the value is uncertain, but the cost is immediate. They are not investing; they are speculating on a promise. And the project is not building; it is extracting.
Core: The Anatomy of a Hollow Promise
Let me break down the technical emptiness of a typical points event. Based on my experience auditing smart contracts in 2017, I can identify the key red flags.
First, the absence of a product. Amadeus Protocol and Flop Labs have not released a mainnet, a testnet, or even a technical whitepaper. The only thing they have released is a points system. This is not a bug; it is a feature. The points system is the product. It is designed to generate engagement, not to solve a problem. The code that powers the points is trivial—a simple counter that increments with each action. There is no innovation, no complex tokenomics, no security model. The only risk is the risk of the team disappearing.
Second, the anonymity. The team behind these projects is unknown. I have no information about their background, their technical capacity, or their history. In the 2022 bear market, I wrote about the psychological toll of trusting anonymous founders. The lesson is simple: anonymity increases the moral hazard. A team that cannot be held accountable has little incentive to deliver. The points are a lure, and the exit is a rug.
Third, the tokenomics vacuum. The points have no defined conversion rate, no supply cap, no vesting schedule. They are a pure claim on a future token that may never exist. The user is essentially writing a blank check to the project. In my 2020 DeFi research, I documented how liquidity mining programs often create inflationary pressure that destroys value. The same logic applies here: the points are a form of synthetic liquidity that will be diluted when the real token launches.
Follow the money, not the noise. The money flows in two directions: from the user to the project (via gas fees and data), and from the project to the user (via a future airdrop). The net present value of the airdrop is unknown, but the cost of participation is certain. The project is effectively selling a lottery ticket. The odds are not disclosed.
Contrarian: The Real Value Is in the Extraction
The conventional wisdom is that points events are a harmless way to build community. The contrarian view is that they are a form of rent extraction. The project extracts value from the user without providing a commensurate product. The user extracts value from the protocol only if the token appreciates, which is unlikely given the lack of fundamentals.
But there is a deeper layer. The real value is not in the points or the airdrop. It is in the data. Every interaction, every wallet address, every social media follow is a data point. The project collects this data and uses it to build a user profile. This data can be sold to marketers, used to influence future token distributions, or even leveraged for a competing project. The user is not a customer; they are the product.
Volatility is the tax on impatience. The market is volatile because users are impatient. They rush to participate in every points event, hoping to capture the next big airdrop. But this impatience is exactly what the project exploits. The project creates a sense of urgency—“limited roles,” “early adopter bonuses”—to rush the user into committing resources. The user pays the tax of volatility, while the project collects the premium.
Furthermore, the regulatory risk is significant. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made it clear that airdrops of tokens with an expectation of profit from the efforts of others can be classified as securities. The Howey test applies. The points event is a prelude to a potential securities offering. If the SEC decides to act, the project may be forced to shut down, and the users will be left with nothing. In my 2024 analysis of ETF approvals, I noted that institutional adoption brings regulatory scrutiny. The bull market may be legalizing crypto, but it is also criminalizing unregistered offerings.
Takeaway: The Cycle of Illusions
The points event is a microcosm of the crypto market’s current state. It is a cycle of illusions: the illusion of product, the illusion of value, the illusion of community. The projects that survive the next bear market will be those that prioritize product over promotion, code over community, and integrity over hype.
For the user, the takeaway is simple: resist the FOMO. Ask yourself: what is the product? Who is the team? What is the tokenomics? If the answer is a points system, you are not an investor. You are a participant in a data extraction scheme.
The tide does not ask for permission—but it also does not reward the impatient. The next cycle will be defined by the projects that actually build, not by the projects that promise. The question is: will you be waiting for the airdrop, or will you be building something that lasts?