Written by: shushu
After the flash crash of $ZKJ and $KOGE, Binance Alpha's activity showed a significant decline. According to Dune data, the number of active Alpha trading users dropped sharply from 233,000 on June 12 to 195,000 on June 15, losing nearly 40,000 users in just three days. As of today, the number of users actually trading on the platform has further reduced to 70,000, indicating a cliff-like drop in user enthusiasm and participation. Meanwhile, the marginal cost of Airdrop Hunting has significantly increased, and the cost-effectiveness of Alpha games is rapidly deteriorating. At the same time, some recent projects on Binance Alpha are showing signs of "immediate dumping" upon listing. BlockBeats calculated the profits of the new Alpha points collection project VELO, and under normal circumstances (with a $1,000 principal), current Alpha users are in a slightly profitable state. By calculating trades between Alpha tokens, daily trading wear can reach $4, with an expected 30-day profit of $224, expected 30-day costs of $120, and an expected 30-day profit of $104, averaging $3.5 per day. Starting from June 17, 2025, 00:00 (UTC), Binance Alpha will officially implement new rules where trades between Alpha tokens will no longer count towards Alpha Points calculation. This means that strategies relying on farming pools like ZKJ/KOGE will no longer be effective, and users will face higher points acquisition thresholds and more complex liquidity structures. It can be foreseen that affected by the $ZKJ crash, Binance Alpha's incentive model is entering an adjustment period. The direct consequence of this mechanism replacement is that many users originally active in the Alpha ecosystem are choosing to exit. Some have suffered losses in the $ZKJ/$KOGE dual-token pool, while others have discovered that the marginal returns from Airdrop Hunting are lower than transaction costs, no longer willing to invest effort.His main loss was not from market fluctuations, but human errors: "The majority of money loss is due to personal operational mistakes. The first is that the Koge account on the 16th forgot to sell, and then decided to brush at the 130,000 level, which was a bit too aggressive. The forgotten accounts have now dropped from 1000u to 400u."
Large-scale account operations also brought efficiency challenges. "I usually complete everything in 1-2 hours, but the workload of 170,000 levels was too large, leading to continuous brushing for four to five days, resulting in empty brushing situations."
Unlike users who are leaving the market, Siner remains confident in Alpha's future. When asked if he would continue Airdrop Hunting Alpha, Siner stated, "I must continue, I've just found a lossless method." This means he will continue to seek speculative Airdrop Hunting opportunities in the Alpha ecosystem, even after rule adjustments.
For Brother Tian, who did not suffer losses in the ZKJ crash, exiting Alpha means being unable to recover the early sunk costs. "I already have two hundred percent of sunk costs. If I give up, it would be like throwing everything away. Moreover, if a good project appears on Alpha later, I could recover everything in one go."
Brother Tian summarizes his attitude towards participating in Alpha projects - "Airdrop Hunting, these are all garbage projects, don't get emotional."
Conclusion
Jiang Jiu frankly admits that Alpha's Airdrop Hunting rewards can no longer cover operational costs. "Now rewards are only 50-60 U, with high score thresholds, increasing transaction slippage, and potentially earning only three to four dollars a day." The ZKJ/KOGE collapse took away not just principal, but also a low-cost arbitrage path. Once Alpha cancels rules counting inter-token trading volume towards points, users will face higher transaction wear and more complex point gaming structures.
Binance Alpha was once seen as an innovative mechanism to revive on-chain activity and user engagement, but the current point model clearly overestimates the long-term incentive effect of trading volume and LP, while underestimating structural redemption risks.
With Binance's new regulations, Alpha is gradually transitioning from an Airdrop Hunting arbitrage tool to a mechanism more focused on genuine interaction and value capture. This means point acquisition will no longer solely depend on trading volume or LP quota, but will tilt more towards holding duration, interaction depth, and real demand.
However, for many users relying on low-cost Airdrop Hunting strategies, this transformation forces them to re-evaluate participation's meaning. If Alpha wants to restart its growth engine in the future, it must find a new balance between fair distribution and risk control mechanisms.
For users still exploring the Alpha ecosystem, it is recommended to enhance risk management awareness, focus on pool structures, token fundamentals, and LP concentration to avoid becoming bagholders in the next systemic risk exposure. After all, in this constantly trial-and-error Web3 world, arbitrage windows always exist, but the cost of stepping on mines has never decreased.
