Author: Stacy Muur, Translation: Shan Ouba, Jinse Finance
This article critically reviews multiple token issuance projects within the Kaito ecosystem ($SKATE, $HUMA, $QUAI, $SOON) to understand whether this hype machine can maintain momentum after token listing.
The "Attention Economy" Has Poor Memory
The crypto industry has always been driven by "narrative". But by 2025, a new momentum-building mechanism has taken center stage: the KaitoAI Earn Ranking. This incentive activity rewards early researchers, commentators, and so-called "yappers" (topic-creating posters) with future token allocations in exchange for generating pre-listing hype.
The routine is already very clear:
- Reward early attention acquisition
- Craft a story
- Create demand before TGE
This method is indeed effective. The ranking brings visibility, trading volume, and social proof.
But the question is: Can this attention be sustained?
Once the token is listed and airdrops are claimed, these "yappers" will immediately turn to the next unissued project. Prices will slide, trading volume will dry up, and community engagement will quickly cool down.
This article critically reviews multiple Kaito-related issuances ($SKATE, $HUMA, $QUAI, $SOON) to see if this hype model can be maintained after token listing. The conclusion is emerging: These narratives are designed to ignite, not to retain.
[The translation continues in the same manner for the rest of the text, maintaining the specified translation rules for specific terms.]- 5.5 million QUAI for the general Kaito leaderboard
- 500,000 QUAI specifically for the independent Quai leaderboard
The claiming period is from April 29 to May 12, completed through the Kipper platform. Weekly snapshots track contributor performance, with top yappers like @0xalank, @basedPavel, and @Abhijeetcg having individual "mental share" as high as 5.95%, far exceeding top claimers of SKATE or HUMA.
Although the Quai mainnet was launched on January 29, tokens only began free trading and appeared on exchanges on February 22.
QUAI's first day (February 22, 2025) performance:
- Opening price: $0.09884
- Highest price: $0.2263
- Closing price: $0.1929
- Trading volume: $10.14 million
What happened afterwards: Rotation, decline, long-term cooling
QUAI's launch was one of the most "explosive" among all Kaito-related tokens: soaring from $0.09884 to $0.2263 on the same day, with a single-day increase of 129%, closing with a +95%.
But that was the peak.
The trend in the following weeks was:
- February 23-26: Rapid cooling, falling back to ~$0.17-$0.18
- March 1-15: Steady decline to the $0.12-$0.08 range, showing a typical "post-hype rotation" pattern
- April-May: Small rebound attempts, but overall support continues to weaken
- June-July: Entering the $0.06-$0.07 range, as of July 7, priced at $0.05266, down about 73% from the first day's closing price and about 76.7% from the intraday high
Trading volume also tells a story:
Dropping from the initial $10 million level to about $3 million now, with significantly reduced activity. Even with the Kaito Earn Stage 2 rewards, there was no substantial pull of demand after TGE.
Key summary:
QUAI had all the advantages: massive Kaito allocation, brand alignment, fully hyped TGE, strong first-day price movement. But attention was lost very quickly. Even those top yappers with over 5% individual "mental share" couldn't anchor sustained interest in the secondary market.
QUAI's price has now fallen below its issue price, with no real recovery since March. It's a typical case proving that early liquidity ≠ lasting conviction.
Soon: Kaito Alignment, Binance Alpha Hotspot, and Brutal Reality Check
Soon is a high-performance optimistic Rollup network based on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), which ran one of the most organized and community-aligned Kaito Earn activities in early 2025. The project allocated 450,000 SOON tokens (about 0.045% of total supply) to the top 100 yappers during the three-month activity period.
- Activity period: February 19, 2025 - May 19, 2025
- Claiming period: May 23, 2025 - June 23, 2025
- Eligibility requirements: Kaito leaderboard contributors, early NFT holders, Builder Badge holders
- Reward format: Token airdrop through airdrop.soo.network
This activity was not just a simple reward distribution, but deeply integrated into SOON's brand narrative. Participants were granted "Sooner" identity, badges, and social status, reinforcing the grassroots community story that "Kaito yappers are the core early evangelists of SOON".
TGE and Market Launch: From Heat to Bleeding
SOON's token was TGE listed on May 23 and traded on Binance Alpha on May 24. The first day's opening price was $0.4527, briefly touching $0.4776 intraday, closing at $0.4007. The first day's trading volume exceeded $103 million, reflecting strong speculative activity and exchange amplification effect.
Main market indicators on 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: About $26.9 million
- Decline since opening: About -66.2%
- Decline from intraday high: About -68.0%
- Trading volume/market cap ratio (July 7): About 97%
What happened after the first day?
After the initial frenzy, SOON followed the now almost "standardized" post-Kaito market trajectory:
- Late May - mid-June: Price fluctuated and slowly declined in the $0.29-$0.39 range
- Late June: Support level broke below $0.25, with increased trading volume and accelerated decline from June 27-30
- July 5-7: Price plummeted 40% within 48 hours, from $0.22 → $0.13, followed by a weak rebound near $0.15
This sharp decline almost coincides with the end of the claiming period on June 23, with many airdrop recipients likely selling afterwards, and market attention shifting to other Kaito activities.
Key summary: "The earlier you sell, the better"?
SOON had all the elements of a successful launch: infrastructure vision emphasis, Binance Alpha exposure, incentive mechanisms embedded with community culture. But a 66% price drop within six weeks shows that hype did not convert into true conviction.
The Kaito Earn "script" is becoming increasingly predictable: narrative-driven airdrop → first-day high trading volume → airdrop cash-out rotation → attention loss and price decline.
Despite SOON's genuine attempt at "community culture", market performance ultimately became a typical case of "attention fragility". Kaito's boost brought an extremely loud launch but couldn't prevent subsequent silence.
Conclusion: Cheap Narrative, Scarce Conviction
The Kaito Earn model is undoubtedly a very effective "pre-launch exposure engine". But through analysis of SKATE, HUMA, QUAI, and SOON, a consistent pattern emerges: TGE attention peaks but fails to convert into long-term conviction.
Regardless of track (gaming, infrastructure, PayFi), listing exchanges (Binance, Bitget), or reward structures, the ending is surprisingly similar:
- Token price surges on the first day
- Airdrop recipients cash out and leave
- Price flattens or declines within weeks
This is not a failure of Kaito as a content discovery platform—it excels in content exposure. But the current model incentivizes "narrative creation" rather than "long-term belief building". Lack of subsequent utility, retention mechanisms, or continuous product demand traps most tokens issued through this process in an "attention/exit" cycle.
Unless this cycle is broken and a truly token mechanism that rewards holding rather than speculation is designed, Kaito's "meta-narrative" may forever remain a powerful launchpad, difficult to achieve a smooth landing.
