Hyperstition #7 — May 9, 2025
Boop airdrop reversal stirs ire, new Pope shocks prediction markets, daily HYPE buybacks break $3M, and more.
Boop airdrop reversal stirs KOL ire
Solana memecoin launchpad Boop has stoked ire among X influencers for abruptly revising the terms of an ongoing airdrop.
On May 8, Boop tipped plans to cut airdrop awards in half for influencers who had launched tokens on the platform. Boop will redirect the other half to the influencers’ token-holders.
It was a stark reversal for a project that only one week ago pledged to unlock eye-popping airdrop allocations for influencers if they launched a successful coin on Boop.
As of May 8, the project’s native token, BOOP, has a fully-diluted value of around $225 million, according to data from DexScreener.
The launchpad pitched the change as a “win-win for everyone” that lets each influencer’s community “share in the success of the token.”
But airdrop participants cried foul.
“Just arbitrarily changing the policy after convincing creators to make a token is pretty sketchy,” Nick O’Neill, who heads crypto podcast BoDoggos Entertainment, said in a May 8 X post.
Fixing shortcomings
In a May 8 X post, Boop’s creator — pseudonymous PancakeSwap founder dingaling — said the changes sought to fix shortcomings in Boop’s original airdrop design, which “has been controversial to say the least.”
For instance, the revised policies require influencers’ tokens to top a target market cap for at least 10 minutes before BOOP allocations unlock, Boop said.
Of the 27 influencer coins whose all-time high market capitalizations broke $1 million, fewer than 30% are worth more than $100,000 as of May 8, according to a dashboard created by 0x_ultra.
“Yes, these are big changes midway through the airdrop,” dingaling said.
“We want a healthy ecosystem for $BOOP stakers, and we're not afraid to continue to make changes to do so,” he added.
Daily coin creations on Boop have declined from a high of more than 10,000 on May 1 to fewer than 700 on May 8, according to data from Dune Analytics.
In Other News…
American Pope pick shocks prediction markets
On May 8, Robert Francis Prevost became the Roman Catholic Church’s new Pope and the first American to hold the position. Only hours before the announcement, prediction markets including Kalshi ascribed a 71% chance of Italian Pietro Parolin ascending to the post. Prevost was assigned only 1% odds of prevailing. At least one bettor on Kalshi won a 100x return for wagering on Prevost. Others on Polymarket, another prediction platform, saw similar gains.
Hyperliquid clocks $3M in HYPE buybacks, a 30-day high
Hyperliquid, a layer-1 blockchain network specializing in trading, bought back more than $3 million worth of its native HYPE token on May 8. This marked the highest buyback levels in 30-days and follows the May 5 rollout of a tokenomics update designed to increase Hyperliquid’s net fee revenue. Hyperliquid directs income from trading fees to buying back HYPE.
Coinbase agrees to buy Deribit for $2.9B
Coinbase agreed to buy trading platform Deribit for $2.9 million in a bid to expand its presence in cryptocurrency derivatives and more effectively compete outside of the United States.
