By Frank, PANews

Meteora, a key DeFi project within the Solana ecosystem, held its TGE and airdrop on October 23rd, supposedly a redemption for the protocol after its early scandals. The team touted it as a revolutionary, community-first, "fair distribution." However, the highly anticipated airdrop quickly devolved into a trust crisis.

PANews analyzed over 70,000 claims on the Meteora airdrop chain to uncover the full picture of the Meteora airdrop.

48% Immediate Impact of "High Circulation" Experiment

Meteora's TGE solution is unique in its mechanism design, with "high liquidity" and a points-based distribution model at its core.

The total supply of MET tokens is 1 billion. On the day of the TGE, 48% of the total supply (480 million tokens) were fully unlocked and released into circulation at once. The team claimed that this move was "intentional" and intended to eliminate "artificial scarcity" and achieve "true market price discovery."

The airdrop is based on a snapshot of activity from June 30, 2025, and claims will open on October 23. Eligibility is based on a points system, and rewards will be awarded to liquidity providers (LPs), Jupiter (JUP) stakers, and the previously controversial M3M3 Memecoin stakers.

This radical model almost immediately triggered a market "shock therapy." The massive 48% supply created "overwhelming and immediate selling pressure." Following the launch of the TGE, the price of MET rapidly plummeted from its opening price of approximately $0.90, hitting a low of $0.51 within hours. The market's harsh reaction to the event marked the beginning of this storm.

4 whales received over 28% of the airdrop, while 60,000 retail investors only received 7%

According to PANews statistics, as of October 24, approximately 161 million MET tokens had been distributed through the airdrop, with approximately 71,000 transactions claiming the airdrop. The average number of tokens claimed per transaction was 2,277.

In terms of the size of the airdrop, approximately $83.7 million has been claimed, with an average claim value of approximately $1,180 per address. This average suggests the MET airdrop was a decent reward, but a closer look at the data reveals a significant concentration of whales and a significant wealth gap.

Among all the addresses that received the airdrop, the address that received the most received 12.15 million tokens, worth approximately $6.31 million. A total of four addresses claimed more than 10 million tokens. These four large addresses received approximately 45.94 million tokens, accounting for 28.5% of the total airdrop received so far.

Of the remaining addresses, 12 received over 1 million tokens, totaling over 28 million, or 17.32%. There were 109 addresses that received between 100,000 and 1 million tokens, totaling 23.99 million, or 14.84%. There were 1,195 addresses that received between 10,000 and 100,000 tokens, totaling approximately 31.29 million, or 19.35%. The largest number of addresses received between 100 and 1,000 tokens, totaling 37,000, totaling 10.12 million, or 6.26%. There was also a significant number of addresses that received fewer than 100 tokens, totaling 24,600, totaling 1.44 million, or 0.89%.

These data reveal a cruel reality: the MET airdrop is not a "sunshine" community reward, but a feast for the top with extremely uneven distribution.

The four whales are all unusual

The address with the most tokens received was 3vAauDAR8er3HT8C3Vaj7WRbDoaoebi3KnvCdWuHj6ae, which received over 12.15 million tokens in one go, currently valued at approximately $6.31 million. Social media discussions suggest this address participated in an airdrop of MER tokens (the token of Mercurial Finance, Meteora's predecessor), and holds a large number of JUP tokens, which it has been transferring to exchanges over time. Some analysts also believe this address is associated with the Meteora team.

Over the past eight months, more than 30 million JUP tokens have been sold through this address.

Currently, this selling method has been used again on MET. As of October 25, the address has transferred more than 3 million MET tokens to the Bybit exchange.

The second and third most-claimed addresses appear to be strongly correlated. Based on their simple behavior, these two addresses are both significant holders of JUP, frequently actively adding to the Jupiter liquidity pool. Coincidentally, however, the amount of JUP transferred to these two addresses has consistently remained consistent, at 2,622,632.41, and these activities often occur on the same day.

Judging from various activity trajectories, these two addresses should be controlled by the same group.

Furthermore, the fourth-ranked address, DKpWmjTTJCgHsRCznxp8UmRq6hCUK75pFw9kd1uCMUaK, is also unusual. The address received an airdrop of 10 million tokens, which doesn't seem like a normal points claim. Furthermore, the address was created a month ago, likely missing Meteora's snapshot. It has also never participated in any activities related to airdrop eligibility, such as adding liquidity or staking JUP. To date, no tokens have been transferred from this address. The address's airdrop eligibility and ownership remain unknown.

"Rat trading" still received millions of airdrops, and the team is in the crisis of class action lawsuit

In addition to the unusual behavior of several super-large investors, there are many controversial aspects in the MET airdrop.

For example, Arkm pointed out that three insider addresses associated with the Trump token received a total of $4.2 million worth of MET airdrops. After receiving the airdrops, these addresses immediately deposited all the MET on the OKX exchange.

Additionally, Hayden Davis, a central figure in the LIBRA scandal, also received approximately $1.5 million worth of tokens in the MET airdrop.

These airdrops have also sparked strong criticism from the community, with one user saying on social media: "Why did Hayden Davis get the MET airdrop? You must be kidding... Thanks to Meteora for giving Hayden Davis another $1.5 million."

This isn't the first time Meteora has faced a crisis of trust. Last December, Meteora launched the M3M3 platform and its eponymous token, claiming to change the dynamics of memecoins. However, the project quickly collapsed, with the token's value plummeting 98% from its peak, leading to a subsequent class-action lawsuit. Following the LIBRA scandal in February of this year, the Meteora team was again embroiled in allegations of insider trading.

In short, Meteora's highly anticipated TGE and airdrop campaign failed to achieve the community redemption it touted, instead devolving into a disaster that exacerbated the trust gap. From the price crash triggered by its aggressive 48% high-volume circulation model, to the insider trading associated with the Trump token and the multi-million dollar airdrop pocketed by the central figure in the LIBRA scandal, every step of Meteora's operations seemed to call into question its original commitment to community-first principles.

This supposedly "redemption" campaign ultimately only added new wounds to the old scars left by the M3M3 and LIBRA scandals, plunging the team into a new round of trust storms and class-action lawsuits. For Meteora, the road to regaining the community's trust is clearly much more difficult than they had imagined.

Meteora will open its airdrop inquiry website on Thursday

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