CLOUD Airdrop Post-Mortem: Are 'Earnestness' Claimants Aligned with Sanctum's Long-Term Vision?

Sanctum’s eagerly-anticipated CLOUD airdrop was one of the Solana ecosystem’s most polarizing events so far in 2024. Splitting airdrop evenly between capital providers and earnest supporters, Sanctum’s TGE (Token Generation Event) was met with mixed feedback.

While some have praised Sanctum’s thoughtful approach to token distribution, others were disappointed by how the event played out. Now that the dust has settled and flared tempers have settled down, what does the data have to say about the CLOUD launch?

88.88% of Eligible Wallets Yet to Claim CLOUD

Like several Solana DeFi protocols before it, Sanctum implemented several thoughtful measures to reward long-term supporters of its LST platform. Specifically, recipients who delay their claims will receive up to 100% more CLOUD tokens, depending on how long they wait.

Capital allocation claimants can receive their full bonus after 14 days, while ‘Earnestness’ recipients will need to wait 180 days before being eligible for their max bonus.

At press time, only 11.12% of eligible wallets have claimed their CLOUD allocation, indicating that the vast majority of recipients wish to align with Sanctum’s long-term vision and receive a sizable chunk of their bonus allocation.

However, while one might expect that ‘Earnestness’ claimants would be more likely to commit to Sanctum’s long-term vision, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Among wallets that have already claimed their CLOUD allocations, ‘Earnestness’ claimants have proven themselves less inclined to align themselves with Sanctum’s longevity.

According to Flipside Crypto data, 15.06% of ‘Earnestness’ claimants chose to receive their CLOUD tokens immediately, forfeiting any bonus. Meanwhile, only 13.00% of Capital claimants chose to forfeit their bonus allocation.

Within the first two hours of the claim window opening, 64.38% of all claims came from wallets eligible for 'Earnestness' allocations. 

At first glance, this behavior suggests that ‘Earnestness’ claimants are less likely to support the Sanctum protocol long-term. However, this conclusion cannot be drawn without mentioning that ‘Earnestness’ claimants have a significantly longer wait time before being eligible for their maximum bonus.

SolanaFloor reached out to Sanctum for comment, but the LST provider refused to comment.

A Community Divided

The CLOUD airdrop drew a line in the sand between different camps within the Solana ecosystem. On one hand, ‘Earnestness’ claimants were thrilled with their allocations, bestowing gratitude upon the Sanctum team for providing them with life-changing rewards.

Many Sanctum users found that the distribution of rewards was unfairly weighted, with 'Earnestness' recipients taking home the lion's share of CLOUD tokens.

Some capital depositors were largely disappointed with their allocations. Confiding to SolanaFloor directly, an anonymous commentator remarked that they “put in $40k+ worth of SOL into their LSTs for 900+ CLOUD.”

Initially an avid supporter the commentator reinforced their disappointment, clarifying that “compared to 2000+ people who critiqued their protocol and spoke about it… it’s like spitting on my assets.”

Sanctum Founder Reflects on TGE

In the days that followed the controversial launch, Sanctum co-founder FP Lee took to 𝕏 to reflect on the CLOUD TGE. 

In one of his trademark long-form posts, FP Lee highlighted that the Sanctum team largely considers the launch a great success. Lee claims that the TGE delivered on Sanctum’s key goals, namely rewarding long-term aligned users and bringing ‘Earnestness’ into the crypto discourse.

Despite this, FP Lee acknowledges that ‘Earnestness’ allocations could’ve been handled differently. The Sanctum co-founder admitted that a 50/50 split was too much, remarking that Sanctum didn’t “didn't do a good enough job of identifying earnest people, so that 50% was split amongst too few.”

With the CLOUD TGE in the rear-view mirror, the Sanctum team now directs its attention back to its primary vision of expanding Solana’s LST ecosystem. Collaborating with other Solana ecosystem projects, the team has hinted at the launch of upcoming LSTs like tensorSOL and kmnoSOL.

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