Coinbase-backed Fabric fights back as 40% of ROBO airdrop goes to single entity

According to onchain analytics platform BubbleMaps, a single user appeared to have launched a successful Sybil attack on Fabric’s $ROBO airdrop, which was distributed last month. 

According to BubbleMaps, that single entity pulled this off by deploying over 7,000 newly created wallets ahead of the drop, with the total haul across wallets amounting to about $8 million. 

BubbleMaps spots Sybil attack on Fabric’s airdrop 

Fabric Foundation, a project powered by OpenMind, is building a network layer for robotics, with $20 million in funding from top VCs, including Coinbase and Pantera.

The token linked to the project, the $ROBO token, launched on February 27, with a 5% airdrop dedicated to the community. However, BubbleMaps reported that a single entity may have been able to game the system and walk away with tokens worth about $8 million at launch prices. 

The analytics platform claims that the wallets all showed similar on-chain behavior; they were funded via similar paths with ETH sourced from seven exchanges about two months before. Those funds were also layered via multiple intermediate wallets before the claim occurred, confirming this was premeditated and deliberate. 

All together, the newly created wallets claimed about 199 million $ROBO tokens, which amounts to about 40% of the total allocated to the community. 

“Consistent patterns in the funding, timing, and movements out of these wallets point to one entity sybilling the airdrop,” BubbleMaps wrote on X. 

BubbleMaps added the disclaimer that there is no evidence linking the entity’s activity to the core team at Fabric Protocol or Openmind. 

How is Fabric responding to the Sybil attack? 

Even though BubbleMaps clarified that the Fabric team had zero tangible connection to the gamed airdrop, community members have not been as gracious in their reaction. 

In response to all the heat, one of the team members with Fabric Foundation has spoken up.

“First, Bubblemaps’ review found no connection between the highlighted clusters and any team, foundation, or investor wallets. We appreciate the Bubblemaps team for highlighting this in their post and investigation,” the team member wrote. 

They continued by claiming that Fabric’s airdrop incorporated multiple anti-Sybil signals, including real-world GPS/location constraints and single-device participation, alongside wallet and activity-based heuristics, measures that reportedly reduced Sybil activity, but clearly did not fully eliminate them.

The team member also claimed participation accelerated quickly during the pre-TGE window (December–January). 

“We saw strong organic airdrop participation alongside some coordinated farming activity. This kind of overlap is typical in open, large-scale participation systems,” they wrote. “Despite the presence of sybil activity, we distributed rewards to tens of thousands of real users, as evidenced by both onchain data and community feedback across social platforms.” 

The Fabric team member ended the post by pointing out that they take this experience seriously and will continue to refine their approach as they move forward. 

“Our roadmap is unchanged, and we remain focused on building a long-term network for the robot economy,” they wrote. “We appreciate Bubblemaps for bringing attention to this, and we thank our community for their continued support.” 

How has $ROBO token done since launch? 

According to data from Coingecko, the $ROBO token is currently trading at $0.02548 with a 24-hour trading volume of over $351 million. It has traded within a tight range over the past day, in the green by about 0.4% over that period. 

Since it launched, the token is down 26% in lifetime trading. At current prices, the token is within 2% of its all-time low valuation of $0.02518 reached on March 19, and down almost 58% from the peak valuation reached on March 2. 

Cryptopolitan reported in December when BubbleMaps warned about the PIPPIN token. They called the token a ticking time bomb, citing its massive pump of about 1,000%, which they claimed was not being fueled by any clear metrics. 

By March 17, a coordinated PIPPIN selling led the token to drop about 50-60% at once, triggered by whales dumping what they had accumulated over months. 

In the spirit of the saying “Different ships, different storms,” Fabric Foundation and PIPPIN are separate projects, and the outcome for one does not imply anything about the other.