Original Article:
Title: ZKsync Airdrop Farmer Claims 6,605,139 ZK Tokens Worth Nearly $1.2 Million
Author: Azuma
It has been several days since the ZKsync (ZK) airdrop started, but the aftermath of the event still continues.
On the evening of June 22nd, Beijing time, a user with the username k1z4, who claims to be a co-founder of Memeland (this identity has not been verified), provocatively posted a message saying, “Hey, ZKsync, I want to let you know that I have finally completed the claiming and transfer of 350 wallets for the airdrop. Each wallet received an average of 18,871 ZK tokens. Unfortunately, I still don’t have enough money to buy a Lamborghini or a mansion in Beverly Hills… I was hoping to get more tokens, but you have disappointed me!”
According to the screenshot posted by k1z4, which appears to be the holdings of Binance exchange, the user ultimately received a total of 6,605,139 ZK tokens. Even with the current declining coin prices, this is still worth nearly $1.2 million.
After k1z4 publicly flaunted this achievement, the news quickly spread on social media.
In the early morning of June 23rd, k1z4 posted several more messages, briefly explaining their strategy of bypassing the ZKsync witch detection as an “advanced witch.”
Firstly, k1z4 openly admitted to engaging in “airdrop farming” but emphasized that the infrastructure used to farm 350 wallets is more complex than most Layer2 solutions available today. This complexity makes it difficult for anyone, including ZKsync, to distinguish between their bots and real users based on address behavior. They stated, “My bots look more real than most real people.”
Specifically, k1z4 revealed that they used 350 IP addresses with independent cache, cookies, RPC, VPN, hosting services, and a range of AI tools. They spent several days coding the program to enable the bots to interact like real users, using various common “airdrop strategies” seen on X as a reference.
As a result, these 350 addresses are difficult to trace and each of their interaction behaviors is completely different. k1z4 later disclosed that the amount of airdrops received by these addresses varies, with the lowest being around 9,000 tokens and the highest being 70,000 tokens.
However, k1z4 also mentioned that having technical abilities alone is not sufficient. Engaging in airdrop farming like this also requires a significant amount of capital.
k1z4 revealed that in order to successfully operate these 350 bot addresses, they spent 29.68 ETH on network gas fees alone. Additionally, they spent an extra $21,000 to build the bot infrastructure and paid 50,000 ZK tokens as a reward to two helpers who assisted in monitoring the bot’s operations. Furthermore, they allocated 200 ETH to provide liquidity for major DeFi protocols on this chain.
k1z4 also mentioned that a significant amount of time and effort was invested to ensure the smooth execution of their strategy, which is an invaluable cost.
When asked by the community whether they engaged in these activities for the purpose of researching new technology or for money, k1z4 displayed their values, saying, “Initially, it was for researching new technology, but then I realized it can be monetized… and now you already know.”
However, despite receiving airdrop returns that far exceed those of ordinary users, k1z4 is still not satisfied with the results.
In their final assessment of the airdrop returns, k1z4 expressed their disappointment, saying, “I am not satisfied with this number. I was expecting much more. But what can you expect from a blockchain that raised $400 million and still cannot operate properly?”