Irys, a layer-1 blockchain listed on major exchanges including Coinbase, is under scrutiny after a single entity captured roughly 20% of its airdrop allocation.
On November 28, blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps said it identified about 900 wallets involved in the process.
According to the firm, these addresses showed no prior on-chain activity. It described the pattern as consistent with coordinated preparation rather than organic network participation.
Following the distribution, the cluster network began consolidating the assets.
Data shows that roughly 500 of the identified wallets transferred their IRYS allocations to intermediary addresses before routing the funds to Bitget, a centralized exchange.
The flow of tokens, valued at approximately $4 million, indicates a likely preparation to liquidate the position. Such a move could introduce significant sell-side pressure on the asset’s order book.
IRYS price has come under pressure following the disclosures. The token has declined 16% over the past 24 hours and is trading near $0.032 as of press time.
Bubblemaps noted that it found no on-chain evidence linking the IRYS team to the wallet cluster.
Irys markets itself as an “on-chain AWS” designed for data storage and smart-contract execution.
The protocol has raised more than $13 million from venture capital investors and listed its token this week on major exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase.
The episode highlights a structural challenge facing crypto projects that rely on airdrops to expand ownership.
Indeed, Irys allocated 8% of its total supply to the event. The goal was to distribute tokens to early users and help decentralize the network.
Instead, the concentration of tokens in a single cluster shows how airdrops remain vulnerable to actors using large batches of script-generated wallets to capture outsized allocations.
When one entity controls 20% of the initial circulating float, market observers say the result is heightened centralization risk and distorted price discovery.
Meanwhile, incidents like this point to broader limitations in token distribution practices across permissionless ecosystems. These environments have minimal identity checks and unrestricted network access.
This IRYS episode shows how difficult it is to prevent coordinated airdrop capture without stronger filtering, better identity heuristics, or more robust pre-distribution reviews.
Without those safeguards, early liquidity events can disproportionately benefit short-term actors. That dynamic can weaken outcomes for long-term holders and overall network stability.

Highlights: US prosecutors requested a 12-year prison sentence for Do Kwon after the Terra collapse. Terraform’s $40 billion downfall caused huge losses and sparked a long downturn in crypto markets. Do Kwon will face sentencing on December 11 and must give up $19 million in earnings. US prosecutors have asked a judge to give Do Kwon, Terraform Labs co-founder, a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the remarkable $40 billion collapse of the Terra and Luna tokens. The request also seeks to finalize taking away Kwon’s criminal earnings. The court filing came in New York’s Southern District on Thursday. This is about four months after Kwon admitted guilt on two charges: wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud. Prosecutors said Kwon caused more losses than Samuel Bankman-Fried, Alexander Mashinsky, and Karl Sebastian Greenwood combined. U.S. prosecutors have asked a New York federal judge to sentence Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to 12 years in prison, calling his role in the 2022 TerraUSD collapse a “colossal” fraud that triggered broader crypto-market failures, including the downfall of FTX. Sentencing is… — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 5, 2025 Terraform Collapse Shakes Crypto Market Authorities explained that Terraform’s collapse affected the entire crypto market. They said it helped trigger what is now called the ‘Crypto Winter.’ The filing stressed that Kwon’s conduct harmed many investors and the broader crypto world. On Thursday, prosecutors said Kwon must give up just over $19 million. They added that they will not ask for any additional restitution. They said: “The cost and time associated with calculating each investor-victim’s loss, determining whether the victim has already been compensated through the pending bankruptcy, and then paying out a percentage of the victim’s losses, will delay payment and diminish the amount of money ultimately paid to victims.” Authorities will sentence Do Kwon on December 11. They charged him in March 2023 with multiple crimes, including securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering, and wire fraud. All connections are tied to his role at Terraform. After Terra fell in 2022, authorities lost track of Kwon until they arrested him in Montenegro on unrelated charges and sent him to the U.S. Do Kwon’s Legal Case and Sentencing In April last year, a jury ruled that both Terraform and Kwon committed civil fraud. They found the company and its co-founder misled investors about how the business operated and its finances. Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, submitted the sentencing request in November. TERRA STATEMENT: “We are very disappointed with the verdict, which we do not believe is supported by the evidence. We continue to maintain that the SEC does not have the legal authority to bring this case at all, and we are carefully weighing our options and next steps.” — Zack Guzmán (@zGuz) April 5, 2024 The news of Kwon’s sentencing caused Terraform’s token, LUNA, to jump over 40% in one day, from $0.07 to $0.10. Still, this rise remains small compared to its all-time high of more than $19, which the ecosystem reached before collapsing in May 2022. In a November court filing, Do Kwon’s lawyers asked for a maximum five-year sentence. They argued for a shorter term partly because he could face up to 40 years in prison in South Korea, where prosecutors are also pursuing a case against him. The legal team added that even if Kwon serves time in the U.S., he would not be released freely. He would be moved from prison to an immigration detention center and then sent to Seoul to face pretrial detention for his South Korea charges. eToro Platform Best Crypto Exchange Over 90 top cryptos to trade Regulated by top-tier entities User-friendly trading app 30+ million users 9.9 Visit eToro eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

