Secondary NFT marketplace X2Y2 lured increasing numbers of users to its platform over the past 7 days following an airdrop of its native token (X2Y2). The move, known in the community as a Vampire Attack, saw the number of unique active wallets connecting to the platform jump by 816%.
A Vampire Attack is a quintessentially Web3 phenomenon. It’s the act of stealing a rival platform’s users by incentivizing them to jump ship. In this case, X2Y2 airdropped 12% of their native token (X2Y2) to any user who listed an NFT for less than1 ETH on OpenSea before January 2022. The catch: these users had to take their NFTs from OPENSEA and relist them on X2Y2 for the same price.
These statistics show how X2Y2 saw increases across the board as a result of the move. User, transactions and volume are all up over the past week. The peak of activity did take place immediately after the airdrop, and has since died down; but volume has remained relatively high for the platform and thousands of new people will have been introduced to X2Y2 who had previously not been aware of it.
If we take a longer view of X2Y2’s historial user activity, we can see that their bold move resulted in the platform getting exactly what every fledgling venture needs in a crowded marketplace: publicity and users. As we can see in the graph below, X2Y2 user numbers before the February 17th 2021 airdrop were negligible. Our analytics tools show that at the beginning of the month, there were just 8 people using the platform. The near-vertical spike a week ago coincides directly with the Vampire Attack.
X2Y2, the platform’s native token, also saw an increase following news of the airdrop. But this rise was fleeting, presumably as holders of the token quickly took their profits. 6 days after the price of the token peaked, it had dropped below its pre-Vampire Attack level.
What about the victim?
Let’s spare a thought for OpenSea here. They were minding their own business, providing an honest platform for blockchain enthusiasts to trade their mfers, mutants and Meebits. Then along came a young pretender to lure away their users with promises of riches. So how was OpenSea affected and what might be the long-term consequences?
We can see from the chart below that OpenSea was neither affected in the short term nor is it likely there will be a long-term impact. User and transaction numbers have both increased over the past 7 days for OpenSea. Volume and balance are both down but in this case, correlation certainly doesn’t suggest causation. There are wider negative externalities that are more likely to account for these dips than the actions of X2Y2.
As mentioned already, X2Y2 had two main objectives when it carried out its Vampire Attack. The platform wanted to attract users and gain publicity. Looking at the above charts and judging by the 47% increase in their Twitter following, it would appear they succeeded in both.
DappRadar will continue to monitor the NFT space as more decentralized marketplaces jockey with OpenSea for their share of the pie. Earlier this year, we saw LooksRare employ shady “washing” tactics and engage in their own airdrop trickery as a means of drawing in users. If you want to check out which are the best performing NFT marketplaces right now, check out the DappRadar Top Marketplaces Ranking. Additionally, you can follow DappRadar on Twitter to get the latest NFT news first.
