The Binance Alpha clone that isn’t flooded with Sybils yet (OKX Boost)
OKX Boost is still early, but it won’t stay that way for long.
Binance Alpha has shown how Sybil farms will exploit everything, so we have limited time before they ruin it.
I like OKX Boost (X Launch) because I don’t have to use yet another wallet for this campaign.
So here’s a complete guide on the rules and my strategy before it gets too diluted:
The rules are like Binance Alpha (but with a twist)
Here are the key rules to take note of for OKX Boost (X Launch), with some being similar to Binance Alpha:
Any wallet can participate when imported into the OKX wallet (not just Keyless Wallets)
The most annoying part about Binance Alpha was how we could only use the Keyless Wallet to make trades and volume.
I had to shift my funds from other wallets to my Binance account + Web3 wallet, which wasn’t fun at all.
But now, I can use my main airdrop wallet for OKX boost just by importing my wallet into the OKX wallet.
I don’t even need to connect my OKX CEX account.
But this also means that Sybils will likely overrun this in the future because it’s so easy to spin up wallets.
I avoided the concerns of whether OKX wallet is safe or not because I’m using Ledger, so I’m not storing my seed phrase in the extension.
Which is why I’m pushing for everyone to use a hardware wallet for airdrops, even if it takes up more time.
We have to import our wallet to OKX, or they won’t be able to view our historical holdings.
We can only claim or check our balances if we import our wallets into OKX.
Balance and volume matter (just like BA)
Our Boost balance and volume are based on the average over the past 15 days (just like Binance Alpha).
This means it doesn’t make sense to make one large trade just to give a temporary volume or balance surge, because after 15 days, it’ll be completely useless.
Just like Binance Alpha, consistency of swapping would be the key to winning.
A minimum Boost balance and volume are required to participate
Here were the requirements for the LINEA launch:
Minimum Boost balance: $10
Minimum Boost volume: $32
As of now, Boost balance is the only eligibility requirement to be part of the Boost event.
While the minimum Boost volume seems low, this is just the entry requirement, and you will likely get a low allocation:
Boost volume determines allocation
Instead of using points as the cutoff to get a fixed allocation (like Binance Alpha):
Our Boost volume (15-day average) determines the allocation we get.
A similar points system is used to award points based on the average volume:
The higher the volume, the more points we earn, and the higher allocation we receive.
The maximum allocation is capped at 8 points (≥ $4,096 volume), so there’s no point generating more than $4,096 a day.
There are no deductions
Binance Alpha used point deductions to eliminate Sybils, but OKX won’t use it for now:
Boost volume and balance will only be used to determine eligibility for events. They will not be deducted or used up.
So now we know all the rules, here’s how to optimise for both factors:
Boost balance only counts for Group 1 tokens
OKX will only count specific tokens towards the average balance.
These are defined as Group 1 tokens, which include:
Major native tokens
Liquid staking tokens
Stablecoins
But the balance calculation doesn’t include your DeFi and NFT positions, so it’s only token holdings that matter.
In my main wallet, my Boost balance averages around $10k over the past 15 days.
So we have to maintain an average balance of tokens (I would recommend holding LSTs so we get some yield while holding).
Boost volume is not limited to just Alpha tokens
Unlike Binance Alpha, which only rewards volume for Alpha tokens:
OKX allows you to trade any token, but with some caveats:
There are 3 different categories of tokens:
Group 1: Major native tokens, liquid staking tokens, and stablecoins
Group 2: UNI, DOGE, and other major tokens by market cap (excluding Group 1 tokens)
Others: All other tokens not in Group 1 or 2
Depending on the type of swap we make, we get certain multipliers to our volume:
The most optimal swaps would be either Group 1 <> Others or Group 2 <> Others.
The other combinations either give a 0.25x or 0 multiplier on the volume.
I’m choosing to swap our favourite Binance Alpha ‘stablecoin’, KOGE, to reduce the slippage I incur.
But you could swap stables to any of the tokens that are not listed as Group 1 or Group 2 here.
While there could be multiple routes being shown on the OKX swap page, Boost volume will only count when we use the ‘OKX DEX aggregator’ route.
But, we can use another wallet to make the swap.
I made my first swap with Rabby (connected to OKX swap), and the volume counted so long as we used the OKX DEX aggregator.
In my case, my Boost volume was $36 after one day of swapping $545.92, because it’s the average of 15 days.
You could check Boost balance and volume history here.
While this seems more straightforward, we are incurring a lot of fees:
The fees are expensive
I’m aiming for $512 in volume, so I did swaps of $275/$270 between USDT and KOGE.
In 2 days, I’ve spent $8.34 in slippage and trading fees.
This is more expensive than Binance because the OKX DEX aggregator charges a base 0.85% fee for ‘Group 1/2 <> Others’ swaps.
(Which can be brought down to 0.76% with my fee discount code).
Binance Wallet swaps were cheaper because they waived the 0.5% trading fee on the Keyless wallet, and I spent around $5 for $64k volume.
But this promo will end on 17 Sep, and it remains to be seen if Binance will extend it.
So with all these factors in mind, here’s how I plan to interact with this:
My strategy
The LINEA launch gave an average of $64 allocation per point.
Here’s how much profit I’ll receive ‘if’ the rewards are the same:
A conservative $5 fees per day = $75 in fees every 15 days
$516+ in volume = 5 points = $320 in return
$320 - $75 = $245
This is assuming that everything remains the same for future launches, so it’s still profitable.
For now.
The Boost balance requirement seems low for now, but it should eventually get higher once the competition is stiffer.
So I wouldn’t want to rely on just hitting the minimum requirements, because Sybils will likely ruin it:
How I see this playing out
OKX seems to take a tougher stance on Sybils and wants to eliminate them.
Of course, this could entirely just be lip service, and the farms could extract as much as possible.
OKX Boost has only launched LINEA so far, and not enough attention is on them yet:
So the barrier to entry for getting rewards is still low.
Just like the early days of Binance Alpha, where just $50-$100 swap volume was needed to qualify.
Even then, 23.1k wallets were eligible for the first drop:
I believe there’s no point in spinning up multiple wallets to farm this.
If OKX is serious about eliminating Sybils:
They will likely use onchain history to filter low-value wallets out.
Again, that’s why I believe that onchain footprint is so important to prove your humanity.
Sybils will overrun this soon
I stopped doing Binance Alpha because of the FCFS mechanism forcing me to be ‘always on’, and that burned me out.
For now, OKX Boost (X Launch) seems decent enough and there’s no rush to claim the tokens.
Even with the anti-Sybil measures, I believe this will
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