Kaito Ranking: A Launch Tool for Projects or a Short-Term Speculation Tool?

The crypto market has long been driven by various narratives. In 2025, a new attention-grabbing mechanism came into focus: the Kaito AI Earn leaderboard. These activities reward early researchers, commentators, and meme creators for generating hype before the project's launch, in exchange for future token allocations.

Its operating model is now widely known:

• Reward early user awareness
• Fabricating stories
• Create demand before the token generation event (TGE)

This method is indeed effective. Leaderboards can enhance exposure, trading volume, and social recognition. But the problem is:

Can this attention last?

Once the token issuance and airdrop are claimed, those "noisy" players will turn to the next project. Prices fall, trading volume shrinks, and participation gradually declines.

This article analyzes several Kaito-related projects and explores whether the hype can be sustained after the token launch. A trend is emerging: the narrative is designed to attract attention rather than to maintain heat.

Let's first take a look at the SKATE project.

Skate: High trading volume, a large number of listings, and stagnation after Kaito

SKATE is a token related to the Solana modular gaming layer, and it launched with strong momentum. With support from multiple well-known exchanges and a deep promotion campaign through the Kaito Earn initiative, SKATE had sufficient liquidity and high visibility right from its launch.

• TGE: June 10, 2025
• Issue Price ( Opening Price ): 0.06506 USD
• First day closing price: $0.05094
• First-day trading volume: 41.46 million USD
• Initial FDV: approximately 65 million USD
• Current price ( July 7 ): 0.04065 USD
• Current FDV: approximately 40.65 million USD
• Decline after TGE: approximately 37.5%
• Current 24-hour trading volume: 8.46 million USD
• Trading Volume/MC Ratio ( July 7 ): Approximately 139%

The early trading of SKATE showed a good start. On June 10th, the token's attention surged sharply, with the price once soaring to $0.06539, but then quickly retraced to around $0.05094, resulting in an approximate 22% pullback on the first day.

Subsequently, similar trends were observed when other projects under Kaito were launched:

• Mid-June: Supported by momentum after listing, the price rebounded to $0.051-0.048 from June 11-16, (.
• June 21-23: Trading volume fluctuated significantly, with a daily trading volume of about $110 million on ), but lacking strong directional trends.
• June 30 - July 4: There was a brief fluctuation, soaring to $0.06234, and then quickly dropping.
• July 5-7: The price fell to $0.04065, a decrease of about 37% since the TGE and a drop of about 22% since the high point on July 4.

The social heat also peaked in the early stages, but then rapidly declined. Within 7-10 days after the launch, Kaito contributors shifted their attention to new leaderboard projects and token activities, resulting in a significant decrease in mentions and engagement.

Summary: Rotation is greater than retention

SKATE has all the favorable conditions: listed on major exchanges, high liquidity, and a reward-oriented Kaito ecosystem narrative. However, SKATE's attention has not persisted. Despite SKATE's daily trading volume being close to 140% of its market capitalization, SKATE remains a high-turnover asset with no long-term holders.

The story of SKATE is similar to that of other tokens in the Kaito Earn ecosystem:

• Hype before launch
• Immediately drive trading volume after launch
• Airdrop Claim and Quick Exit
• Narrative exhaustion within a few weeks

The market performance of SKATE further confirms the criticism of the Kaito-driven project: high exposure, low user stickiness.

Huma: Launchpool speculation, Kaito rewards 0.5%, first day turnover reached 300 million USD

Huma is a decentralized payment financing protocol (PayFi), which utilizes the complete technology stack of a certain trading platform and Kaito, and issues its native token HUMA on May 26, 2025.

A certain trading platform's Launchpool event allows users to mine HUMA by staking BNB, FDUSD, or USDC from May 23 to 26. At the same time, Huma has also launched the Kaito Earn activity, allocating 0.5% of the total supply across three "Seasons".

Distribution for the first quarter:

• 0.1% allocated to the top 500 participants in the Kaito ranking
• 0.1% allocated to contributors in the Solana, DeFi, and RWA categories
• Distribution to those who register through the SOL wallet and hold Kaito ecosystem tokens.

A trading platform started trading on May 26 at 21:00 ( UTC+8 ). As of May 27:

• TGE( opening price ):0.06683 USD
• First day closing price: $0.05936
• Opening retracement: approximately 11.2%
• First day's trading volume: $310.37 million
• First day market value: 102.89 million USD
• Current price ( July 7 ): 0.03083 USD
• Current Market Cap: $53.44 million
• FDV: 308.6 million USD
• Trading Volume/Market Cap Ratio ( July 7 ): ~33%

Despite the hype from Launchpool and Kaito Earn, most of HUMA's trading is rotational trading. The rewards for the first season can be claimed from day one, and the second season has also been announced, which has led to increased selling pressure rather than long-term holding.

After briefly stabilizing at around $0.05 in early June, the price continued to decline over the following month, with a drop of 40% from June 9 to July 7. This trend reflects not only profit-taking but also a lack of sustained demand. Daily trading volume shrank by more than 90% from its peak on the first day, while the gap between FDV(3.08 billion) and the actual market value(5.3 million) continued to widen, further reinforcing the market's view that much of HUMA's appeal is driven by activity rather than the product itself.

Summary: HUMA showcases the typical Kaito Earn model: impressive data, massive liquidity, but lacking enduring appeal. Its launch aims to enhance visibility rather than garner steadfast support, and due to the lack of practicality and demand post-launch, early attention comes quickly but fades just as fast.

Quai: Large-scale distribution, deep Kaito integration, strong launch... then falling into silence.

Quai is a decentralized multi-threaded blockchain protocol that has launched the most generous and deeply integrated Kaito Earn activity to date. From January 17, 2025, to April 17, 2025, the project has allocated a total of 6 million QUAI tokens to reward content contributors:

• 5.5 million QUAI for Kaito leaderboard
• 500,000 QUAI for the exclusive Quai leaderboard

From April 29 to May 12, users can claim through the Kipper platform. Weekly snapshots track contributors, with some top yappers receiving up to 5.95% of individual cognitive shares, far exceeding SKATE or HUMA.

Although the Quai mainnet was launched on January 29, the token could only be freely traded after the exchange data was released on February 22.

QUAI's first day performance ( February 22, 2025 ):

• Opening price: 0.09884 USD
• Highest Price: $0.2263
• Closing Price: $0.1929
• Trading volume: 10.14 million USD

Subsequent trends: rotation, reversal, and a long cooling period.

QUAI is one of the most striking new projects among the tokens under Kaito. Its price skyrocketed during the session from $0.09884 to $0.2263, an increase of 129%, and eventually closed at $0.1929, marking a rise of 95%.

But this is already the peak.

In the coming weeks:

• February 23-26: The price dropped rapidly to around $0.17-0.18.
• March 1-15: Prices continued to decline to the range of 0.12-0.08 USD, reflecting the normal performance of capital rotation after speculation.
• April-May: Despite several small attempts to rebound, the support strength is gradually weakening.
• June-July: The price range of the token was between $0.06 and $0.07. As of July 7, the trading price was $0.05266, down approximately 73% from the closing price and down approximately 76.7% from the highest price.

The trading volume also indicates the situation:

• From the initial $10 million on day one to the current approximately $3 million, indicating a sharp decline in activity.
• Even the Kaito rewards in the second phase did not significantly boost demand after the TGE.

Summary: QUAI has many advantages: a large allocation of Kaito, strong brand influence, a highly anticipated TGE, and a strong early price trend. However, attention is quickly shifting. Even leading yapper has not been able to stabilize its secondary market interest.

The current trading price of QUAI has fallen below the issue price and has not seen a significant rebound since March, which fully demonstrates that early liquidity does not equate to lasting confidence.

Soon: Integration with Kaito, a booming trading platform, and real-world validation

Soon, a high-performance Solana Optimistic Network( based on SVM rollup), hosted one of the most structured and community-cohesive Kaito Earn events in early 2025. During the 3-month event period, the project allocated 450,000 SOON tokens( to the top 100 yapper, accounting for approximately 0.045% of the total supply).

• Event Date: February 19, 2025 - May 19, 2025
• Claim Period: May 23, 2025 to June 23, 2025
• Eligibility: Kaito leaderboard contributors, early NFT holders, builders badge owners

This event is not just a reward airdrop, but also integrates the brand image of SOON. Participating users will receive the "Sooner" role, badges, and social status, which reinforces that Kaito yappers are a key force in the early dissemination of SOON.

TGE and Market Launch: From Hot Discussion to Soaring Popularity

The SOON token was issued on May 23 and listed on a trading platform on May 24. The opening price of the token was $0.4527, briefly reaching $0.4776, with a closing price of $0.4007 on the same day. The trading volume on the first day exceeded $103 million, reflecting a large amount of speculative activity and the amplification effect of the exchange.

Some market indicators ( as of July 7, 2025 ):

• TGE Date: May 23, 2025
• Opening price on the first day: $0.4527
• First day closing price: $0.4007
• First day trading volume: $103.1 million
• Current Price: $0.1529
• Market Cap: Approximately $26.9 million
• Opening Retracement: Approximately 66.2%
• Maximum Drawdown: Approximately 68.0%
• Trading Volume/Market Cap Ratio ( July 7, ): approximately 97%

What happened after the first day?

After the initial excitement, SOON has followed the now-familiar post-Kaito era curve:

• Late May to mid-June: SOON remains in the range of $0.29 to $0.39, with little fluctuation and a slow decline.
• Late June: Support level breaks below $0.25, trading volume increases from June 27 to 30, showing an accelerated downward trend.
• July 5-7: SOON plummeted 40% within 48 hours, dropping from $0.22 to $0.13, followed by a slight rebound to $0.15.

This drop coincided with the end of the claiming period on June 23, (. After that, many claimants may have sold their assets and shifted their attention to other Kaito activities.

Summary: The earlier you sell, the better?

SOON has all the elements for a successful launch: strong infrastructure promotion, exposure from a certain trading platform, and community incentive mechanisms. However, the token dropped by 66% over six weeks, indicating that the hype has not translated into solid support.

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