Omni Network token plummets by 55% following airdrop, fraudulent token rugs entire market

The value of the ERC-20 token OMNI, issued by the Omni Network, plummeted by more than 55% within 18 hours of its airdrop, resulting in a loss of over half of its market capitalization.
In the midst of this, a counterfeit token with the same name has recently executed a “rug pull” scam, causing its price to drop by 100%.
The layer-1 testnet blockchain, which aims to connect Ethereum rollups, distributed 3 million OMNI tokens (equivalent to 3% of its total supply of 100 million tokens) to its community contributors on April 17, starting at 11 am UTC. At that time, OMNI’s market capitalization was $560 million.
Within just 30 minutes, the value of OMNI dropped by nearly 30%, falling from $53.80 to under $39, and it has continued to decline to around $24, representing a drop of over 55%.
At present, its market capitalization stands at $267.5 million, giving it a fully diluted valuation of approximately $2.57 billion, according to CoinGecko.
The price of OMNI has continued to decline since the airdrop took place over 16 hours ago. (See CoinGecko chart for reference)
During the airdrop, early users of the testnet, developers, and community participants received 50% of the latest airdrop, which amounted to 1.5 million OMNI tokens, valued at around $36.2 million. Eligibility for the airdrop was determined based on a snapshot taken on April 3.
The remaining tokens were divided among EigenLayer restakers and various nonfungible token (NFT) projects, including Pudgy Penguins, among others. (See OMNI Network image for reference)
On April 15, the Omni Network stated that 9.27 million OMNI tokens, equivalent to 9.27% of the total supply, were reserved as public launch tokens for “launch pools and liquidity.” (See OMNI Network image for reference)
The largest portion of OMNI tokens, amounting to 29.5 million or 29.5% of the supply, will be allocated for “ecosystem development” and initially distributed at the discretion of the Omni Foundation, the blockchain’s supporting organization.
Approximately a quarter of all OMNI tokens, totaling 23.3 million, were reserved for investors and advisers.
Advisers have already received 625,000 OMNI tokens worth $15 million, and an additional 875,000 OMNI tokens will be distributed after one year, followed by 437,500 OMNI tokens every six months for the next two years.
Investors’ tokens will be subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, with nearly 6.7 million tokens, valued at almost $161 million today, becoming available after 12 months. The remaining tokens will unlock every six months until the entire allocation is exhausted.
In the meantime, the creators of a counterfeit OMNI token using the same ticker symbol have executed an exit scam worth $398,000.
According to PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, in an X post on April 18, the fake token’s smart contract dumped over 1.7 quadrillion tokens in exchange for 132 Wrapped Ether (WETH), resulting in a 100% drop in its value. (See PeckShieldAlert image for reference)
Source: PeckShieldAlert
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