Crypto Rewards Aren’t Broken, They’re Just Not Built for You

Whether it’s crypto trading or DeFi, reward programs and loyalty points have become a staple of the industry, with most exchanges/protocols showering users with points, tokens and other perks in lieu of performing activities such as trading, referrals, or quest completion. 

On the surface it sounds like everyone can win; however, the sad reality is that many of these reward schemes disproportionately benefit bots, whales, and high-frequency farmers, while genuine everyday users are left underwhelmed. The system isn’t so much broken as it is built for someone else, with recent data revealing a stark picture of how ordinary crypto enthusiasts often get sidelined when trying to participate in these programs.

One can, for instance, consider the case of Blur, a prominent NFT marketplace that launched a highly anticipated token airdrop program. While tens of thousands of users received some $BLUR, a tiny fraction of participants walked away with the lion’s share. One pseudonymous trader notably claimed 22.85 million $BLUR while at the same time, a well-known NFT whale frantically sold and bought back over 1,000 NFTs in 48 hours, essentially churning trades to farm points, secured about 6 million $BLUR (roughly $2.9 million value) as a reward.

Such imbalances aren’t a one-off fluke; they’re symptomatic of how many crypto incentive schemes operate. Often, the top 1% of participants capture an outsized portion of rewards, while the remaining 99% share crumbs. In Blur’s case, analysis confirmed that just 0.2% of wallets (the biggest traders) accounted for 44% of all trading volume after the airdrop.

Even across the broader crypto landscape, whenever there’s a points-based campaign or trading competition, one often finds a similar pattern. High-volume traders and automated bots can exploit the rules (whether through sheer volume, rapid-fire micro-transactions, or sybil accounts) to rack up points at a pace no regular user can match. 

In some cases, rewards programs even incentivize behavior that looks like engagement but isn’t genuine, i.e. fake volumes, duplicate referrals, or spammy interactions. The irony is that these programs do work as designed; it’s just that they were designed with growth metrics and top-tier “power users” in mind, not the average participant. 

A fair shot is possible!

This dynamic has not gone unnoticed, resulting in newer, more recent projects launching incentive schemes offering safeguards to curb manipulation. For instance, Web3 hub Nibiru recently rolled out a points system called Aura specifically marketed as rewarding real DeFi activity. They reset points each month and employ Sybil resistance and time-weighted scoring to ensure rewards go to genuine users, not algorithmic manipulators.

However, amidst the fray, one platform that has really stood out from the rest of the competition is Enclave Markets. As the world’s first Fully Encrypted Exchange (FEX), it offers a proprietary loyalty points program built to reward a spectrum of user actions, not just raw trading volume. 

Points enjoyers, you know the drill by now.

Weekly points are live. pic.twitter.com/ozGT65Lu90

— Enclave Markets (@enclavemarkets) July 7, 2025

By broadening what “engagement” means, Enclave’s program aims to include, rather than exclude, the majority of its community.

But, how does it all work? Essentially, Enclave allocates a large pool of points to be distributed to users every week, on the order of one million points weekly, and divides these points up across various categories of activity. Instead of handing rewards only to, say, the top ten traders by volume, the platform recognizes multiple ways a user can contribute to the ecosystem.

Trading perpetual contracts (perps) is one obvious avenue, with active traders earning points proportional to their trading activity. Another category is trying out “Alpha” strategies, which are basically algorithmic trading vaults (managed by hedge-fund professionals) that users can allocate funds to. 

The brilliance of this multi-pronged approach is that it dilutes the advantage of any single type of “power user.” A purely volume-based contest can be dominated by a whale; a purely referral-based campaign can be gamed by a scammer with countless fake accounts. But by rewarding different behaviors in parallel, Enclave’s program makes it practically impossible for one person or bot to excel in all areas at once. 

Toward a more human-centric crypto economy

From the outside looking in, Enclave Markets’ experiment hints at a broader shift in crypto, where users no longer have to behave like exploitative arbitrageurs to get a reward, instead they can simply engage in the ways they enjoy or excel at. This human-centric philosophy yields a healthier network in the long run, allowing real users to feel valued, and their continued participation drives genuine volume and growth, which is ultimately a win-win for the platform and its community.