‘ShameFi’ takes over Crypto Twitter

Crypto execs are shaming traders for selling the Kaito token

article-image

sdx15/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe


Have you ever felt ashamed selling off a large sum of tokens for fiat currency? Or does it just feel good to take profits? Shaming others for their exits has become a thing on Crypto Twitter this week. So much so, in fact, that some traders have started calling the movement “ShameFi.”

ShameFi as a trend originated from the Kaito token claiming event, which happened this week and left some X users with piles of tokens worth hundreds of dollars for just a handful of tweets (like me). Others got six-figure sums—and promptly traded those Kaito tokens for cash. 

Nansen AI CEO Alex Svanevik is one of a few crypto executives outing Kaito sellers on Twitter. He’s been posting links to Nansen charts, showing that Ethereum activist Anthony Sassano is among Kaito’s biggest sellers, among others. “NO MORE YAPS FOR YOU—NOT ALIGNED,” he wrote in one post in all-caps.

Crypto exchange Arkam and Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet Jesse Pollack have also been outing or “shaming” Kaito sellers (Kaito’s token is on Base).

“I think it’s lame to celebrate immediately divesting of long term builders who are rewarding us for our contributions and using tokens to bring us in as cobuilders,” Pollack said in response to a tweet from NFT influencer and Dastan President Farokh Sarmad, who sold his tokens and thanked the team for the “stimmy.”

“I think it’s net-negative for our culture to celebrate short-term, mindset-driven selling,” Pollack wrote in a separate post on Thursday.

Later, he clarified his stance: “It’s fine to sell your airdrop. Taxes, rent, bills, making your life better. All good and all within your rights. Economic freedom. What I think is less positive is celebrating selling immediately. Particularly over the last 12 months, CT and this space has increasingly focused on who can make money fastest.”

Others, like Web3 builder Jordan Feinstein, don’t believe in ShameFi as it’s not an effective tactic to actually get would-be sellers to believe in what you’re building.

“Shamefi is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard of in this space. For real. If you don’t want people to sell your token, they need to believe there’s more upside to holding it than selling it. If they don’t believe that, IT’S ON YOU, not them,” he wrote.

My two cents? Crypto is such a high-risk, volatile space, that you have to do what’s right for your financial situation. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer as to whether you should sell something immediately or risk waiting something out. 

I’m not trying to play the long game with Kaito—and I’m not that much of a yapper—so I swapped the tokens I got for Bitcoin. Kaito’s been pumping since. Oh well.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Pipe Network is a decentralized content delivery network (dCDN) that replaces the sparse, capital intensive data center footprint of traditional CDNs with a permissionless mesh of independent node operators. By orchestrating under-utilized resources that already exist at the edge, rather than purchasing or leasing thousands of servers, Pipe slashes capital intensity while letting supply expand autonomously in the places where bandwidth is scarcest and most expensive.

article-image

Fiscal dominance isn’t about interest rates and it isn’t about Trump, either

article-image

Firestarter Storage brings decentralized storage and delivery to Solana

article-image

After lengthy closing arguments on Wednesday, the case is now in the hands of 12 jurors

article-image

Analysts cite weak trading volume and regulatory progress as factors

article-image

Builders weigh in on Ethereum’s first decade and the decisions that will define its next one

article-image

Closing arguments set to kick off Wednesday after Tuesday’s testimony from two expert witnesses and an a16z partner