‘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.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

A Blockworks Research report looked at who could take up some of the marketshare in the launchpad space

article-image

Business-to-business stablecoin payments are on the rise, per a report from Artemis, Dragonfly and Castle Island

article-image

Crypto continues to do its thing: incentivizing behavior

article-image

Kraken will soon offer Backed ‘xStocks’ as Solana tokens

article-image

In a unanimous decision, the US Court of International Trade has ruled that Trump’s IEEPA tariffs are unlawful

article-image

The platform has over $22 million in assets and allows anyone to invest in tokenized real estate