The night before SKR distribution: Solana Mobile conducts a large-scale purge of witch addresses. Will this airdrop be truly fair this time?

The SKR token is about to launch TGE on January 21st, but on the eve of distribution, the Solana Mobile team is conducting a critical anti-cheating cleanup. Project leader Emmett announced that the team will remove additional identified witch addresses from the initial SKR distribution; these identified subscription shares will be reclaimed into the future airdrop pool. What issues does this move reflect? And how will it affect the airdrop benefits for nearly 100,000 users?

Why Witch Addresses Are a Major Concern

The true nature of the problem

The SKR airdrop is massive—nearly 2 billion tokens allocated to about 100,900 users, averaging around 2 million per person. Such a scale naturally attracts speculators. According to the latest news, some users have been reported for holding multiple accounts, resulting in account bans and the immediate loss of an expected $120,000 (about 800,000 RMB) in gains.

This highlights the danger of witch addresses—creating multiple accounts to repeatedly claim airdrops, thus occupying shares meant for genuine users. Solana Mobile has previously taken measures against witch addresses, but evidently some still slip through.

Project Team’s Defensive Upgrades

Emmett stated that before SKR’s release, the team is actively identifying additional Seeker clusters. While the team has not disclosed specific detection details (which is wise to prevent circumvention), this indicates that anti-witch efforts have entered a deep stage—not only identifying obvious multi-account operations but also uncovering covert cluster behaviors.

The removed subscription shares are not destroyed but returned to the future airdrop pool. This means these tokens will still be used to incentivize ecosystem participants, just in a different form and timing.

What This Means for Genuine Users

Recalibrating Expectations for Gains

If witch addresses are cleaned up on a large scale, the proportion of SKR flowing to real users will increase. Logically, this is good news for legitimate participants—your allocation becomes more valuable.

Conversely, if you have previously engaged in multi-account operations (even as a test), you now face the risk of being flagged or banned. This explains why a user quickly reported their gains after sharing on social media—the competitive environment amplifies any suspicious activity.

The Importance of Security Precautions

Security agencies have already issued reminders: only check and claim SKR via official wallets on your device, beware of phishing domains and misleading “unlock valuation” links. Now, an additional warning: do not expose your account features, device IDs, or browser info publicly, as these could be used as evidence for reports.

The Reality Behind Fairness Promises

The project team emphasizes that this move aims to “ensure the fairness of SKR distribution, directing it toward users and developers who promote the platform.” That sounds nice, but fairness in Web3 is always relative.

In reality, anti-witch measures serve both to protect honest users and to safeguard the health of the ecosystem. An airdrop filled with witch addresses ultimately damages the token’s reputation and the quality of initial distribution. Solana Mobile clearly understands this.

What to Watch Next

SKR distribution officially begins on January 21st, and this timing is critical. If you have already confirmed your allocation, next steps include:

• Use only official channels to check and claim; do not trust third-party links
• Consider staking your tokens after claiming (official support for staking is indicated)
• Do not expose any account details on social media
• Be vigilant against phishing attacks, as scams tend to spike during this period

Summary

Solana Mobile’s pre-TGE witch address cleanup is a necessary ecosystem hygiene effort. For honest participants, it means your airdrop gains will be more pure; for those with malicious intent, it’s a warning.

From a broader perspective, this also reflects an upgrade in how Web3 projects handle airdrop cheating—shifting from passive response to proactive enforcement. Future airdrops may face similar scrutiny, which benefits the long-term health of the ecosystem. However, for short-term speculators, the rules of the game are becoming stricter.

With only 3 days until TGE, genuine users should already see their allocations, and the remaining task is to ensure security and wait for January 21st.