Rumpel Labs to Launch New DeFi Protocol in September Enabling Users to Tokenize and Trade Airdrop Points

Backed by venture capital firms including Dragonfly and Variant, Rumpel “aims to improve liquidity and price discovery for offchain loyalty points”

Web3 startup Rumpel Labs is set to launch a new decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol in September, aiming to improve liquidity and price discovery for offchain loyalty points, the company announced Aug. 26.

Backed by Dragonfly and Variant, among other venture capital firms, Rumpel aims to unlock new opportunities for point holders, traders, airdrop hunters, and point issuers, according to the announcement.

“We're excited to announce our new protocol, set to launch in September, which will enable users to tokenize and trade their airdrop points,” Rumpel said in the announcement.

Rumpel joins the ranks of other recently launched protocols, such as Nudge, seeking to address problems with existing methods of attracting and incentivizing users in Web3. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Nudge is building a two-sided marketplace where protocols pay users incentives to redirect onchain assets, liquidity, and engagement.

According to Rumpel, the existing airdrop model suffers from several problems, including token underperformance and contention over arbitrary payouts.

“Point farmers, who go above and beyond to earn and maximize their airdrop points, often face underwhelming allocations and surprise airdrop criteria,” the company said in the announcement, adding:

“As a result, farmers' returns are far below users' expectations of early 2024, despite putting in the effort to use multiple devices, open several accounts, and engage in other tactics.”

Rumpel said it aims to solve these problems by allowing users to wrap each earned point into a Rumpel Point Token via a specialized Web3 wallet.

“This allows point farmers to sell points, point investors to buy points, and point issuers to continue issuing points with greater transparency around their tangible value,” the company said.

As reported by Cointelegraph, the recent airdrop season has seen mixed results, with some users complaining about poor returns despite engaging in several activities to earn more points.

According to a July X post by crypto researcher Aylo, the pseudonymous founder of Alpha Please, 23 of the 31 tokens distributed in sizable airdrops have lost value since their first day of listing, sometimes drastically. Excluding memecoins, only two airdrop tokens — or about 6% of the total — outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) over a comparable time frame.

“I absolutely think we have reached peak airdrop,” Jonathan Joseph, co-founder of SmartFunds, a real-world asset platform, told Cointelegraph in a recent interview.

“We need constructive models that get liquidity into new protocols in a way that adds value to all stakeholders involved,” said Joseph.