Velvet has officially released the details for this round of Epoch airdrop distribution. The total pool is 2,710,049 $VELVET tokens (valued at approximately $1.1 million USD using a $0.40 token price), and the Gem ranking leaderboard snapshot will be taken on August 10.
This article is a “actuarial guide” specifically for Velvet’s airdrop this round.
I will break down the three dimensions: the Gem tiered allocation weight, the multiplier Buff stacking mechanism, and independent fee cashback, and then provide the most cost-effective practical strategy tailored to players with different funding sizes and capabilities.
The core purpose is only one: help you calculate the fees, slippage, and expected token returns—so you don’t blindly farm for volume and end up doing wasted work.
Tiered ranking mechanism: Reject the “everyone gets a share” approach—tier decreases are extremely pronounced. This round’s distribution abandons the traditional “personal Gems / total network Gems” proportional sunshining model. Returns are determined entirely by your tiered rank at the time of the snapshot:
The top 10 on the leaderboard directly take 29% of the total token pool for this round. The specific tier-decreasing rules are as follows:
Rank #1: 5% exclusively (approx. 135,500 VELVET)
Rank #2: 4.5%
Rank #3: 4%
Then it decreases step by step until Rank #10 takes 1.25%
Rank #11–50: Distributed by sliding ratios from 1.24% to 0.355%
Rank #51–425: Gradually decreases from 0.35% down to 0.002%
Rank #426 and beyond: As long as you participate normally, you can still share the long-tail remaining rewards. Ranking up advice: Don’t blindly farm volume! First open the Rewards page to check your real-time ranking, the Gem gap vs. the previous rank, and how many more tokens you can earn by moving into the next distribution tier. If the earnings difference can’t cover trading fees, slippage, and perpetual position holding costs, then hard-farming just to gain one or two positions is extremely poor value for money. The 4 major sources of Gem acquisition and the Double Buff.
Base Gem source
Stake VELVET (generated based on the amount of veVELVET)
Spot trading
Perpetual contract trading
Invite users (based on the invitee’s trading volume)
Core bonus multiplier
Daily Challenge win streak bonus: Day 1 increases by 5%; with 30 consecutive days or more, it can reach up to 150%.
Note: The official documentation emphasizes “completing the Daily Challenge,” not merely “logging in every day” or placing any random order. The specific daily tasks shown in real time on the Rewards page are the reference—do not simplify the rules yourself.
Trading volume multiplier bonus: When cumulative trading volume reaches $1,000, it increases by 5%; reaching $2,000,000 increases by 350%. After surpassing $2,000,000, for every additional $1,000,000 of trading volume, an extra 100% is added.
Risk warning: These rules are highly attractive to large funds, but they’re also the easiest to fall into obsessively calculating Gems while ignoring friction costs. For spot, you need to factor in trading fees and slippage; for perpetuals, you also need to consider funding rates, bid-ask spreads, and liquidation risk.
NFT extra buff: Hold a Velvet Founders Club NFT—your Gem acquisition directly benefits from a 2x Boost. A separate “fee cashback” system Note: Fee cashback is a separate mechanism—do not mix it up with Gem multipliers. Cashback is achieved by stacking both staking and trading-volume tracks, reaching up to 100% combined cashback:
Staking track: Starts from 100 veVELVET (returns 5%), up to a maximum of 50%.
Trading volume track: Calculated as 1× spot trading volume + 0.2× perpetual trading volume, up to a maximum of 50%.
Invite additional benefits: In addition to Referral Gems, the inviter can directly take 50% of the trading fees paid by the invited wallet. Recommendations for different playstyles
Top-tier high-ranking players: Precisely calculate the marginal Gem cost required to reach the next tier, and don’t just look at the trading volume multiplier blindly and add more volume.
Daily high-frequency / real trading users: Prioritize maximizing your consecutive days for the Daily Challenge. Just complete your essential daily trading needs on VelvetX or the web app—there’s no need to repeatedly farm volume for uncertain ranks.
KOLs / community promoters: Focus on Referral performance; by earning both Referral Gems and the 50% fee share, your total returns are highest.
Small capital / retail players: Don’t treat the top 425 as the only passing line—after rank 426, there is still long-tail distribution that benefits many. Summary: The core logic of this airdrop is essentially to balance out the “marginal ledger.” To move into the next tier with good value, you need to know how much extra cost you must pay—and how many additional tokens you can get in return.
Leaderboard data, token prices, and opponents’ trading volume all change dynamically. It’s far more useful to understand your real position first, then act accordingly, instead of hard-farming with a one-size-fits-all strategy.