Fantasy.Top Blasts Off But Faces Malicious Bot Activity

Fantasy.Top, a social-fi card trading game built on Ethereum Layer 2 Blast, has grown rapidly since its launch on May 1.

After eclipsing $70M in total value locked (TVL) during its pre-launch phase, the hype has translated into surging activity through the first week of the game's release. Nearly 34,000 unique users have traded over 8,000 ETH ($24 million) worth of cards so far. Over the last seven days, Fantasy.Top raked in $9.31M in fees, placing it in the top five, as per DeFiLlama.

The game involves buying and selling cards of Crypto Twitter influencers known as Heroes, with dynamic scores determined by Twitter statistics such as total impressions and reach percentage.

Despite its rapid growth, however, the project is facing some challenges.

Over the last week, malicious actors have taken advantage of the scoring mechanism to manipulate the market for Fantasy Top cards by botting engagement on Twitter. Fantasy.Top has anti-botting measures built into its algorithm, but aggressive engagement botting can also result in an account being banned from Twitter. This issue has forced targeted popular accounts to go temporarily private on Twitter.

Due to the rampant bot issue, the Fantasy.Top team ended its first competition a day early to prevent any more malicious activity. The 18,000 tournament participants will share an estimated $3 million in prizes.

Looking ahead, the team has teased a new scoring mechanism, as well as new Heroes.