Back in early 2022, if you held MX tokens on MEXC or participated in Gate.io’s Startup Free Offering, you might’ve received free GENS tokens - the native coin of Genshiro, a DeFi platform built on Kusama. At the time, it felt like a promising opportunity. The reference price was $0.063. Some people cashed out quickly. Others held, hoping for the next big DeFi wave. Three years later, GENS trades at around $0.00001301. That’s a 99.98% drop. So what actually happened with the Genshiro airdrop? And is there still any reason to care?
How the Genshiro Airdrop Actually Worked
The Genshiro airdrop wasn’t a simple snapshot of wallet balances. It wasn’t just for holding something. It was a voting event. On MEXC, you had to use your MX tokens to vote for Genshiro. You needed at least 10 MX tokens to cast a vote. You could vote up to 500,000 MX worth - but here’s the catch: your MX tokens got locked during the voting window. They were released within an hour after the event ended. This wasn’t a passive airdrop. It was a test of engagement. You had to be active. You had to care enough to lock up your assets for a few hours. The MEXC campaign distributed 885,000 GENS tokens total. That’s a solid number. But Gate.io’s campaign was bigger - 1,277,825 GENS tokens given away for free. No voting required. Just sign up, meet basic requirements, and claim. These two events alone accounted for over 2.1 million GENS tokens distributed. That’s not small change. It was one of the more aggressive airdrops on Kusama’s ecosystem back then.What Genshiro Was Supposed to Be
Genshiro wasn’t just another DeFi app. It was designed as a one-stop shop for cross-chain finance on Kusama - the canary network for Polkadot. Think of it as a DeFi hub that lets you lend, borrow, farm yield, and trade assets across multiple blockchains without moving through different platforms. It used smart contracts, layer-2 scaling, and oracle systems to keep things secure and fast. The goal? Reduce risk by spreading exposure across chains instead of betting everything on Ethereum or Solana. It had eight core components: liquidity pools, governance via DAO, cross-chain bridges, lending protocols, yield aggregators, staking modules, price oracles, and a native token economy. The idea was to build something more resilient than single-chain DeFi projects. If one chain went down, the others could still function. That’s smart architecture. But architecture doesn’t pay bills. Adoption does.Why the Price Crashed So Hard
$0.063 in early 2022. $0.00001301 in late 2025. That’s not just a market correction. That’s a collapse. And it didn’t happen overnight. The drop came from a mix of factors. First, the broader crypto market cooled. After the 2021 bull run, DeFi projects on alt-chains like Kusama lost attention. Investors chased Ethereum L2s, Solana, and later Bitcoin L2s. Kusama didn’t get the same hype. Second, Genshiro’s user base never scaled. Even with 2.1 million tokens given away, actual active users remained low. People got tokens, didn’t use them, and forgot about them. Third, liquidity dried up. Without traders and yield farmers, the pools became shallow. Slippage went up. Rewards dropped. That killed the incentive to stick around. The team kept building. Roadmaps were published. 2025: expand cross-chain support. 2026: add risk controls. 2027: new staking models. 2030: become a full DeFi ecosystem. But no one was watching. No one was trading. No one was talking about it. The tech was there. The vision was clear. But the market didn’t believe.
Was the Airdrop Worth It?
Let’s say you got 10,000 GENS in the MEXC airdrop. At $0.063, that was $630. At $0.00001301, it’s worth $0.13. You lost 99.98% of your paper value. But here’s the thing - you didn’t pay for it. You didn’t spend money. You just voted with tokens you already had. So in real terms, your loss was zero. You didn’t risk capital. You just risked time. For some, it was a learning experience. They saw how airdrops work. They saw how projects launch. They saw how quickly hype fades. For others, it was a reminder that free tokens don’t equal free money. The real value isn’t in the token price. It’s in the network effect. And Genshiro never built one.Is There Still a Chance for Genshiro?
Maybe. But not because of the airdrop. The airdrop is over. The tokens are in wallets - most of them inactive. The future depends on execution. If Genshiro can deliver on its 2025-2030 roadmap, if it can attract real users, if liquidity returns, then the price could recover. But that’s a big if. Right now, the project has no active trading volume to speak of. No major partnerships. No media buzz. No influencers talking about it. The team is still developing, according to their updates, but they’re speaking into an empty room. Without users, even the best tech is just code on a server.
What You Should Know Before Any Future Airdrop
If Genshiro runs another airdrop - and there’s no sign it will - here’s what to ask yourself:- Do I understand what this project actually does? Not the whitepaper. Not the hype. The real use case.
- Is there real demand for this? Are people using it now, or just waiting for something to happen?
- What’s the tokenomics? Is supply being burned? Is there a vesting schedule for team tokens?
- Am I locking up my assets to get this? If yes, what’s the cost if it fails?
Where Genshiro Stands Today
Genshiro is still alive. The code is still running. The DAO still exists. But it’s a ghost town. No trading. No new users. No updates that make headlines. The team hasn’t given up. But the market has. The lesson here isn’t about Genshiro. It’s about the DeFi airdrop culture. Too many people chase free tokens without asking: What’s the point? If you’re not going to use the product, why bother? If the project can’t attract users after giving away millions in tokens, what makes you think it will ever succeed? Genshiro’s story is a cautionary tale. It had the tech. It had the funding. It had the airdrop. But it didn’t have the people. And in crypto, people are everything.Did the Genshiro airdrop require voting?
Yes, the main airdrop on MEXC required users to vote using MX tokens. Participants needed at least 10 MX tokens to cast a vote, with a maximum cap of 500,000 MX. The MX tokens were locked during the voting window and unlocked within one hour after the event ended. Gate.io’s distribution was different - no voting required, just claiming through their platform.
How many GENS tokens were distributed in total?
Over 2.1 million GENS tokens were distributed across two major campaigns: 885,000 through MEXC’s voting airdrop and 1,277,825 through Gate.io’s Startup Free Offering. These were the largest and most documented distributions.
What was the original price of GENS during the airdrop?
The reference price used during the MEXC airdrop in January 2022 was $0.063 per GENS. This was not the market price, but a valuation used to calculate token rewards. The actual trading price fluctuated around that level at the time.
Why is GENS worth so little now?
GENS dropped to around $0.00001301 by late 2025 due to low user adoption, lack of trading volume, and reduced interest in Kusama-based DeFi projects. Despite a solid technical foundation, the platform failed to attract or retain users after the initial airdrop hype faded. Broader market conditions also played a role, as investors shifted focus to Ethereum L2s and other high-volume ecosystems.
Is there going to be another Genshiro airdrop?
There are no official announcements about a new airdrop as of early 2026. The project’s focus appears to be on development rather than token distribution. Any future airdrop would likely depend on the successful rollout of new features in 2025-2026 and a revival in user activity.
Can I still claim GENS from the old airdrops?
No. The MEXC and Gate.io airdrops were time-limited events that ended in early 2022. Claiming periods closed shortly after the distributions. Tokens were sent directly to eligible wallets. If you didn’t receive them at the time, there’s no way to claim them now.
Andy Simms
23 01 26 / 08:37 AMLet’s be real - the airdrop wasn’t the problem. The problem was the team assuming that distributing tokens = building a community. You can’t airdrop adoption. You have to earn it. Genshiro had solid tech, but zero user onboarding. No tutorials, no Discord engagement, no incentive to actually use the protocol. Just tokens sitting in wallets like digital litter.
And don’t get me started on the Kusama ecosystem. Everyone jumped on Solana and Ethereum L2s because they were faster, cheaper, and had real users. Kusama? A graveyard of half-baked projects with great whitepapers and zero traction.
Deepu Verma
24 01 26 / 01:40 AMMan, I got 5k GENS and just forgot about it. Didn’t even check the price until last month. Thought I’d made a killing. Then I saw $0.000013 and laughed so hard I cried.
But honestly? Zero regret. I didn’t buy anything. Didn’t lock up cash. Just voted with MX I was already holding. So technically, I made $630 and lost $0.13. That’s a win in my book.
Lesson? Free tokens are free lessons. Don’t chase them for profit - chase them for experience.
Julene Soria Marqués
24 01 26 / 05:02 AMOh wow, so the whole thing was just a marketing stunt? Classic. I knew it. I *knew* it. These DeFi teams don’t care about users - they care about inflating their tokenomics so they can dump on retail. Genshiro? Total rug pull in slow motion.
And the fact that they’re still ‘building’? Please. That’s just code on a server while they sip margaritas in Bali. They’re not trying to build a product. They’re trying to build an exit strategy.
Tselane Sebatane
25 01 26 / 10:33 AMI’ve been in crypto since 2017. I’ve seen a hundred airdrops like this. Genshiro wasn’t unique - it was predictable. The pattern? Airdrop → hype → silence → collapse. And people keep falling for it because they think ‘free’ means ‘easy money.’
But here’s the truth: the only people who profit from these are the insiders who got early allocations, the VCs who dumped on the first pump, and the devs who cashed out before the launch.
If you’re still holding GENS hoping for a rebound, you’re not investing - you’re emotionally attached to a ghost. Let it go. Save your sanity.
And if you’re the team reading this? Stop posting roadmap updates. Start posting user growth numbers. Or shut up and delete the website.
Jonny Lindva
25 01 26 / 21:28 PMHey, I’m not mad at Genshiro. I’m mad at myself. I thought ‘cross-chain DeFi hub’ sounded cool, so I voted. Didn’t even read the docs. Just wanted free tokens. Classic rookie move.
But here’s what I learned: if you don’t understand the tech, don’t participate. If you don’t care about the protocol, don’t claim the tokens. Don’t treat crypto like a lottery. Treat it like a tool.
Now I only engage with projects I actually use. And yeah, I miss out on some airdrops. But I also don’t wake up to $0.000013 prices.
MOHAN KUMAR
27 01 26 / 17:09 PMThey gave away 2.1 million tokens and still couldn’t get 10k active users? That’s not a failure. That’s a funeral. And the funeral was held by the team themselves.
They didn’t fail because the market turned. They failed because they thought tokens = users. No. Tokens are just digital pieces of paper. Users are the blood. No blood, no life.
Also, Kusama is dead. Move on.