Kaito AI Airdrop, Zora Coins and Potential Alt Season

A recap of the key trends, news, apps, and art shaping crypto culture and markets this past week.

Hi friends,

If you're new here, welcome to Hidden Gems! This is where I share onchain trends, apps, art, and content that caught my eye over the past week.

The past couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster (as usual in crypto). From the $Libra rug—somehow involving the Argentine President—to the SEC dropping major cases against top crypto companies (Coinbase & others) and a massive $1.4B (!) hack hitting ByBit.

We’re constantly hit with mixed signals—huge wins on the regulatory front, but also insane rug pulls and hacks.

With that note, let’s get to today’s Hidden Gems.

💎 Gem of the Week

Kaito AI

Kaito is a market intelligence platform that falls under InfoFi (information finance). It specializes in analyzing crypto social trends to highlight mindshare—mostly tracking influencers and trending topics. Their algorithm is fairly smart, and they’ve introduced an interesting innovation with the mindshare metric.

One of their key growth drivers was the Yaps system—essentially a points mechanism that rewarded users for activity. The twist? The more influence you had, the more Yaps you earned. This system helped Kaito gain traction quickly. They also offer a premium plan with advanced analytics, mainly targeting companies.

Kaito AI tokenomics.

Kaito AI Airdrop

The airdrop happened two weeks ago, with allocations based on the number of Yaps earned. Yaps were distributed through an algorithm that analyzed social activity, mostly on X. Influencers with large followings racked up Yaps effortlessly—basically earning while brushing their teeth—while others had to farm them by engaging (replying, inviting friends, etc.).

To give you an idea, I have a decent following on X and received an airdrop worth around $700 on claim day. I didn’t farm Yaps, so this seemed fair.

The main controversy? Big accounts received massive allocations, ranging from $100K to $300K, sparking debates about fairness. But in the end, it was those same big accounts that created the buzz and drove Kaito’s success.

Kaito AI Market Performance

Kaito has rebounded nicely after the initial sell-off. Thanks to staking incentives (which you can join on their website), the token’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) has surged past $2B, more than doubling its airdrop day valuation.

Note: I sold half of my airdrop and staked the other half—this is usually my go-to strategy for airdrops, especially for projects with long-term potential. I did the same with Venice AI, and so far, I’m happy with the results.

📊 Market Update

Alt Season?

Markets are pulling back across the board—Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana are all in decline. However, some of the tokens and projects I’ve highlighted in the past, like Clanker, Bankr, Cookie, Bracky, and Moxie, are holding up well or even performing strongly.

Why? I think it’s because these projects have clear use cases and utility—something often lacking in memecoins or AI-themed tokens with little substance. This could be a sign that alt season (or at least a shift toward alternative assets outside of the major players) is gaining traction.

Historically, we’ve seen this pattern in past bull markets, but there’s no certainty it will play out the same way this time.

🛠 App of the Week

Zora Launches Coins

Zora announced a drastic shift, moving from NFTs to fungibles as the fundamental element. With this change, every creation on Zora is now effectively a coin with a 1 billion supply. Creators receive 10M coins from the supply and earn 1% on every transaction. Zora has also been experimenting with minting mechanics, becoming the first platform to integrate free mints (+ protocol fees).

Reactions have been mixed. Artists and collectors who valued the minting and scarcity model aren’t too excited. Meanwhile, others argue that people haven’t fully grasped the new model—it’s not meant for "high-end art" but rather for ideas, concepts, memes, and digital artifacts.

Personally, I think there are plenty of platforms for artists and collectors who prefer the old model, and innovation in this space should be appreciated. I’m curious to see where this goes.

If you’re interested in exploring some of the newly launched Zora coins, two on my radar are Test (the first coin launched under the upgrade, serving as a test) and Coins (which appears to be the unofficial coin of the new system, headlined by SpongeBob).

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Indexy Update

Beta is Live!

You might have seen an earlier post about Indexy — a new market intelligence platform I started to make tracking crypto market verticals easier.

After some head-down, AI-assisted coding (plus a holiday break and a few sick days), I think it’s ready for a Beta release.

Beta v1 Highlights:

• Tracks 7 indices across ETH, Base, Solana, and more

• Covers infrastructure, AI agents, L2s, and niche segments like Farcaster & Clanker

There’s plenty of room for improvement and more indices coming soon, but for now, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check it out 👉 https://indexy.xyz

Note: I’ll try to keep Indexy updates to a minimum in Kaloh’s Newsletter. If you want to follow Indexy’s development, join the platform as I’ll be sending product updates every other week.

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🎙 Kaloh’s Podcast

Pindar Van Arman & Jason Goldberg

Two weeks ago, I released a podcast episode with AI artist and roboticist Pindar Van Arman. This is a must watch for anyone interested in the intersection of AI and creativity.

Last week, I caught up with Jason Goldberg, co-founder of Moxie Protocol—one of the few assets holding up well amid the current market downturn. They just launched their AI agents and new capabilities. Jason also shared the story behind his previous venture, FAB, an e-commerce platform that was once the fastest-growing company in the world.

Onchain Art

Botto First Generative Art Collection

Two weeks ago, I mentioned Botto’s first generative art collection, specifically algorithm 6120 was receiving a lot of attention. Although there were mixed opinion in social media, from collectors and aritsts alike, the piece sold to Bharat Krymo for 54 ETH in an auction.

For the first time, Botto is exploring generative art. Instead of relying solely on its AI-driven models (which mostly work with images), it introduced a new mechanism that allows it to create generative-coded art. In other words, instead of generating images directly, it produces code that generates images. Pretty neat, right?

✍️ Interesting Read

Bybit, Gnosis, and Cold Storage by Cassie Heart

Closing this Hidden Gems with a reading suggestion.

If you are interested in the recent ByBit hack and learning more about cold storage security, this is a must read: Bybit, Gnosis, and Cold Storage

Until next time,

- Kaloh