In a quiet corner near Ho Chi Minh City, a chilling reality unfolded as Corey Wilton, CEO of Mirai Labs, stepped into a refrigerated tin shed. What he witnessed wasn’t sci-fi dystopia—it was real, industrial, and terrifying: a crypto bot farm operating on a scale never before seen. This operation housed 30,000 smartphones, all humming in synchronized deception, engineered to steal cryptocurrency airdrops intended for genuine users.
Wilton, who had once lost his NFT project to a wave of bots, now stood at the heart of the system that broke it. “The industry has absolutely no clue how sophisticated this stuff is,” he warned. This underground economy, largely invisible to regulators and most of the crypto community, is syphoning millions of dollars from blockchain projects and users worldwide.
Inside the Bot Farm: 30,000 Devices, One Goal
The shed Wilton entered was more a factory than a farm. Metal racks covered every inch of space, each packed with phones—30,000 of them. Narrow walkways snaked between the towers of buzzing devices. The entire facility was refrigerated to keep devices cool, an eerie detail that added to the surreal nature of the operation.
Wilton described the facility as “disastrous” in terms of wiring and layout, but chillingly efficient in its purpose. Each phone had its own SIM card and spoofed IP, making detection nearly impossible. A single person operated a master phone, which mirrored actions across over 500 slave phones in real-time.
These bot farms target one thing: airdrops—free tokens distributed by crypto projects to early users as a way to incentivize adoption. But the rise of industrial farming means genuine users often never see their share. Instead, massive phone farms create thousands of fake identities, simulate real behavior, and scoop up millions in crypto.
A Personal History with Pegaxy Bots
Wilton’s motivation for uncovering these farms is rooted in experience. His once-thriving blockchain horse-racing game, Pegaxy, peaked in 2021 with half a million daily users. But suddenly, the game lost its soul.
Thousands of reports flooded in about bots. They weren’t just passively watching—they were racing, winning, and cashing out. Bots had seized high-value digital horses and were running them in endless loops. The in-game economy collapsed as human players were outpaced by scripts. “It turned from ‘who can win’ to ‘who can extract faster,’” Wilton recalled.
The revelation sparked a years-long quest to understand how bots operate. A TikTok video, shared by a former Pegaxy player, finally led him to the Vietnamese sheds in May 2025.
The Business of Deception
The bot farms Wilton uncovered do far more than steal crypto. They are multifaceted businesses.
Core Services Include:
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Airdrop Farming: Main business, using bots to claim free tokens.
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View Inflation: K-pop labels inflate video views using the phones.
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Fake Gambling Activity: Casinos simulate activity to trick real users.
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Account Leveling: Gamers rent farms to level up profiles for resale.
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Manufacturing DIY Kits: Farms sell prepped phone kits globally.
The most astonishing part? The scale of manufacturing. Wilton says the operators refurbish over 1,000 smartphones every week. Each DIY kit contains roughly 20 modified phones ready to plug and play. These kits are then shipped worldwide to remote clients, giving global scammers access to cheap automation.
Each device is categorized by generation—Gen 1 phones remain intact, while Gen 3 phones are stripped down for optimal cooling and speed. This makes large-scale airdrop harvesting devastatingly efficient.
How Crypto Projects Are Losing the War
Wilton’s warning is stark: “The industry has no clue.” And he might be right. Despite Web3’s promise of decentralization and fairness, most crypto projects are built on the assumption that users are real humans.
Bots exploit this assumption ruthlessly. Each phone with a separate SIM card and IP address appears unique. Anti-bot tools like CAPTCHA or phone verification don’t work.
Here’s how the exploit works:
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Fake wallets simulate engagement across DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and testnets.
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Once eligibility criteria are met, farms mass-claim airdrops.
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Tokens are dumped on open markets, crashing prices and hurting real users.
This was painfully evident in the ZKsync airdrop. Despite seven eligibility rules, it was overrun by Sybil attackers. One address linked to a bot farm claimed 3 million tokens—worth $753,000 at the time. Another farmer publicly boasted about making $800,000. Polygon’s Mudit Gupta called it the “most farmed airdrop in history.”
ZKsync admitted that overly strict rules could harm legitimate users, so they walked a fine line. Unfortunately, the bots walked right through it.
Binance, AI, and the Next Evolution of Bot Detection
Some companies are responding. Binance recently cracked down on abuse of its Alpha Points program. A spokesperson explained that traditional bots were easy to catch due to repetitive patterns. But AI has changed the game.
The Next-Gen Threat: AI Bots
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Mimic human browsing patterns.
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Time interactions to look organic.
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Rotate device and IP addresses randomly.
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Use behavioral models to trick filters.
AI makes bots harder to detect. Tools now must go beyond simple activity flags.
Binance’s Response:
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Entity-Linked Address Analysis: Detects wallet clusters linked to single actors.
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Multisend Behavior Tracking: Reveals batch transactions to multiple wallets.
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Wash Trading Detection: Catches fake liquidity generation.
Despite these tools, bot evolution is outpacing countermeasures. DeFi, NFTs, memecoins, and airdrops remain bot-infested frontiers.
The Broader Implications for Crypto
Bot farms like the one Wilton visited signal a deeper threat to crypto’s future. Trust in airdrops, fairness in gaming, and decentralized engagement are all at risk.
Core Challenges Ahead:
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Airdrop Legitimacy: Projects risk losing credibility if bots dominate.
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Data Integrity: Fake user behavior skews analytics and product development.
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Investor Confidence: Price manipulation and farmed hype lead to market instability.
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Security & Compliance: Regulatory pressure may increase if fraud persists.
A Call to Action for the Industry
Corey Wilton’s journey into the phone farm isn’t just a warning—it’s a call for reform. He believes that Web3 must evolve rapidly to preserve fairness and authenticity.
Suggested Solutions:
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Proof-of-Humanity (PoH) integrations.
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Wallet Reputation Scores based on past behavior.
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IPFS-based user history checks across dApps.
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One-time biometric verifications for high-value airdrops.
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ZK-proofs to verify activity without exposing identity.
Until such measures are widespread, the crypto world remains vulnerable. And phone farms, armed with cheap tech, vast networks, and evolving AI, will keep cashing in on that vulnerability.
Conclusion: Crypto’s Unseen Enemy
The chilling reality Wilton uncovered in a shed outside Ho Chi Minh City is not unique—it’s a blueprint repeated across continents. The industrialization of fraud in crypto is underway. Powered by refurbished smartphones and sophisticated bot software, these operations exploit the very systems meant to reward pioneers.
As the market races toward mainstream adoption and multi-trillion-dollar capitalization, bot farms represent a clear and present danger. Detecting and stopping them is now the industry’s next major test.
Will crypto adapt? Or will its most valuable rewards continue going to faceless farms?
🔗 Visit Official Website of Mirai Labs: https://www.mirailabs.io
3 Key Takeaways
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30,000-phone bot farms exploit airdrops, costing real users millions.
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DIY kits enable global scam networks using refurbished phones.
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AI bots are outsmarting traditional detection tools like CAPTCHA.
