Orca Crypto
DeFi term

Points

A score a protocol awards for usage, often hinting at a future airdrop without promising one.

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Updated 2026-08-303 min readDefinition
Definition

A score a protocol awards for usage, often hinting at a future airdrop without promising one.

Points programs award a number for depositing, trading or referring, displayed on a leaderboard. The unstated implication is that points will convert to tokens later. Protocols are careful not to promise this, because promising it changes the legal character of the thing entirely.

The result is people committing real capital and taking real risk in pursuit of a reward that has not been defined and may not arrive. Some points programs have converted generously. Others converted to very little, or not at all.

Treat points as a possible bonus on an activity you would do anyway, never as the reason to do it.

In practice

A protocol showing a points leaderboard for six months, then announcing a conversion rate that disappoints most of the leaderboard.

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