Back in 2022, the Caduceus project launched a series of airdrops tied to its CMP token - the Caduceus Metaverse Protocol. If you’re reading this now in 2026, you’re probably wondering: CMP was real, right? Did anyone actually get paid? And why does it seem like no one talks about it anymore?
The short answer: yes, it happened. Hundreds of people got free tokens. But the project never took off the way its team hoped. The airdrops were real. The tokens were distributed. And today, CMP trades for less than a penny. Let’s break down exactly what went down - no fluff, just facts.
What Was the CMP Airdrop?
CMP stands for Caduceus Metaverse Protocol. It was meant to be the backbone of a decentralized metaverse focused on blockchain gaming. The idea? Use edge rendering to cut latency in VR worlds - something most metaverse projects still struggle with. The team raised $4.17 million across 10 funding rounds, and the Token Generation Event (TGE) closed on July 26, 2022.
But here’s the thing: they didn’t just give away CMP to early investors. They ran multiple airdrops to build community. These weren’t random giveaways. Each one had rules, deadlines, and specific platforms. If you missed one, you missed your shot.
The MEXC Exchange Airdrops
The biggest airdrop activity happened on MEXC, one of the larger crypto exchanges at the time. They ran two separate campaigns.
The first was for CAD (Caduceus Protocol), not CMP. This one had a 50,000 USDT prize pool. To qualify, you had to hold MX tokens - MEXC’s native token - between 1,000 and 500,000 MX. Then you voted on whether Caduceus should list on MEXC. The more MX you held, the more voting power you had. Winners got USDT, not tokens. It was a liquidity incentive, not a token distribution.
The second campaign was for CMP. This one was different. MEXC put up 62,000 CMP tokens. They didn’t give them to the top holders. They used a lottery. There were 950 winning tickets. Each ticket? 50 CMP tokens. That’s $2,500 worth of CMP per winner - at the price back then. Only 950 people got lucky. No sign-up. No tasks. Just luck. If you didn’t win, you got nothing.
The CoinMarketCap Airdrop
While MEXC gave out big chunks to a few, CoinMarketCap went wide. They distributed 62,500 CMP tokens to 12,500 winners. Each person got up to 5 CMP tokens. That’s $25 worth at the 2022 price. Not life-changing money, but enough to get people excited.
There was a catch: you had to have a CoinMarketCap account and complete a simple checklist - follow Caduceus on Twitter, join their Discord, and verify your email. No staking. No holding. Just basic engagement. Thousands did it. Most never heard from the project again.
There’s a YouTube video from July 2022 titled “How to Claim Your CMP Airdrop on CoinMarketCap” with over 18,000 views. It’s still up. Comments are full of people asking, “Did anyone cash out?” One user wrote: “Got my 5 CMP. Still sitting there. Worth less than a coffee.”
How Were Tokens Distributed After TGE?
The team didn’t just dump all the tokens on day one. They locked most of them up. Of the 90 million CMP tokens created, 82.27 million were unlocked by the end of 2022 - 91.41% of the total supply. That’s a high unlock rate. It meant early investors and team members could sell immediately.
The vesting schedule varied. Some rounds had no lock-up. Others had a 3-month cliff, then daily vesting over two years. But even the locked tokens didn’t stay locked long. By late 2022, the market cap was already down to $86,000. The 24-hour trading volume hovered around $72,000. That’s not a dying project - that’s a project that never got off the ground.
Why Did It Fail?
Caduceus had a real technical angle: decentralized edge rendering. That’s not just marketing speak. It’s about reducing lag in VR environments by processing data closer to the user - not in a distant cloud server. That’s useful. Real useful.
But here’s what went wrong:
- They didn’t ship a working product. No game. No demo. No dev tools.
- Their website went quiet after August 2022. No updates. No roadmap.
- Community Discord went from 15,000 members to under 1,200 by early 2023.
- They never partnered with a single game studio or metaverse platform.
- Tokenomics were confusing. CAD and CMP were used interchangeably in marketing.
People didn’t abandon the project because the price dropped. They abandoned it because there was nothing to hold onto. No utility. No progress. Just promises.
Where Is CMP Today?
As of February 2026, CMP trades at $0.006225 on CoinMarketCap. That’s down 98% from its peak. Market cap? $86,000. It’s ranked #4383 among all cryptocurrencies. You won’t find it on Coinbase, Binance, or Kraken. Only smaller exchanges like MEXC and Gate.io still list it.
There’s no active development. No new team announcements. No GitHub commits since 2023. The project is effectively dead. The airdrops were real. The tokens were distributed. But the value? Gone.
What Should You Learn From This?
If you’re thinking about joining the next airdrop - whether it’s for a metaverse, AI, or DeFi project - here’s what to check:
- Is there a working product, or just a whitepaper?
- Are the team members publicly known with LinkedIn profiles?
- Has the project shipped anything since the token launch?
- Is the token locked? Or is 90% of supply already unlocked?
- Is the community still active - or just a ghost town?
Airdrops aren’t free money. They’re marketing. And if the project behind them doesn’t deliver, your tokens are just digital dust.
Did anyone cash out from the CMP airdrop?
A few did - mostly people who got the MEXC 50 CMP tickets. At $0.006 per token, a 50 CMP prize was worth $0.30. Not enough to bother cashing out, given gas fees. Most just held onto them. A handful sold on smaller exchanges in late 2022 when the price briefly spiked to $0.01. But no one made serious money.
Can I still claim CMP tokens from the old airdrops?
No. All airdrop campaigns ended in late 2022. MEXC and CoinMarketCap removed the claim portals. Even if you completed the tasks, the system no longer accepts submissions. The tokens were distributed once - and only to those who participated within the deadlines.
Is CMP still being traded anywhere?
Yes, but only on a few small exchanges like MEXC and Gate.io. Trading volume is under $10,000 per day. Liquidity is low. Don’t expect to buy or sell large amounts without moving the price. Most holders are just sitting on tokens they can’t sell.
Why did Caduceus use both CAD and CMP tokens?
It was confusing, and it hurt their credibility. CAD was meant to be the protocol token. CMP was for the metaverse. But in practice, they were used interchangeably in marketing. This made investors unsure what they were buying. The team never clearly explained the difference, and most people assumed they were the same.
Was the Caduceus project a scam?
It wasn’t a scam in the traditional sense - no one stole funds. But it was a classic case of overpromising and underdelivering. They raised millions, ran airdrops, built hype - and then vanished. No updates. No product. No communication. That’s not fraud. It’s neglect. And for investors, the result was the same: lost time and lost value.