Wallchain Issues Breach Notice against HeyElsa over unpaid $ELSA rewards, raising concerns around AttentionFi transparency.
Author: Akshat Thakur
January 21, 2026 — Wallchain issues a formal breach notice against HeyElsa, accusing the AI crypto project of failing to distribute promised $ELSA rewards after a five-month marketing campaign. The dispute matters because it exposes growing risks in crypto’s “AttentionFi” economy, where creators often rely on informal agreements, shifting rules, and post-hoc filtering that can leave months of work unpaid.
High Signal Summary For A Quick Glance
Lina 🦅
@XNXX_EN
@wallchain Do you have sufficient legal grounds to sue the project?
Update on the HeyElsa Rewards: Notice of Breach The Situation: We have maintained a constructive and respectful partnership with the HeyElsa team, but they failed to honor their commitments. They misled regarding the distribution of rewards, and the promised 0.3% token
01:37 PM·Jan 21, 2026
🌱ᑎ𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮
@ItsNessaOnX
@wallchain Let's carry some more water to the sea They don't give a F*ck
Update on the HeyElsa Rewards: Notice of Breach The Situation: We have maintained a constructive and respectful partnership with the HeyElsa team, but they failed to honor their commitments. They misled regarding the distribution of rewards, and the promised 0.3% token
12:42 PM·Jan 21, 2026
Leafswan
@leaf_swan
@wallchain To avoid this next time, thorough research should go into the past history of founders. If possible, let them pay 50% upfront of the promised rewards to you in stables, get them to sign a contract that If they default on the agreement, they'll face legal actions.. It's time to
Update on the HeyElsa Rewards: Notice of Breach The Situation: We have maintained a constructive and respectful partnership with the HeyElsa team, but they failed to honor their commitments. They misled regarding the distribution of rewards, and the promised 0.3% token
12:39 PM·Jan 21, 2026
Wallchain is a Web3 growth and marketing platform backed by Alliance DAO, known for running community-driven promotional campaigns through gamified epochs, leaderboards, and token rewards. Its “Quack” system incentivizes users called Quackers to generate content and mindshare for partner projects in exchange for token allocations.
HeyElsa is an AI-powered crypto assistant backed by M31 Capital and CB Ventures. The platform offers features such as smart-contract risk analysis, exploit detection, wallet monitoring, and on-chain alerts, positioning itself as a proactive security companion for DeFi users.
The two partnered in September 2025 to run a multi-month campaign aimed at boosting HeyElsa’s visibility ahead of its token launch.
The collaboration spanned two campaign epochs over roughly five months, during which Wallchain creators produced threads, memes, videos, and educational content promoting HeyElsa.
Key publicly stated terms included:
Crucially, HeyElsa published an article on October 20, 2025, stating that rewards were based on effort and content quality, not on-chain transaction behavior. According to Wallchain, no additional eligibility filters were disclosed or agreed upon.
Key milestones in the HeyElsa–Wallchain AttentionFi controversy
HeyElsa partners with Wallchain to launch an AttentionFi campaign; Epoch 1 promises 0.3% $ELSA rewards for the top 500 Quackers based on content creation.
HeyElsa publishes an article highlighting rewards for “spreading the word,” without disclosing any on-chain activity requirements.
Second epoch begins with on-chain multipliers added, but the campaign remains largely focused on mindshare and runs for roughly five months in total.
HeyElsa’s TGE occurs as unilateral reward distributions begin, excluding many participants via anti-Sybil filtering not outlined in original rules.
Wallchain publicly accuses HeyElsa of mismanagement, demanding full payouts, transparency, and a formal admission.
Dispute intensifies as the community reacts, Ethos Network slashes related influencers, and refunds remain unresolved.
Following HeyElsa’s Token Generation Event on January 19, distributions were handled unilaterally by the HeyElsa team. According to Wallchain, a large number of creators were excluded based on anti-Sybil filters and on-chain activity thresholds that were never disclosed during the campaign.
Wallchain argues that these filters directly contradicted HeyElsa’s earlier public statements and were applied retroactively after five months of unpaid labor. Despite Wallchain providing a finalized top-500 leaderboard and distribution breakdown, HeyElsa reportedly rejected the list and proceeded with its own criteria.
In response, Wallchain issued a public Notice of Breach, restricted access in HeyElsa’s Discord, and demanded remediation.
Relative positioning of Wallchain’s breach escalation versus prior campaign launches and comparable dispute resolutions across AttentionFi
The announcement triggered immediate backlash across Crypto Twitter. Creators who participated in the campaign expressed frustration over months of work yielding no rewards, while supporters praised Wallchain for publicly defending contributors rather than quietly absorbing the dispute.
The incident quickly became a rallying point for broader criticism of AttentionFi campaigns that rely on vague rules and discretionary payouts. Although HeyElsa has not issued a formal public response as of January 21, internal Discord messages shared by community members suggest the team viewed the campaign as experimental and justified its filtering as an anti-farming measure.
Meanwhile, $ELSA experienced post-TGE volatility as the controversy unfolded, though price action stabilized shortly afterward.
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