Mad Lads Official Announcement: No Backpack Airdrop! But includes a "Rick Roll" prank, sparking various speculations

Mad Lads announces that there will be no Backpack airdrop, sparking various speculations about snapshots or the issuance of other tokens.
(Background: Comparison of $2025 USD withdrawal platforms: OSL, Kraken, Bitfinex, Backpack — which is the best for your withdrawals?)
(Additional background: Countdown to Solana mobile airdrop: SKR token query now live, see distribution levels and claiming methods at a glance)

Today, the well-known NFT project Mad Lads in the Solana ecosystem released an announcement, which included the sentence “There is no, and will never be, a Backpack token airdrop.”

However, when the first letters of the announcement are arranged in order, they spell out the lyrics of Rick Astley’s hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which the community interpreted as a “Rickroll” prank.

But the community’s expectations were indeed dashed, and Mad Lads’ floor price dropped 5%, down to around 22 SOL.

Announcement:

Nothing but love to our Mad Lads
every rumor needs clarity
very simply put, here’s the truth
expectations got a little wild
reality check time

Getting straight to the point
our community deserves honesty
no Backpack airdrop is coming
neither now nor later
and we…

— Mad Lads (@MadLads) January 21, 2026

Two-layer interpretation of the announcement

The announcement emphasizes that Mad Lads’ core values lie in ownership and culture, and suggests that the community refocus on the artwork and story itself.

This perspective is not new in the NFT space, but combined with the hidden acrostic, it leads to two very different interpretations. The first is that the official is closing the door to Backpack airdrop holders, warning them not to rely on airdrops for valuation. The second hints that the project team still plans to introduce alternative incentives (possibly issuing additional tokens), but denies any direct link to Backpack.

Has the snapshot been completed?

Community rumors suggest that the team has already taken a snapshot of holdings during the airdrop rumor period, but the purpose has not been disclosed. This has led some investors to bet on the future issuance of a Mad Lads-specific token or other rights, which may explain why trading continued after the price drop. The supporting argument is that the acrostic “Never Gonna Give You Up” is seen by long-term supporters as an extra layer of meaning, rather than just a sarcastic jab at the community. After all, if it were just mockery, that would be truly “crazy.”