Originally, airdrop programs aimed to familiarize the crypto community with new or existing projects through simple social tasks. However, the landscape evolved significantly post-2020, particularly after the now-leading decentralized exchange Uniswap's high-profile airdrop of $6.43 billion worth of $UNI (valued at its all-time high price). This shift marked a transition towards rewarding early adopters and significant contributors, with DeFi projects leading the trend.
Other sectors of web3 followed suit: in 2023, blockchain layer-2 Arbitrum dropped almost $2 billion of $ARB, upstarting NFT marketplace Blur $818 million of $BLUR, and decentralized ID project Worldcoin $180 million of $WLD. Overall, last year’s top 50 airdrops have distributed some $4.56 billion worth of tokens, according to Coingecko’s research.
The year 2024 is promising to be even richer in airdrops, with some established networks, crypto games, and DeFi DApps already announcing giveaways, while speculations heating up about those that might still be a secret. Here’s an overview of the most expected airdrops of the year, the ways one could get qualified for them, and a look into airdrops’ impact on the markets.
How to qualify for airdrops?
Airdrops have become ubiquitous in the crypto space, allowing web3 projects to educate users, grow their community, and kick off token markets. A growing number of airdrops are also conducted on testnets even before the protocol launches in alpha, allowing to test its resilience, find and fix any technical issues, and spread the word.
Depending on the protocol’s nature and goals, qualified users may include those who have interacted with the DApp, executed trades, owned the project’s NFT, staked the project’s token, contributed to its code in open source…
To make the earning part less obvious, most mainnet airdrops’ conditions and timing are never disclosed in advance. Often, a protocol takes a snapshot of the current users and their activity, and announces an airdrop only afterward. This makes airdrop-hunting an exciting endeavor, for which it is better to prepare by subscribing to a project’s Discord channel.
In contrast, testnet airdrops are often announced since the developing team needs technical feedback. Their rewards are usually smaller, but on the bright side, they do not need users to spend real tokens on fees, or risk approving a fraudulent smart contract that will drain their wallets.
Airdrops in 2024
This year started its airdrop season strong with zk-proof networks Manta and Starknet (latter officially announced today), crypto games Pixels and Mavia, and Solana staking DApp Marinade Finance.
Most of them have already taken eligible users’ snapshots, but some, like Manta or The Root Network (launched last year), are still open for “airdrop farming”.
Expectations are also rising for potential airdrops from zk-focused blockchains zkSync and Linea, interoperability protocol LayerZero, or else Solana-based lending DApp Marginfi.
Testnet airdrops are a relatively easy way of gaining money without investing anything except time; it is the closest thing in crypto to “free money”. Shared by crypto analyst Miles Deutscher, some of the most interesting current testnet airdrops include Berachain (L1 blockchain built on Cosmos SDK), Metis (EVM-compatible Layer 2 scaling solution), Shardeum (EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain designed for linear scalability ), Particle Trade (leverage trading protocol), and Data Ownership Protocol (ZK-proof-based privacy solution).
Airdrops impact on crypto markets
Airdrops naturally stimulate buzz and user activity, pushing token prices up in the short term. However, they are not a magic solution for a protocol to become popular. If the promise behind the DApp is not fulfilled, user interest wanes and prices fall dramatically.
High-profile airdrops for DApps are also poised to increase activity on the blockchains they were built on. Solana’s liquid staking Jito is one such example, giving $SOL a 20% boost on its first day.
Airdrops are now instrumental for web3 projects willing to initiate user engagement. However, they are also a popular tool for scammers: surfing on a giveaway’s buzz, they produce a multitude of mirror websites with wallet-draining contracts. Therefore, any airdrop information must be thoroughly verified on the project’s X and Discord channels. Also, US citizens are rarely eligible due to the country’s legal uncertainty in crypto matters.
Written by D.Center
