Introduction
Nothing makes people more happy than receiving free money. Especially, when that free money can range from thousands to even millions (in rare cases) of dollars per individual. How is all of this possible? These windfalls of free money in crypto occur through events known as airdrops. If you’ve watched the EllioTrades channel recently, you will have likely seen a video of Elliot and CoopahTroopa discussing airdrops.
Though airdrops are not a new crypto phenomenon (they were very popular back in 2018), it is worth covering the resurgence of their popularity. So, today we’re taking a further look into what airdrops are, and how you can position yourself to receive the benefits.
What Are Airdrops?
Airdrops are a marketing strategy used by projects to:
Bring awareness to their platform/product
Entice users to engage with their platform/product
This is accomplished by projects giving away free tokens/coins to potential users that meet certain criteria.
Airdrops can also be used to reward loyal community members and early adopters.
Usually, a project will announce that they are launching an airdrop, and provide instructions on how to claim or meet the eligibility requirements to receive tokens. Your amount of usage often determines how many tokens you will receive.
Airdrops are essential because it allows a project to gain immediate attention, and a little bit of traction if people start buying or staking tokens.
Notable Airdrops
There have been some very big airdrops released in recent years. Two legendary airdrops that have taken place were the Uniswap (Sept 1st, 2020) and 1inch (Dec 24th, 2020) aidrops.
Both of these airdrops delivered tremendous value to those who were fortunate enough to receive (and not sell) them.
In the case of 1inch, one user received over $20M in airdropped tokens.
It was also reported back in February of last year that the Uniswap airdrop of 2020 had reached a peak value of $12k per recipient.
So what sparked the new airdrop frenzy recently? It all started early November – November 8th, 2021 to be exact – when ENS decided to airdrop governance tokens to all ENS domain holders that owned a domain on or before October 31st, 2021.
Then, a few weeks ago, OpenSea users were taken by surprise when a project called OpenDao decided to randomly airdrop $SOS tokens to all OpenSea users.
As predicted, this created a good bit of “airdrop hype”, and soon after a project called GasDao followed suit.
The airdrop train has not stopped rolling. As recently as yesterday, LooksRare airdropped tokens to everyone that has traded NFTs on OpenSea between Jun 16th, 2021 and Dec 16th, 2021.
How To Receive Airdrops
The best way to receive these airdrops is to be active and participate in new projects (since you almost never know exactly which project is gonna do an airdrop).
For example, we’ve been talking about ZkSync on our channel for some time now. It has been widely speculated – and all but confirmed – that they will be airdropping tokens to early adopters.
Now would be the perfect time to start preparing. If you need a few pointers on some potential ways to make yourself eligible, checkout this thread.
Cosmos has already dropped hints that some of their ecosystem projects will be releasing airdrops soon. These projects are:
Evmos
Umee
Gravity Bridge
LikeCoin
Game
Stargaze
BitSong
You should also follow and monitor different crypto airdrop sites like:
Last but certainly not least, stay active within the crypto community. Some of these airdrops have been happening with little to know warning. If you aren’t active or at least following the Crypto Twitter community, you will miss out.
Conclusion
Airdrops can be a great way to build up your stack at little to no cost. However, please understand that not all airdrops are the same. Bad actors will advertise a fake airdrop in hopes of luring you to a fake landing page and having you connect your wallet to claim free tokens. To avoid being scammed always do your due diligence and perform a quick check on Twitter if technically savvy and trustworthy people have “approved” the safety of an airdrop.
I have a rule of thumb that I’m never first in line to claim any airdrop. I take time to read the comments, and watch others claim theirs first. One great thing about Crypto Twitter, is that though it may be drama-filled at times, the community does make a concerted effort to look out for each other.
If you’re worried about missing out, don’t be — there will always be new opportunities. So relax, stay engaged, and most importantly, stay safe!
I love how easy it is to read and digest your info. Great work fellas!
awesome job as usual