My honest thoughts on the current state of airdrops:
They are not dead yet, but we need to be smarter.
As more people became aware of this 'free money glitch', airdrops have become diluted.
(Something CC2 has been talking about for a while.)
Last year gave me big wins like PYTH and JTO, but recent token launches were disappointing.
I've feared this day would come, given that my account solely focuses on airdrops.
But I still think they're here to stay and here's why:
In most cases, we are interacting with tokenless protocols in the hopes of getting an airdrop.
Everything is purely speculation, and the project will keep denying the launch of a token (until they eventually do).
Up till that announcement, we interacted in blind faith that it would be profitable in the end.
We're playing a game where we don't even know what the rules are.
The protocol has no obligation to distribute the token to you.
They decide how to allocate the tokens to us, and we have to live with that fact.
Yes, some projects are community-focused. But others are greedy and only serve their VC 'overlords'.
We won't know any of this until they decide to launch their token.
By that time, we probably would have spent a huge amount of fees after interacting with the protocol.
This is all part of risk vs reward.
We take on more risk doing airdrop hunting, and most airdrops will disappoint.
But you just need one lucrative airdrop to make it worth your while.
This is how VCs invest too. They throw money into different companies, and many will fail.
So long as one company makes it big, they will have the better returns.
Let’s try to look at airdrops from the perspective of the project.
With over a million users, how would you distribute your token to make everyone happy?
No matter how hard you try, there will always be a certain party who gets left out.
We cannot control how many airdrops we get.
But we can control how many tokenless protocols we interact with.
Yes, the recent airdrops have been abysmal.
But was it because we were expecting $10k from every airdrop?
I am guilty of this too, and greed left me disappointed by the recent drops.
But free money is still money, and I’m taking a new perspective:
So long as the airdrop covers your initial investment, that is good enough.
We cannot win 100% of the time.
Not every airdrop will be lucrative, but we take every win and move on.
Like what DeFi Chronicles said in his recent video, there are over 50+ projects that are yet to tokenise.
And sometimes, we just need to be patient.
I was farming multiple projects in 2023 and many are still tokenless.
Some members of my community have been using Jupiter since early 2022 and they just received the airdrop.
Success will come to those who continue working, even when there are no observable results.
And while hunting these airdrops, we’re building up our most valuable asset.
Airdrops have become a game.
Projects have a finite resource to distribute (tokens allocated to the airdrop).
Depending on the type of protocol, you're fighting against these opponents:
Liquidity-based airdrops: Whales with infinite capital
Transaction-based airdrops: Sybil bots that push transactions faster than you
I had a chat with one of my followers, and this point he brought up was so true:
Active farming is more lucrative than passive farming.
With active farming, you're building up the single most valuable asset that increases your chances of an airdrop:
Your wallet’s on-chain footprint.
It’s the only way to beat bots and whales.
Whales are too lazy to interact with every tokenless protocol.
Meanwhile, bots are reactive. They only interact with a new protocol once they’re programmed to, which takes time.
Remember the airdrops from AVAIL, TIA, PYTH, or DYM?
We did not actively farm them, and there were no points systems.
Yet we received lucrative airdrops based on our on-chain footprint.
Even if you did not stake any Cosmos tokens:
You still could qualify for TIA and DYM based on your L2 activity.
(This is very possible if you were actively hunting airdrops on these networks).
Meanwhile, no one knew about PYTH.
But so long as you interact with any DApp that used Pyth as their oracle, you qualified for the airdrop.
The only way to outsmart bots is to stay open-minded.
Be willing to explore new networks, even those that are non-EVM.
That’s how I got the JTO airdrop, by being early to Solana before the hype.
Am I giving up on airdrops?
No.
But I’m shifting my focus towards airdrops that offer a greater R/R:
Ones that I'm prioritising more
Tokenless L1s/L2s
Projects that run multiple Galxe/Layer3/Intract campaigns (especially on the mainnet)
Projects with low participation (based on leaderboard stats)
Ones that I'm prioritising less
Lending-Borrowing platforms
Protocols that lock up your liquidity (unless it involves BTC)
I’m only doing lending-borrowing platforms if I can loop with a high LTV and decent borrowing rates.
I'm focusing on underfarmed opportunities while boosting my on-chain footprint.
But how can we find these hidden gems?
I’m just one person, and there’s a limit to the number of projects I can research/interact with.
But if we tap into the collective minds of every airdrop hunter, we can win together.
You can’t do this alone, and neither can I.
We have to work together to cover all bases.
Sharing underrated opportunities early is the only way to achieve constant success.
I've started my Discord server to create the best community for airdrop hunters.
If you are interested in joining us, you're just a click away:
FIP Crypto
