In the old days:

• Use a new protocol a few times

• Bridge here, swap there

• Maybe hold some dust

And one morning you wake up to a life-changing airdrop.

That era is over.

Too many people:

• spun up hundreds of wallets,

• ran the same scripts on all of them,

• and drained most of the rewards.

Projects tried to reward “early users”.
They got farmed by Sybil networks instead.

To fight this, projects shifted from:

“Did you touch the protocol?”
to
“Did you actually use it like a real user?”

New airdrop models care about things like:

• volume traded

• fees paid

• size and duration of deposits

• consistent activity over time

If you:

• spam light activity on 50 apps just to farm points,
  you’ll likely be disappointed.

If you:

• go deep on a smaller set of protocols and use them the way they were designed,
  your odds are much better.

Airdrops aren’t “free samples” anymore.
They’re loyalty rewards.

While airdrops are getting stricter, another trend is rising again:

Token sales / ICO-style launches on big platforms.

What’s different from 2017?

• More KYC

• Bigger, reputable platforms hosting sales

• Slightly better alignment (at least on paper)

What this means in practice:

• Some projects might skip airdrops entirely and only do a sale.

• Some will split supply: part to airdrop, part to sale → smaller airdrop per user.

• People who expect “massive free allocations” will be disappointed more often.

From the project side, token sales are attractive:

• guaranteed funding,

• less “instant dump” pressure than a giant free airdrop,

• some reputational cover from the platform hosting them.

Airdrops also have a trust issue now.

We’ve all seen:

• allocations heavily skewed to a small group of wallets,

• vague or changing criteria,

• usage numbers that don’t fully add up.

Users naturally start asking:

“Am I here as a community member…
or just future exit liquidity?”

ICO / token sales are not perfectly clean either.
But when they run through big platforms with reputations to protect,
it’s a bit harder to play obvious games.

Not impossible. Just harder.

Here’s how I’m adapting in this new environment:

• Stop expecting old-school “touch and win” airdrops
  I assume meaningful airdrops will require real, consistent usage.

• Choose a few ecosystems to live in, not dozens to sample
  I’d rather be a real user on 1–2 chains than a ghost on 20.

• Treat airdrops as a bonus, not a salary
  If I wouldn’t use the app without airdrops, I think twice before farming it.

• Be picky with token sales
  If I join one, I want to understand:

  • tokenomics,

  • vesting,

  • what I’m really buying,

  • and why this project deserves my capital, not just my clicks.

Airdrops aren’t dead.
But the “free money for light usage” era is.

We’re moving into a world where:

• airdrops mainly reward real, sticky users,

• ICO-style sales reclaim a big share of new token distribution,

• and both sides—projects and users—have to be more selective.

So the question is no longer:

“Which airdrop will make me rich for doing almost nothing?”

It’s:

“Which ecosystems am I willing to really use,
and which projects do I trust enough to either use deeply or fund directly?”

Once you answer that honestly,
your airdrop strategy—and your sanity—start to look a lot better.

In the old days:

• Use a new protocol a few times

• Bridge here, swap there

• Maybe hold some dust

And one morning you wake up to a life-changing airdrop.

That era is over.

Too many people:

• spun up hundreds of wallets,

• ran the same scripts on all of them,

• and drained most of the rewards.

Projects tried to reward “early users”.
They got farmed by Sybil networks instead.

To fight this, projects shifted from:

“Did you touch the protocol?”
to
“Did you actually use it like a real user?”

New airdrop models care about things like:

• volume traded

• fees paid

• size and duration of deposits

• consistent activity over time

If you:

• spam light activity on 50 apps just to farm points,
  you’ll likely be disappointed.

If you:

• go deep on a smaller set of protocols and use them the way they were designed,
  your odds are much better.

Airdrops aren’t “free samples” anymore.
They’re loyalty rewards.

While airdrops are getting stricter, another trend is rising again:

Token sales / ICO-style launches on big platforms.

What’s different from 2017?

• More KYC

• Bigger, reputable platforms hosting sales

• Slightly better alignment (at least on paper)

What this means in practice:

• Some projects might skip airdrops entirely and only do a sale.

• Some will split supply: part to airdrop, part to sale → smaller airdrop per user.

• People who expect “massive free allocations” will be disappointed more often.

From the project side, token sales are attractive:

• guaranteed funding,

• less “instant dump” pressure than a giant free airdrop,

• some reputational cover from the platform hosting them.

Airdrops also have a trust issue now.

We’ve all seen:

• allocations heavily skewed to a small group of wallets,

• vague or changing criteria,

• usage numbers that don’t fully add up.

Users naturally start asking:

“Am I here as a community member…
or just future exit liquidity?”

ICO / token sales are not perfectly clean either.
But when they run through big platforms with reputations to protect,
it’s a bit harder to play obvious games.

Not impossible. Just harder.

Here’s how I’m adapting in this new environment:

• Stop expecting old-school “touch and win” airdrops
  I assume meaningful airdrops will require real, consistent usage.

• Choose a few ecosystems to live in, not dozens to sample
  I’d rather be a real user on 1–2 chains than a ghost on 20.

• Treat airdrops as a bonus, not a salary
  If I wouldn’t use the app without airdrops, I think twice before farming it.

• Be picky with token sales
  If I join one, I want to understand:

  • tokenomics,

  • vesting,

  • what I’m really buying,

  • and why this project deserves my capital, not just my clicks.

Airdrops aren’t dead.
But the “free money for light usage” era is.

We’re moving into a world where:

• airdrops mainly reward real, sticky users,

• ICO-style sales reclaim a big share of new token distribution,

• and both sides—projects and users—have to be more selective.

So the question is no longer:

“Which airdrop will make me rich for doing almost nothing?”

It’s:

“Which ecosystems am I willing to really use,
and which projects do I trust enough to either use deeply or fund directly?”

Once you answer that honestly,
your airdrop strategy—and your sanity—start to look a lot better.