Top 5 Most Profitable Airdrops: The Risks and Rewards of Chasing Crypto Airdrops

Key Takeaways

The first-ever crypto airdrop was Auroracoin in 2014.
Organized airdrop hunting really took off after Uniswap’s token launch.
Today, airdrop hunters use a diverse range of strategies to maximize their rewards.

Crypto airdrops, which reward early users of a platform with free coins or tokens, are a tried and tested way for new projects to attract users and generate buzz.

For some, airdrops are simply a nice bonus that rewards legitimate engagement. But for so-called airdrop hunters, the promise of token rewards is the only reason they are there in the first place.

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The History of Crypto Airdrops

The term airdrop, used to describe a free crypto giveaway, was first coined by the Auroracoin project, a Litecoin fork that aimed to issue free crypto to every Icelandic citizen.

Originally envisaged as a national cryptocurrency rivaling the krona, Auroracoin was briefly the second-largest market cap crypto after Bitcoin and nearly 10% of eligible citizens claimed their coins.

Ultimately, Auroracoin’s lofty ideals were never realized, and today, it is little more than an interesting historical footnote. But the idea of airdropping crypto has endured.

With the launch of Ethereum in 2015, crypto projects had a way to easily issue tokens without having to build a new sovereign blockchain. They also had access to a growing community of crypto users, each with their own unique address to receive tokens.

UNI and the First Airdrop Hunters

While airdrops became an increasingly popular marketing strategy throughout the late 2010s, Uniswap’s UNI airdrop in September 2020 proved to be a turning point for organized airdrop hunting.

The unannounced giveaway saw every wallet that had used the Uniswap protocol gifted 400 UNI, worth around $1,200 at launch. At the token’s all-time high price of $44.97 on May 3, 2021, the 400 UNI airdrop would have been worth $17,988.

Other highly lucrative airdrops followed. For instance, in 2021, some DYDX and ENS airdrop participants received tokens worth upward of $10,000.

This led to the emergence of communities and guides dedicated to tracking and maximizing airdrop eligibility.

Users began creating multiple wallets and interacting with testnets, DEXs, and bridges in hopes of qualifying for future drops. Strategies to maximize rewards included registering multiple accounts and gaming platforms to boost usage statistics.

Platforms Fight Back Against Sybil Attacks

One of the earliest and most rudimentary strategies airdrop hunters deployed to maximize their rewards was to register multiple wallets with a platform they expected to launch a token.

By 2022, this behavior had matured into an arms race, with users creating multiple fake addresses known as Sybil identities, prompting projects to implement anti-Sybil defenses.

By blacklisting fake wallets from airdrops, platforms ensure legitimate users get their fair share of airdrop rewards. But it doesn’t always work.

According to one estimate, Sybil accounts received 253 million tokens from the Arbitrum (ARB) airdrop in 2023, accounting for 21.8% of all rewards.

Some protocols, including Optimism and Celestia, have retroactively revoked or penalized suspected Sybil wallets.

Maximizing Airdrop Rewards

Besides Sybil farming, on online forums like the r/airdrops subreddit and the Airdrop Official Telegram channel, community members actively discuss different strategies for maximizing rewards.

Many of these discussions center on analyzing the eligibility criteria and reward calculations of past airdrops. This knowledge is then applied to other platforms where airdrops are anticipated.

For instance, after the ARB airdrop, Arbitrum disclosed the details of a points system that was used to determine the number of tokens airdrop participants received.

Following the disclosure of this information, there was a surge in gas expenditure on other Layer 2 blockchains that had not yet airdropped tokens. Research by HTX suggests this was fueled in part by airdrop hunters seeking to emulate the conditions that led to higher ARB rewards.

In recent years, crypto platforms have adjusted airdrop criteria to focus less on simple metrics that are easily gamed.

For example, the X user @notshort claims he made over $1 million from the Jupiter airdrop by strategically allocating SOL to different sections of the platform and engaging with each one every day.

“I focused on actively using all of Jupiter’s tools. It’s about being smart with your moves on the platform,” he explained.

It’s All About Timing

While some airdrop hunters try to generate a valuable cache of tokens in one go, others look to spread their bets, hoping that by accumulating a broad range of airdrop assets, eventually one of them will blow up.

For example, although some UNI airdrop recipients will have taken their $1,200 on launch day, those who waited and sold at a higher price were rewarded for their patience.

Based on UNI’s all-time high price, the Uniswap airdrop remains the most profitable airdrop to date, with airdropped tokens worth more than $6 billion at one point. Others have also been lucrative.