How do crypto protocols incentivize and reward early users and contributors? Token airdrops. By handing out protocol tokens, the early users who helped build and propel a network or app are typically given a say in decentralized governance—and the tokens have value, too.
Not every airdrop will fill your wallet with a sizable bag of tokens, but you never know—users have collectively netted millions of dollars in tokens during past airdrops, and sometimes crypto tokens gain value over the long haul.
Recent high-profile airdrops from the likes of Blur, Jupiter, and Pyth Network may inspire you to look for the next big protocol to reward users for participation. It's important to note, though, that most projects now prefer retroactive airdrops to reward past activity. So, if you haven’t yet interacted with these protocols, you might already be out of luck.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest airdrops that either just commenced or are coming soon.
Starknet
The next huge airdrop is coming from Ethereum. Starknet, the layer-2 scaling network, will kick off its STRK airdrop on February 20, with nearly 1.3 million wallets eligible for the drop. The "provisions program" targets early Starknet users and developers, with 700 million tokens served up in this first phase.
Blast
Blast, the upcoming Ethereum layer-2 scaling network from the founder of top NFT marketplace Blur, has been controversial—even one of its lead backers publicly griped about its launch. But that hasn’t stopped traders from staking enormous amounts of ETH and stablecoins, now nearly $1.8 billion worth, hoping to eventually earn airdropped tokens.
Why is there so much interest? Blur has already airdropped several hundred million dollars worth of BLUR tokens to users, and Blast is telegraphing a very similar approach, attempting to corner the market through vast incentives for users. There’s already a lot of demand, but Blast has clearly laid out how users can set themselves up to earn rewards.
Wormhole
Cross-chain protocol Wormhole said in February that it will launch an airdrop for its W token, with the snapshot of wallets already taken. Wormhole began as a bridge between Ethereum and Solana, but has since expanded to include almost 30 networks. There's no ETA for when the actual token drop will take place.
Tensor
Solana’s new leading NFT marketplace has been hinting at an airdrop for months, and has closely followed the Blur playbook, including by incentivizing trading activity with points. Those points are likely to result in a share of tokens for traders, and with Solana NFT activity on the rise, that could prove very worthwhile.
Magic Eden (NFT)
Magic Eden has launched its Diamonds rewards program that will gradually span all four chains that the NFT marketplace serves, delivering points-like incentives that will unlock unspecified benefits.
But in parallel, a Non-Fungible DAO has spun up that plans to launch an NFT token that will be airdropped to traders who use its open-source protocols—and they just happen to be the marketplace and launchpad protocols that Magic Eden developed. So it's potentially double rewards for users.
Pixels
Buzzy farming video game Pixels will launch its PIXEL token on February 19 following play-to-airdrop campaigns, and it has already doled out token allocations to some 28,000 of those players' wallets.
Furthermore, Pixels is handing out a total of 20 million PIXEL to Ronin network users who staked RON tokens. The game will continue to offer PIXEL earning opportunities in the future, too, beyond the airdrop.
Aevo
The Ethereum decentralized perpetual futures and options exchange built on Optimism tech announced an airdrop for past users in late January—and a farming program to let current users earn even more. We've explored some of the ways to maximize the farming program here.
Drift Protocol
Drift Protocol, the top perpetual swap futures exchange on Solana, rolled out its own points program in January to reward users ahead of an airdrop. The exchange will hand out points based on various metrics of your trading activity, as detailed here.
Arcade
Ethereum-based NFT lending protocol Arcade is about to kick off an airdrop for its ARCD token, with bundles of tokens offered up to holders of NFT and Ordinals projects like Pudgy Penguins, Mad Lads, Bitcoin Puppets, and more. The snapshot will be taken on February 19 and the airdrop is set for February 21, though some regional restrictions apply.
Shuffle
Shuffle, a crypto casino that accepts Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other coins, is set to airdrop its Ethereum-based SHFL token beginning the first week of March, rewarding users from its first year of service. Second and third airdrop waves are planned for later this year.
Portal
If you’ve been on Crypto Twitter in the last couple months, then you’ve probably seen the hubbub around Portal’s upcoming gaming token. It’s not exactly organic, either: Portal incentivized Twitter users to broadly spread the word about the upcoming PORTAL airdrop to earn points, which apparently will yield them tokens in the future.
There have been a lot of questions about the project, which aims to bridge the gap between various crypto games with a single, cross-chain token, though more details are starting to come to light. Portal previously said the airdrop was coming in January, but that didn't happen. On February 16, the project said that it's in the "last stretch" before the token is generated.
Saga
Saga is a crypto gaming protocol that helps developers spin up their own blockchains for games, and it has been running a play-to-airdrop campaign across numerous games. Testnet developers will benefit from the first airdrop, while community members are set to get tokens from a follow-up drop.
The campaign rewards players that perform well in competitions across a number of games building on Saga's testnet, with collaborations launched for games on chains like Solana and Avalanche too.
Solana Saga
Did you manage to snag a Solana Saga smartphone before the original production run ran out? If so, there are a number of token airdrops available to phone owners, along with other perks and benefits. We've collected the biggest ones at this link, which will be routinely updated as more and more projects get onboard.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
Editor's note: This story was originally published on December 9, 2023 and last updated with new info on February 18, 2024.