Crypto investors have made a lot of free money in the past few years, via airdrops. Some projects have dropped a good number of valuable tokens and early supporters, users, and/or investors have made a fortune. Dfinity airdropped 119 tokens on the day of listing. All that the receivers did was to subscribe to their newsletter and verify their KYC on Coinlist. The tokens will be distributed over a period of 1 year. Each ICP token is around 60 USD, at the time of writing. So that’s 600 USD a month of free money. There are a lot of more airdrop examples. I personally did not get any ICP airdrops as I was lazy. Like myself, a lot of investors must be banging their head. But, fret not. There could be more opportunities. In this article we are going to discuss 6 crypto projects which may have airdrops in future and what you should be doing to get a chance to earn them.

If you’re a crypto buff as well, and you’re looking forward to free crypto tokens, you’re at just the right corner. 

Budding cryptocurrencies are offering the best opportunities to make money. Catering to that, these airdrops act as early opportunities in crypto investing.

What are Airdrops?

Airdrops are a marketing strategy that budding cryptocurrency projects adopt. It basically means distributing crypto tokens for free to numerous wallet addresses. The objective of an airdrop is to spread awareness about a new cryptocurrency among active blockchain community members. Small tokens are given to these active members’ wallets for free or in return for a promotional service.  The airdrop is a promotional activity, hosted by budding cryptocurrencies that are based on blockchain technology to bootstrap their new project.

Can Airdrops make you real money?

It is becoming a new normal for blockchain startups to conduct airdrops to bring in active investors. Now the question that arises is, can you make some real money from these airdrops? There are certain ways you can earn real money from these promotional airdrops, and here are a few active investors who have already done that. 

@moneywithcarter had managed to trade $200k back and forth through each wallet to qualify for a high volume layer in the DY/DX Airdrop. 

https://twitter.com/moneywithcarter/status/1441097573591240712

I myself got 400 free UNI tokens and UNI tokens are now trading at 20USD. So that’s 8000USD of free money. So, if you are wondering if airdrops make you real money, the answer is absolutely yes.

3 Crypto projects that gave free tokens to their users

In 2020, a few high-profile DeFi projects like 1inch, Uniswap, DY/DX, and Curve distributed governance tokens in the form of Airdrops that rewarded their users. The users using these protocols earned retroactive token airdrops.

Uniswap

Uniswap distributed UNI Tokens (worth $1,400 back then) to 400 of its past users. Uniswap being one of the premiere Decentralized Finance protocols have taken the past users by a big surprise by this airdrop. Some users had multiple Metamask accounts that were used to swap on Uniswaps. Each account got 400 UNI tokens. Imagine having 10 such accounts. That’s 4000 free tokens. 

1inch

1 inch is considering a new approach to minimize transaction costs. In the quest of competing with Uniswap, one of 1inch’s competitors, 1-inch exchange airdropped $84 million to the DeFi community. 1 inch is a DEX Aggregator that divides the users’ crypto deposits among various exchanges to get the best rates. 1-inch users who are staking 100 1INCH tokens, will get a gas refund of 25%, the ones staking 1000 1INCH tokens, will receive a gas refund of 50%. Similarly for users staking 10,000 1INCH will receive a 75% gas refund and 100,000 tokens can expect a 100% refund.

Not just that, based on the transactions, 1inch users got

DY/DX

DY/DX is the latest airdrop to cross $100k worth of governance tokens. The rising popularity of these Layer 2 platforms is portrayed by the DEX’s transaction values. DY/DX has surprised its community with retroactive rewards for its budding token. It is a non-custodial DEX that operates on Ethereum Layer 2 network. The airdrop was worth $4,414-$135,692, at the daily high of $14.24.

https://twitter.com/moneywithcarter/status/1441073296703954944

6 crypto projects could give Airdrops for free in future

Here are some Ethereum and DeFi-based projects that don’t have their native token yet, and could conduct a retroactive airdrop for their active users. These successful DeFi projects could use a retroactive airdrop to launch their native cryptocurrency. 

  • OpenSea

As of now, OpenSea is one of Ethereum’s hottest NFT platforms. OpenSea makes it easier to mint your NFTs, or trade NFTs from other projects on the secondary marketplace. OpenSea’s striking feature is its strong community. This fall, OpenSea has marked 25k+ users. If OpenSea adapts to decentralized control with the airdrop, this NFT platform would have no shortage of activity within the community to reward its past users. You could experiment around with NFTs, a budding and promising DeFi platform, and maybe you could earn some free tokens on the way.

  • Metamask

For most Ethereum-based DeFi apps, Metamask is the default wallet. It is 5M+ active monthly users. Metamask allows swaps to exchange tokens, alongside providing regular wallet service. After 2020, popular platforms like Uniswap and1 INCH have airdropped tokens to their past users. This led the community to expect 2Metamask, one of the most important DeFi tools to do the same too. The Metamask team has also clarified that they have been exploring around an airdrop.

  • Arbitrum

This is a Level 2 crypto platform that enables smart contracts to be fast, scalable, and private. This next-gen platform interoperates with Ethereum. So, cross-compiling their contracts to run on Arbitrum becomes easier. Arbitrum is edging on the higher side in this L2 competition and Arbitrum has the potential to announce a big airdrop in the near future.

  • Foundation.app

Foindation.app is a NFT marketplace that have made quite a mark. Unlike other marketplaces like Rarible, Foundation has no tokens. It is quite possible for them to come out with Foundation token, and a good number of tokens may be airdropped to Foundation users. To increase your chances of being eligible, it’s better to buy, sell, or list a NFT art on the platform.

  • Solanarts

Solanarts is a SOL based NFT platform. Like other NFT platforms mentioned above, if you are into Solana, trade some art on Solanarts. You never know how much 1 token could mean, if they ever launch a token

Learn more about Project SEED, a Solana-based project here!

  • Paraswap

Paraswap is also a DEX Aggregator, that is yet to launch its native token. Looking at the trends and immediate competitors, we can expect an airdrop from Paraswap. The team could do with a retroactive airdrop in the near future to stay in the market and not fall behind the other competitors. 

Coinshala published an infographic on Twitter mentioning many projects other than the 6 we mentioned. You can check them below.

Am I eligible for Airdrop?

Upcoming Airdrops are usually promoted on the project’s website and social handles. Many Cryptocurrency forums also promote these airdrops. The native tokens are usually given to past users and present wallet holders. To qualify for a free token, a user may need to hold a minimum amount of crypto tokens in his wallet beforehand. 

Alternatively, for some platforms, you might have to perform a set task. For example, social media promotion, writing a blog post, or connecting with a specific member of the project.

Although there are no fixed criteria to be fulfilled for eligibility, users are advised to complete a few transactions to be eligible. If they transact from multiple wallets, it might be adding brownie points to your rewards! With bigger projects, it’s more like transacting on the platform increases your chances with rewards. And with smaller projects, it’s doing simple tasks like, engaging with the social media, writing posts, referrals etc that helps you earn this airdrops.

The above mentioned blockchain projects are potential contenders for upcoming airdrops. These projects have been growing a lot. To launch their native token, we might expect an upcoming airdrop to reward their past users. These blockchain platforms have not yet announced any official date or plan regarding these airdrops, but the market trends suggest they they might, very soon.

So don’t be lazy. 🙂

Warning: Airdrop Scams – Avoid this at any cost

Before we end, I would like to inform you that airdrop scams are very common, and you need to do avoid this at any cost. There are a lot of tokens that could be airdropped to you which will be visible in your Etherscan. If you try to swap them, your wallet may go empty in seconds. Also there are Scam Airdrop posts on twitter. Never click on any links and try to claim them. Do verify that the airdrop you are participating in is valid and genuine multiple times through multiple sources and proceed.

Happy investing.