The Rise of Crypto Airdrops in 2024
Airdrops have become an essential part of the crypto world, with more projects using them as a way to distribute their tokens. The year 2024 is off to a strong start, following the success of airdrops in 2023 from projects like Arbitrum, Blur, Celestia, and Jito. Now, new projects like Jupiter, xAI, AltLayer, and Dymension are continuing the trend by distributing over $1.3 billion to their user ecosystems.
Jupiter made headlines in late January by airdropping around $700 million in tokens to early users of its application. Dymension also had a successful launch by giving away nearly $400 million to lucky users. With a total value of airdrop payments reaching approximately $4.6 billion in 2023, it’s clear that the popularity of airdrops is only growing.
New Emerging Trends: The Best Airdrops to Watch
In addition to the established airdrop market, new promising projects are preparing to launch their own crypto with an accompanying airdrop. For example, Wormhole plans to allocate 17% of its new token “W” to users who have used bridging technology.
Other emerging trends include Ethereum restaking, zk rollup layer-2 solutions, and gaming applications. EigenLayer dominates the Ethereum staking landscape with $4.5 billion locked on the platform. Ethereum layer-2 zk rollup solutions like Zksync, Starknet, Scroll, and Linea also plan to reward users with airdrops.
Gaming protocols are also adopting airdrops to incentivize user traffic. Pixels Online recently concluded its “play-to-airdrop” campaign on Ronin sidechain and plans to launch its own token. Other gaming projects like Heroes of Mavia, Saga, Nifty Island, Nyan Heroes, and Apeiron are also expected to launch their own crypto tokens.
Furthermore, DeFi projects like Aleo and Merkle Trade have introduced gamification elements and organized incentive campaigns for users to earn airdrops based on their performance.