Over the last five years, the world of cryptocurrency has become increasingly popular, leading to the widespread adoption of various terms like 'airdrop'—a concept now familiar to tech-centric individuals engaged with digital currencies.
At its core, an airdrop is a strategic marketing tactic where projects gift tokens to users to boost interest. Essentially, during an airdrop, the project allocates tokens to specific wallets that meet the platform's criteria.
Often, these tokens are given in exchange for small actions, such as sharing posts or engaging with the project’s social media channels.
This write-up will explore some of the most notable airdrops that have ever made waves in the digital asset universe. Let’s jump right into the details.
Uniswap
Being a major entity in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, the anticipation surrounding the Uniswap airdrop made it one of the most talked-about events in the crypto space back in 2020.
Uniswap operates as an automatic crypto exchange on the Ethereum blockchain, leveraging its governance token, $UNI, to handle internal transactions.
On September 17, 2020, more than a quarter of a million wallet holders associated with the platform received complimentary $UNI tokens. Notably, almost all of these assets were claimed within a month.
Fast forward to now, three years later, there's still a remarkable sum of $84 million worth of $UNI waiting to be claimed by over 30,000 wallets.
Stellar
Next on our list is Stellar, a finance protocol known for enabling cost-effective and straightforward crypto-to-fiat transfers worldwide. In 2017, Stellar dished out $1,000 worth of XLM per Bitcoin holding, representing a significant part of their total token supply. By 2018, they had dispersed an additional $125 million worth of XLM.
Arbitrum
Ethereum has grown into a leading layer-1 blockchain but often battles issues like hefty gas fees. Arbitrum emerged as a scalability solution by reducing these fees and easing congestion.
By leveraging optimistic rollups, Arbitrum managed to cut down on gas expenses and relieve Ethereum's main network. Consequently, when they rolled out their $ARB airdrop, the community was eager.
The airdrop targeted users who had interacted with the Arbitrum network before the end of 2022. Starting January 13, 2023, participants could claim anywhere from 10 to 10,000 ARB tokens based on their previous involvement.
Sweat Wallet
Sweatcoin, with its Sweat Wallet, has captivated health buffs around the globe. To date, it boasts impressive user engagement, attracting millions through incentives for physical activities.
Come September 12, $SWEAT will be distributed to selected users in the United States and other regions based on the Sweatcoins they’ve collected. 690M $SWEAT tokens are set for this event.
A forthcoming airdrop that has gained attention is from Shardeum, a protocol dedicated to enabling network customization through shards, which are data fragments designed to ease blockchain traffic.
Shardeum
When Shardeum announced its plans to allocate 5% of its $SHD token supply, public interest soared. Open to network participants up to April 30, 2023, this airdrop is scheduled for late 2023.
Head of editorial at Blockonomi and the driving force behind Kooc Media, a renowned UK-based digital media company, stands a supporter of open-source innovations and blockchain technologies.
