Yes, airdrops. Quite the buzzword lately, don't you think? Well, it is. But where else do you get something for a small activity? At the bakery? Not really. Bitcoins? Maybe during a fork. New "shitcoins"? Absolutely! But let's settle down a bit and look at airdrops from a bigger perspective. Whoever reads this to the end has a bonus waiting.
Uniswap and the Others
Heard about Uniswap's airdrop? I did, just didn't get it because I was stingy and only swapped $10 once; it seemed like a lot back then. I regretted my stinginess a lot. Uniswap users got 400 UNI tokens, currently worth about $2400 at $6 per UNI. If someone managed to sell UNI at its peak ($40/UNI), they could have made $16,000 from the airdrop. This value was reached when UNI hit $40 per token in April 2021. The airdrop took place in September 2020 when Uniswap released its own token, UNI.
L2 - Optimism, Arbitrum
Then came Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum, namely Optimism and Arbitrum. Of course, there are more Layer 2s, growing like mushrooms after rain. But Optimism and Arbitrum were among the first with a nice airdrop.
Even in these airdrops, you could earn a few hundred to a thousand dollars. I know people who received tokens worth several thousand dollars, but it required dealing with significant amounts on those L2s before the snapshot. Generally, airdrops are becoming more complex. You can't trick them by creating 10 addresses and forwarding 20x 1 USDC. Factors like investment amount, trading/activity duration, etc., are considered. Airdrops are just getting more and more sophisticated.
Solana
Currently, besides L2s, Solana is in trend. It has had a few generous airdrops. And what's best? If you didn't have any SOL yet and now you have it thanks to an airdrop (yes, there were rewards on Solana for activity on Ethereum!), you can take these coins and use them for more and more airdrops. Most protocols eventually create their tokens, either for governance reasons or incentives.
Airdrop Series
I'm preparing a series of articles on airdrops. Those you can claim and those that are (probably) coming. Start here, and I'll appreciate comments if any of you managed to get an airdrop and which one. Maybe we'll find one I didn't describe.
First Airdrop - Pyth Network
But let's not just talk. I have an interesting airdrop for you right at the beginning — Pyth Network. Pyth Network is a decentralized cross-chain oracle running on Solana and distributed an airdrop of its PYTH tokens for previous activity on various networks. Whether Solana, Ethereum, Aptos, Sui, Osmosis, Injective, Sei, or Neutron. And I assume you've already run a few tokens through at least on Ethereum, Osmosis, and maybe Solana. So, try your luck! Below is the link and a screenshot of how it looks there...
