In recent months, the landscape of the crypto airdrop market has changed significantly, leaving less and less room for simple earning opportunities.
After the latest token distributions, which turned out to be below investors’ expectations, the crypto community has started to view all new incentive campaigns organized by various blockchain projects with skepticism.
The airdrop market seems to have almost reached a condition of “saturation“: the best token launches are swarmed by many farmers, while the less important ones offer very low returns.
The outlook seems extremely different from what we could experience in March 2023 after the airdrop of Arbitrum, which we still remember today as one of the best ever.
What awaits us from here on? What are the upcoming airdrops in Q4 and which ones are worth betting on from now on?
Let’s delve into the topic below.
The current situation in the crypto airdrop market: uncertainty and disappointment prevail
At the beginning of the year, the market sentiment for emerging crypto airdrops was sky-high, but now the picture seems to have decidedly changed for the worse.
The farmers no longer appreciate the various incentive campaigns organized by the teams of emerging projects that need to launch a token and attract liquidity.
The majority of airdrops that have been completed with an initiative based on points have not, in fact, delivered the expected excitement, leaving a sense of disappointment in the air.
Many of these are nothing more than hidden “liquidity mining” practices, where users offer their capital in exchange for a calculated reward.
It seems as if the projects themselves are farming the users by exploiting their deposited capital, rather than the other way around.
Just think of the unconvincing outcomes that have recently affected Blast, Renzo, Eigenlayer, and Bouncebit.
We entered a new phase on airdrops that I wouldn't even call airdrops no more but more hidden liquidity mining where we either yield points for liquidity commitment or burn gas for governance rights and expect some ROI from these actions
There are no doubts that every single… pic.twitter.com/vnFm2997zD
— WR☻NGUSER ✗ (@wronguser000) January 19, 2024
To this is added the fact that, if until a few years ago the topic of airdrops remained a niche cult, now it has also reached the masses.
Literally millions of addresses have taken part in these challenges, significantly lowering the average prize per individual.
Despite this, it must be admitted that now we can find many more interactions compared to before with which to capitalize on an airdrop gain.
The problem is that to obtain a significant airdrop, it is no longer enough to simply be active in a protocol/chain for a certain period; now more is needed.
The opportunities are there but it is becoming increasingly complex to carve out a place as “early best users”, especially in conditions where liquidity to invest is scarce.
Whales and market makers continue to take advantage of the airdrops in the crypto world while individual users remain uncertain about what to farm and to what extent.
At this moment the sentiment for this world is probably at an all-time low.
The next airdrop of Hyperliquid, expected in a few days, could confirm what has just been reported.
a lot depends on tokenomics but this general sentiment is true
the mindset of farmers & users around airdrops is warped
very short term, must sell on TGE day, if it's under my best case scenario on that day, the project is a flop or a scam
have patience, some things take time https://t.co/jOCFDPY3W4
— daz.hl (@MetamateDaz) August 29, 2024
Announced various crypto distributions from September onwards
In the coming weeks, various crypto airdrop distributions are expected that could partially resolve the current dissatisfaction of the community.
Recently, it has emerged that in September there will be the TGE of the SWELL token, belonging to the namesake protocol of liquid restaking of Ethereum.
Do you think that the so-called “white pearls” (airdrop points of the protocol) have dropped in price in premarket by about 90% since February?
In particular, from an estimated valuation of 1 dollar per point, now a reward of about 0.10 dollars is expected for each white pearl accumulated.
Swell Airdrop Update! 
The $SWELL TGE is expected to happen in September.
Loyalty Bonus: A special bonus will be included in the airdrop for loyal community members.
The Loyalty Bonus is based on two key factors: earliness and ongoing commitment to the protocol.
1.… pic.twitter.com/qFLAbGoyvR
— Airdrop Adventure 
(@Airdrop_Adv) August 28, 2024
In the world of finance, the terms “bull” and “bear” are often used to describe market trends. A “bull” market is characterized by rising prices, while a “bear” market is marked by falling prices. Understanding these concepts is crucial for investors.
Soon the airdrop of GRASS is also expected, which at least being free to farm, cannot disappoint expectations too much.
The protocol has been operational for many months and is finally about to launch a good tip to users who have contributed to its growth.
Nothing formidable, but for those who have been on the ball since the dawn of Grass, one can imagine a prize of 100-200 dollars.
https://t.co/ugjxkiwwPy
— Grass (@getgrass_io) August 14, 2024
A lot of uncertainty instead for the expected airdrops of Debridge and Hyperliquid.
In the first case, the farming activities were quite simple to replicate and not very demanding. The protocol does not seem intent on redistributing a large multiplier on the fees spent, but all in all, the outcome could still be positive.
If Debridge debuts with an FDV of 1 billion dollars, we will have an ROI of approximately 50%: excellent if we consider the relatively short time frame.
As for Hyperliquid, in general users are not very confident about the outcome of the airdrop. All in all, however, the launch looks fair and decently rewarding.
1/ Understanding DBR’s upcoming LFG launch
Goals, mechanics, and the vision behind it pic.twitter.com/wqfNHKRrpI
— deBridge Foundation (@deBridgeFdn) August 29, 2024
In the financial markets, the terms “bull” and “bear” are often used to describe market trends. A “bull” market is characterized by rising prices, while a “bear” market is marked by falling prices. Investors need to understand these concepts to make informed decisions.
We also remind you that at the end of September there will be the inauguration of the Hamster Kombat token, while Eigenlayer will finally make the EIGEN asset tradable on the market.
The next free airdrops to watch
At this point, let’s see which crypto airdrops are the most worthwhile to focus on from now to the coming months.
First of all, we need to make a premise following what was previously said about the market saturation discussion.
At this moment, the richest airdrops in terms of possible rewards are those liquidity based: interacting with a few hundred dollars will not likely lead to substantial gains.
If you do not have a good starting capital (let’s say at least 5-10K) it might be the case to focus on more demanding activities but with lower money requirements.
For example, the Telegram ecosystem is full of airdrop campaigns where simply by performing social tasks and interacting occasionally, you can earn small rewards.
The latest example is DOGS, a memecoin operating on the TON blockchain, which has given many users a free token value equivalent to 30-50 dollars.
By carrying out a large number of similar initiatives, we will be able to accumulate crypto and prepare ourselves to face other airdrops that require a capital commitment later on.
Catizen, Dawn Internet, Dejen Dog and Tapswap are just some of the free projects to focus on. Keep an eye also on the testnets in the blockchain world such as those of Movement Labs, Soneium, Fractal, Mitosis, Nubit, and others.
https://twitter.com/realDogsHouse/status/1828077815154999706
Liquidity-based programs
If, on the other hand, you have capital to commit to crypto activities airdrop, the game becomes different.
At the moment, there does not seem to be a protocol where one can efficiently “park” their liquidity and withdraw a worthy yield in the future.
In any case, if you don’t know what to do with the ETH you have in your wallet, probably the bridge on Scroll could be the best move.
We don’t know when this layer-2 will launch the TGE, but by accumulating 300 marks (10 marks per day with 1 ETH) we would find ourselves in the top 10% of the farmers.
Scroll Marks Statistics (August)
The growth rate of the number of marks is slowing down, with hardly any new wallets being added, and noticeable changes in the categories are only seen in the “whale” 1k+ and 2k+ groups.
Total number of marks: 437,498,726 → 537,855,651 (+100M)… pic.twitter.com/630iPC9Dok
— Munris (@munris_tech) August 26, 2024
In the world of finance, the terms “bull” and “bear” are often used to describe market trends. A “bull” market is characterized by rising prices, while a “bear” market is marked by falling prices. Understanding these concepts is crucial for investors.
The second protocol to make your liquidity profitable with an airdrop is Symbiotic, a restaking protocol supported by the well-known VC Paradigm.
By staking on Mellow, it is possible to obtain likely interesting returns, considering that the TGE will be by the end of the year.
The same goes for FueL, another layer-2 of Ethereum with less funding compared to Scroll but with fewer users participating in the campaign.
Another smart move could instead be to save your ammunition and wait for the mainnet launch of projects like Monad, MegaETH or Soneium.
Many are indeed waiting for the market to become bullish again and for the best projects to be presented in mainnet to return to operations as farmers
Confirmed airdrop Monad will be the largest in history!
– Cost: a few bucks
– Total raised: $244M
– Incentivized
Here's a detailed guide
pic.twitter.com/Dn7hNeaewu
— Philanthrop (@0xPhilanthrop) August 28, 2024