Airdrop culture has a long history in the cryptocurrency world. As 9Niu WEB3 Academy, we will guide you on a journey into the mystery of airdrops, review its evolution and explore its important position in the cryptocurrency field.
Early airdrops
In June 2010, just two years after the birth of Bitcoin, Gavin Andresen, who worked with the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto to develop Bitcoin, opened the "Free Bitcoins" website. Users only need to provide their Bitcoin payment address to have the opportunity to receive 5 Bitcoins, which was equivalent to a mere 0.3 yuan at the time and is now worth 0.3 yuan. The strategy of truly incorporating crypto airdrops into daily project operations began in 2014.
The rapid growth of airdrops
2014: The Auroracoin project gave away tokens to citizens of Iceland in an effort to encourage adoption of a new cryptocurrency. But it was just a simple airdrop, where users were given tokens after their identities were verified.
2017: With the rise of ICOs, airdrops gradually became popular among project owners and investors. It was during this period that Electroneum quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of users by airdropping a large number of tokens to users.
2018-2019: The airdrop strategy began to be refined, and the project side paid more attention to rewarding those early supporters and loyal members of the community. For example, Steemit airdropped Steem tokens based on the user's platform activity.
2020: The Defi wave swept the entire market, and the airdrop method was also innovated. For example, Uniswap's UNI airdrop became the largest airdrop event in history. Through the snapshot airdrop method, the project party can fairly distribute tokens based on the user's historical behavior.
Airdrop changes in recent years
2021: As airdrop activities become more prevalent, regulators begin to intervene and require project parties to include airdrops in the scope of securities issuance.
2022: The airdrop standards are stricter and multi-dimensional screening has been added. For example, the airdrop activities of BAYC, Optimism, and Apto have added new requirements to ensure that the target group of airdrops is real community supporters.
2023: To date, airdrops have become increasingly established in the crypto market, with both quantity and scale continuing to grow. Among them, Arbitrum’s airdrop activities are particularly eye-catching.
Arbitrum’s airdrop had all the hallmarks of a successful airdrop, both in terms of a relatively smooth process and huge numbers.
This airdrop represents 11.6% of the total ARB supply, or $1.54 billion at current prices.
91.6% of the 625,000 lucky addresses that received the airdrop have already claimed it. Can you believe Arbitrum has over 600,000 users?
Yeah, I can't believe it either.
After running community detection algorithms with tighter restrictions than Arbitrum, some communities found that:
Of the 624,136 addresses that received the airdrop, 279,328 addresses (45%) were "duplicate entity" addresses -- that is, multiple addresses belonged to the same person.
These addresses received 557 million tokens, or 48% of the total airdrop.
430 million tokens (37% of the airdrop) went to Sybil attackers who controlled between 2 and 20 addresses. A full 95 million, or about 8% of the airdrop, went to “freeloaders” with more than 100 wallets.
The airdrop investors received huge returns. Then they have moved on to the next shiny new project.
Airdrop Development Stages
From the initial simple identity confirmation to the current multi-dimensional screening and heavy participation, airdrops have gone through multiple stages of development and witnessed the prosperity and changes of the cryptocurrency market. In the future, 9niu WEB3 Academy believes that airdrops will continue to evolve. Firm confidence, professional investment research and changing strategies are the only way to win. Airdrops will bring more possibilities to the crypto world.