Author: Jack Inabinet, Bankless; Translated by: Wu Zhu, Jinse Finance
In 2024, cryptocurrency developers mastered the art of airdrops. Many protocol teams capitalized on the bullish momentum across the industry, attracting a large number of new users chasing airdrop tokens.
From the disappointing performance of STRK to record speculation, the differentiated approaches of each protocol to token distribution reveal valuable insights about how token allocation shapes ecosystems, stimulates innovation, and catalyzes broader market trends.
Today, we discuss the impact of the five most interesting airdrops of 2024.
Jupiter (JUP)
On January 31, Jupiter's first airdrop delivered 1 billion JUP to early users. This was the first of four annual airdrop events, set to conclude at the end of January 2027, distributing a total of 4 billion JUP to the community.
Simply by using the Jupiter exchange aggregator before November 2, 2023, individual wallets could receive airdrop allocations ranging from 1k to 100k JUP tokens, meaning each wallet of JUP claimants could gain free assets worth between $700 and $70,000 from this airdrop.
Special features:
The JUP airdrop provided participants with nearly six-figure rewards for simple on-chain activities, reinforcing Solana's position as the target chain for airdrop hunters, as the airdrop from the liquid staking protocol Jito concluded. Over the next six weeks, as the public started joining the ecosystem hoping to seize the next opportunity on the scale of JUP, the price of SOL doubled.
Starknet (STRK)
After three years of development, Starknet finally issued its token in February, announcing an epic plan to distribute hundreds of millions to 1.3 million addresses, marking the largest cryptocurrency airdrop in history.
Individual claim amounts range from 111.1 to 180k STRK. While recipients enjoyed generous rewards at the token launch, others complained that arbitrary eligibility criteria unfairly excluded many users from this airdrop.
Unfortunately, despite a significant recovery in the overall cryptocurrency market, the STRK token performed poorly throughout 2024, trading at 75% below its post-launch peak when analyzed.
Special features: Starknet is one of the most anticipated airdrop projects of 2024. While the technological innovation of L2 has brought substantial returns to STRK recipients, it has struggled to attract attention throughout the year due to a lack of outstanding on-chain applications. This airdrop highlights the saturation of investment opportunities in L2, leading to a gradual decline in enthusiasm for the entire industry.
EigenLayer (EIGEN)
As Ethereum enters 2024, all eyes are on 'restaking,' a novel form of economic security that can provide cut insurance for on-chain applications using restaked ETH.
Many in the community hoped this breakthrough phenomenon could prove the revolutionary use case of Ethereum, which has been severely suppressed. Despite ETH/BTC continuing to trend downward throughout the year, emerging protocols at the forefront of restaking successfully generated demand for tokens; EigenLayer alone accumulated over 5 million ETH before announcing its airdrop on April 29.
Special features:
Recipients of EIGEN were initially frustrated by the non-transferable nature of this airdrop and the protocol was criticized for failing to reward all airdrop participants, but the team has been working to address community concerns.
As on-chain participants began to leverage LRT, liquid restaking token (LRT) protocols like ether.fi also distributed additional incentives, driving a DeFi credit boom.
EigenLayer's success in the absence of real-time restaking products indicates that many crypto projects face a very low barrier to achieving product-market fit and has pressured other protocols to release their own point program deposit contracts, regardless of whether they actually have real-time applications.
Ethena (ENA)
Ethena's point program launched on February 19, the moment the application accepted its first public deposits; the first season's ENA token rewards began to be claimed on April 2, immediately kicking off the second season's activities.
Thanks to a substantial airdrop incentive program and its timely launch in the hottest financing rate environment of the year, the supply of USDe expanded unrestricted to $2.39 billion before mid-April, then stalled due to waning enthusiasm for the ENA airdrop and cooling conditions in the cryptocurrency market.
Special features:
The ENA airdrop showcased the advantages of a well-designed point program, successfully garnering widespread attention for Ethena's synthetic dollar in early 2024.
Ethena employed clear point eligibility criteria to reward relatively risky on-chain activities, such as restaking Ethena's native assets in DeFi, demonstrating that a brief follow-up to the second airdrop season enabled the protocol to reap greater benefits from airdrop activities.
Hyperliquid (HYPE)
On November 29, Hyperliquid airdropped 310 million HYPE (over 30% of the total token supply) to more than 94,000 early users.
As HYPE's value soared above $33 in the following weeks, this multi-billion dollar airdrop became the largest cryptocurrency distribution in history, replicating the success achieved by the earliest airdrop of this cycle for more participants, rewarding many users with six-figure token bonuses.
Nearly 70% of the Hyperliquid airdrop was reserved for users, making the HYPE airdrop appear (at least on the surface) more equitable in its distribution scheme compared to competitors, who typically reserve the vast majority of tokens for team and investor allocations.
Special features:
Although the applications built by Hyperliquid lack a viable decentralized roadmap, significantly deviating from traditional crypto design practices, the success of this airdrop demonstrates the crypto industry's appetite for high-performance products.
The success of HYPE coincided with the general prosperity of the crypto market at the end of 2024, during which investors began to ask fewer questions and more imitated.
