In 2024, crypto airdrops became an important marketing tool for promoting new projects. According to Dropstab, $14.91 billion was paid to users via airdrop.
The largest airdrop of the year belongs to the Hyperliquid project - more than 90,000 participants received tokens worth a total of $1.34 billion. In second place is Starknet, which distributed 700 million tokens ($1.33 billion) to 1.3 million addresses. The top 5 also included airdrops from Pengu ($1.15 billion), Wormhole ($896 million), and Jupiter ($891 million).
Of the total $14.91 billion:
28.3% ($4.22 billion) went to Layer 2 projects
22.2% ($3.31 billion) went to DeFi
17.6% ($2.63 billion) went to Layer 1 projects
The rest went to gaming startups ($2.28 billion), memecoins ($1.27 billion), and AI projects ($373 million).
Some users were able to make significant profits. For example, one participant received $100,000 worth of HYPE tokens, calling it “the best deal of my life.”
Airdrops remain a popular way to attract attention and users to the crypto industry.
