Airdrops – or just distributions, in plain English – have become commonplace in the cryptocurrency industry. The reasons for this are simple.
First, an airdrop instantly creates a community because tokens are widely distributed. Second, because it is free, it generates searches for the cryptocurrency, increasing its visibility.
Finally, while some are becoming outright part with their awards, others are becoming longtime supporters of the project.
The first airdrop in history
The first airdrop took place in 2014 with Auroracoin (AUR). The beneficiaries were citizens of Iceland, who also received 31.8 AUR exactly on their country’s Independence Day.
Despite economic equality, a point championed by socialists, the project did not end well. After all, the market supply was extremely greater than the demand, causing the price of Auroracoin to plummet quickly.

New airdrops brought valuable assets to market
While the eviction issue is still present, new projects have emerged with use cases for their tokens and eventually a balance between supply and demand.
For example, several recent projects enable their token holders to make administrative decisions, as if they were shareholders of the company.
The most famous example is Uniswap. The token, UNI, is currently the 20th largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market cap of R$18 billion.
On the date, each user received 400 UNI. Today the amount is worth 12,400 BRL, but during the 2021 bull market, it reached almost 100,000 BRL.
However, unlike Auroracoin, Uniswap distributed its tokens to those who used its services prior to distribution. And so a new profession was born, the airdrop hunters.
The airdrop fighters who make millions
Following Uniswap, Ethereum Name Services (ENS) also ran a distribution for its users who registered .eth domains. Today, ENS has a market capitalization of R$1.35 billion.
Last month it was Arbitrum’s turn to hand out its ARB tokens. As evidenced by Google’s search data, airdrops really increase project visibility.

However, since these airdrops have the same requirements, many users have turned these distributions into jobs because they already know the formula.
That is, they spend the day analyzing projects that can achieve airdrops and then create hundreds of portfolios to meet those requirements. In other words, or numbers, instead of earning BRL 100,000 from one address, they can earn more than BRL 10 million.
Speaking to The Block, one of these airdrop hunters revealed that his group has already made almost BRL 4 million in recent months.
“We won almost $1 million”one hunter told TheBlock. “Blur gave us about $300,000, Arbitrum gave us about $180,000, Aptos gave us $125,000 and Optimism $120,000.”
However, the tactic is morally criticized. After all, the intention of these fighters is not to strengthen the project, but to make money. In short, it harms the whole community.
When there is money, there are scams
Shortly after Arbitrum’s Airdrop, several users rushed to reveal their tactics about a possible distribution of a new cryptocurrency from MetaMask, the most famous Ethereum wallet.
Scammers, however, took advantage of this euphoria to make victims. Things got so out of hand that MetaMask itself had to take to its social networks to warn that the airdrop rumors were not only false, but dangerous.
After all, investors could easily visit bogus websites and lose all their cryptocurrencies at the slightest carelessness.
Finally, moral issues aside, airdrops can be extremely lucrative. However, they need care. After all, the Arbitrum airdrop itself claimed more than 2,400 victims. Meanwhile, a few investors lost BRL 45 million trying to receive BRL 10,000 in a fake airdrop.
Source: Live Coins

Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.