Crypto was awash with free cash this 12 months, as initiatives doled out hefty sums of tokens to intrepid customers and devoted communities by way of airdrops.
With animal spirits returning to the crypto market alongside Bitcoin’s record-setting climb, some handouts dwarfed people who turned heads in 2023. Tallying up simply this 12 months’s high 5 airdrops, customers and communities walked away with over $19 billion price of free web moolah.
These are a few of airdrops that made a large splash in 2024, primarily based on their related token’s peak worth. They vary from decentralized finance (DeFi) fledglings to established NFT manufacturers, together with every little thing else that fell in between.
Hyperliquid: $10.84 billion
Cruising into the highest spot by a rustic mile, the Hyper Basis’s distribution of HYPE handily rewarded customers of the Hyperliquid Community in November.
Customers of the layer-1 community, which has been optimized for prime velocity DeFi transactions, obtained a complete of 31 million HYPE that was initially price $1.6 billion. That positioned the airdrop among the many most useful in historical past. What’s extra, the worth of these tokens has since swelled above a whopping $10.8 billion in a matter of weeks.
In terms of the community, Hyperliquid’s decentralized trade (DEX) is billed as its flagship software, providing perpetual futures buying and selling and as much as 50x leverage. Since launch, the DEX has seen over 312,000 customers, in response to the Hyper Basis’s web site.
Starknet: $3.09 billion
Starknet first launched its mainnet in 2021. However the Ethereum layer-2 scaling community waited three years for its much-anticipated STRK airdrop.
With 700 million STRK tokens initially handed out, together with these to Ethereum stakers, the initiative noticed crypto customers far past the scaling resolution’s borders rewarded with tokens. And people STRK tokens play a key function in Starknet’s governance.
In June, the community’s developer, StarkWare, signaled that it will attempt to carry its scaling tech, using zero-knowledge rollups, to Bitcoin.
Final month, Starknet launched “part 1” of a staking initiative, saying it had develop into the primary layer-2 to let customers earn rewards by collaborating within the strategy of validating transactions.
Pudgy Penguins: $3.064 billion
With a market cap of over $500 million, Pudgy Penguins’ flagship NFT assortment has solidified its presence on Ethereum. With the mission’s toys hitting cabinets in Walmart and Goal, its industrial efforts have stood out amid a comparatively chilly NFT market.
Earlier this month, Pudgy Penguins expanded to Solana with the launch of PENGU, billed as a means for Pudgy Penguins followers to higher join with its model. A graphic launched alongside the token’s announcement indicated that round half of PENGU’s 88.88 billion provide went to members of Pudgy Penguin’s group, different communities, and FTT holders.
FTT served because the native token of collapsed crypto trade FTX. However when it got here to different initiatives that Pudgy Penguins introduced into the fold, the initiative let NFT holders hailing from the Board Ape Yacht Membership and Doodles declare tokens, amongst a number of different notable initiatives.
Notcoin: $2.274 billion
The coin-tapping sport, Notcoin, poured gasoline on The Open Community (TON) this 12 months, compelling legions of gamers to faucet, faucet away inside the Telegram-based mini app.
Whereas the extensively anticipated airdrop confronted some delays, it will definitely turned the most important gaming token launch of 2024 when it comes to peak worth. When Notcoin launched its token in Could, round 80.2 billion NOT went up for grabs, with exchanges like Binance supporting the token contemporary out of the gate.
Gamers have since been greeted by a deluge of tap-to-earn video games, with Hamster Kombat surging over the summer time and drawing 300 million gamers forward of its personal airdrop. Whereas some aware of TON’s group consider tap-to-earn video games function a “viral mechanic” for introducing customers to new merchandise, different members of crypto’s gaming group consider they want extra developed experiences to maintain gamers engaged.
Jupiter: $2 billion
Rounding out the highest 5 airdrops of 2024, the Solana-based DEX aggregator Jupiter rewarded customers with 1 billion JUP tokens throughout an preliminary wave of allocations early this 12 months.
Jupiter initially dedicated to releasing 3 billion extra JUP tokens, with a second spherical accepted earlier this month and nonetheless on the horizon—however the preliminary distribution’s measurement was giant sufficient for it to land on this listing. Whereas a date has not but been introduced, the proposal handed alluded to “Jupuary.”
In Istanbul, Jupiter’s group will maintain its first convention subsequent month dubbed Catstanbul. The “cat” is a shout to its pseudonymous founder, Meow.
As one of many largest DeFi initiatives on Solana, the DEX aggregator has facilitated over $2 trillion in whole buying and selling quantity, in response to a Dune dashboard created by Jupiter.
Honorable mentions
Past the highest 5 largest airdrops of 2024, many different initiatives and protocols doled out batches of free tokens. And there have been not less than 4 handouts that have been valued at greater than $1 billion at peak token worth, together with these from Motion, ZKsync, Eigenlayer, and Wormhole.
The Motion Community Basis launched MOVE, a utility token for the Ethereum layer-2 scaling resolution Motion. With 1 billion MOVE awarded to communities and early community contributors, the airdrop’s worth clocked in at $1.5 billion.
Group wallets for ZKsync, one other Ethereum layer-2 scaling resolution, obtained 3.7 billion ZK tokens in June price $1.2 billion at their peak worth.
The Eigen Basis doled out almost 200 million EIGEN to customers of the Ethereum staking platform this 12 months throughout two airdrops. When mixed, the airdrops have been valued at $1.1 billion.
The cross-chain protocol Wormhole launched its W governance token in April. And a 617 million W stash earmarked for its preliminary group and ecosystem was price $1 billion
Edited by Stacy Elliott
