In simple terms:

Airdrop = The project team sends you tokens for free, just like a newly opened milk tea shop giving you a free cup of milk tea on opening day, with the goal of turning you into a repeat customer after you've tried it.
 

Why do project teams give away money for free?

The real purposes of project teams giving away tokens (in no particular order):

  1. Acquire new users: Get you to use their chain, protocol, or App
  2. Create buzz: Everyone is claiming and talking about it, making the project hot
  3. Decentralized holdings: Tokens can't all be in the hands of VCs and the team; they need to be distributed to tens or hundreds of thousands of wallets to appear as a "community project"
  4. Reward early supporters: If you've helped with testnet interactions, completed tasks, or provided liquidity, they thank you with tokens
  5. Lay the groundwork for future token issuance: Many projects start with "Points," which are later exchanged for official tokens—this is a typical "confirmed airdrop"

 

Common Airdrop Categories (The Most Popular Ones in 2024-2025)

Type
Examples (Still Hot in 2025)
What You Need to Do to Claim
Average Yield (Historical Data)
Direct Snapshot Airdrop
Uniswap (2020), ARB, OP
Just use it in the past; nothing else needed
From a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars
Testnet Interaction Airdrop
zkSync, LayerZero, Blast
Transfer on testnet, swap tokens, mint NFTs, etc.
$500-$15,000
Points-Based Airdrop
Blast, Blast L2, Monad
Deposit money daily to earn points, then exchange points for tokens
Currently up to over $30,000 per person
Galxe/Zealy Task Airdrop
Countless L2, gaming, and social projects
Follow on Twitter, join Discord, complete tasks, mint NFTs
From tens to thousands of dollars
NFT Airdrop
Blur, Azuki, Pudgy Penguins
Hold a certain series of NFTs, and get a new NFT or tokens airdropped
Sometimes more valuable than the original NFT
Hold Specific Coin Airdrop
Hold SOL to get JUP, JTO, etc. airdropped
Nothing needed; just have SOL in your wallet
Very satisfying "passive income while sleeping"

 

Latest Trends in 2025 Airdrops (You Must Know)

  1. Increasingly "anti-farming": Project teams hate studios and wool parties, so they set hidden rules and anti-Sybil mechanisms, making it harder to farm with pure manual small accounts.
  2. Points systems are all the rage: Blast, Linea, zkSync Era all use points, which are exchanged 1:1 for tokens in the end.
  3. Multiple accounts are no longer foolproof: Many projects use Gitcoin Passport, LayerZero's Sybil detection; 100 accounts might only pass 10.
  4. "Confirmed airdrops" are the most valuable: Projects hinted by officials or founders to "issue tokens," even without points now, have extremely high participation value.

 

How Can Ordinary People Safely and Steadily Get Airdrops?

  • Use a dedicated "farming wallet," don't mix it with your main wallet
  • Spend 10-30 minutes daily on tasks; don't get addicted
  • Focus on these places for the latest airdrop info:
    • Twitter search "confirmed airdrop"
    • Domestic farming communities, WeChat groups, Telegram channels
    • Airdrop aggregator sites (airdropalert, earnifi, alphaorbeta, etc.)
  • Keep costs under $50-300 (Gas + cross-chain fees)

 

Web3 airdrops are the project teams using real money to invite you as early users and help them with promotion. As long as you're willing to spend a little time and the cost of a few cups of milk tea, you have a chance to get thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in a "free lunch" in the next bull market.