Airdrops in The Crypto Industry: From $6.4 Billion in 2020 to $4.56 Billion in 2023
The 50 largest DeFi project airdrops between 2020 and 2023 distributed tokens totaling $26.6 billion. The largest airdrop was Uniswap's UNI in 2020, during which $6.43 billion worth of tokens were distributed to early DEX users.
In 2021, 18 of the 50 largest cryptoasset airdrops took place. That number dropped to 17 in 2022 and 13 in 2023, which CoinGecko researchers attribute to the onset of the cryptozyme, which has led to a decline in the value of cryptoassets and a resulting decrease in the scale of airdrops.
What are the biggest crypto airdrops?
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) December 21, 2023
Our study shows that the top 50 airdrops have distributed $26.6 billion worth of tokens in total, based on their all-time high valuation, from 2020 to 2023.
Read the full study: https://t.co/JAB6rAM5Po pic.twitter.com/n9ecq2G85x
In 2023, the largest airdrop was Arbitrum, which distributed $4.56 billion worth of ARBs (including ATH) in the process. Celestia ($0.73 billion) was the second largest, and Blur ($0.45 billion) was the third largest.
Airdrops remain an important tool for attracting attention to new crypto projects. At the same time, their scale may be influenced by external factors such as the state of the crypto market.
Coingecko
More information:
- In early December, representatives from the Starknet Foundation confirmed rumors of an upcoming STRK airdrop.
- Shortly thereafter, the LayerZero team announced a native token distribution in the first half of 2024.