This article is dedicated to all those who believe airdrops are a waste of time. It's true, the 2020/2021/2022/2023 airdrops (without points/XP) were vastly larger than those of today (2024/2025). There were primarily fewer users. While today's airdrops see millions of participating addresses, back then (2021-2022) there were around 10k-200k. However, there were some exceptions to the rule, with easy airdrops that paid out well in 2023 and 2024 (Celestia, Jito Network, Dymension, Avail, Pyth Protocol, Layer Zero, Zksync, Starknet, Wormhole and obviously Hyperliquid). 2025 was probably the worst year for airdrops, but it's yet to end. It could be saved by Opensea, Polymarket, and (perhaps) Linea. However, a bad year doesn't mean anything.

Let's do some calculations and statistics comparing $Uni (2020) and $Hype (2024) airdrops.

At peak in May 2021, the value of the $Uni (Uniswap) airdrop was approximately $6.4 Billion, the largest at the time.

Uniswap distributed from a minimum of 400 $Uni (94%) to 250k $Uni (250 Address):

Dollar value of the airdrop in ATH (2021) of $Uni (45$) per single address:
400 $Uni (min allocation)=18,000 USDT.
270k $Uni (max allocation)= 12,150,000 USDT.

How did you receive a $Uni airdrop? No one knew what was involved; you just had to use your dex. For 400 $Uni, a single transaction was enough (for example, an exchange of $Eth for $Usdc, even if it failed). Larger allocations were given to those who had made the most trades or acted as LP (providing liquidity on the dex).

This record was pulverized by Hyperliquid ($Hype). In the calculation I consider a $Hype ATH of $49 (2025). In total 271M were distributed in $Hype tokens for 94k users, an average of 2881 $Hype (141,000 USDT) with a median of about 64 $Hype (3,136 USDT). While 57% found themselves in the lowest tranche of up to $100 Hype (4,900 USDT).

Almost 12% of those eligible for $Hype received between 5,000 and 10,000 $Hype (490,000 USDT). About 100 addresses received 400,000 $Hype (19,600,000 USDT) up to 1.98M $Hype (97,000,000 USDT). In this case, to be eligible for the airdrop, you had to use the platform weekly and trade. Of course, you could do so with $50-$100 using leverage. Those who used the platform weekly were greatly rewarded. By spending about $200-$250 in fees, you earned about 3,000-4,000 $Hype (in ATH, about $200,000 USDT). The airdrop platform was used from July/August 2023 to mid-2024.

HYPERLIQUID SEASON 2 AND ITS PROTOCOLS IN DEFI
The above concerns season 1. There will likely be a $Hype airdrop for season 2. I don't think it will be as large as season 1, but if you want to use a non-KYC platform in DeFi and try to receive a possible future Hype season 2 airdrop, I'll leave you this my thread from DeBank:

Hyperliquid + HyperEVM Farming Airdrop Thread (DeBank)

You'll find not only Hyperliquid used, but also the protocols on its HyperEVM chain. Essentially, using Hyperliquid (exchange) you could receive airdrop2 of $Hype, while using other protocols on the HyperEVM chain, you could receive another 6-7 airdrops (though they will be significantly smaller, but worth it if you're a dedicated airdrop farmer). Use the DeBank guide and choose your favorite protocols, I'm adding a protocol not mentioned in the list: Prjx (to farm points you need to provide liquidity in a pool).

If you don't know how Perps exchanges work, go here: Best Tokenless Decentralized Exchanges (you can also find other exchanges, some airdrops have already happened because this is my guide from December 2023, however use this article to understand how they work if you don't know. Instead, for Hyperliquid and HyperEVM, refer to my thread on DeBank that I linked above).

Always remember to do your own research. This is what I do; it's not financial or investment advice. I'll do low-risk, high-reward airdrops. Using DeFi to farm airdrops is great and allows you to earn 10-50 times more than a traditional job (also in relation to the time spent), but it presents risks of hacking the platform on which you trade or provide liquidity for yield! However, DYOR.

Are airdrops a waste of time? Let me know in the comments!

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