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Barely any sign is more telling that a bullish market phase is starting than the number of launching projects 🥰. Since there are so many, the ChangeHero team hurries to the rescue with a hefty list of off-trail crypto airdrops for 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Crypto airdrops are a popular way for projects to attract new users. The community members get to contribute to it for a small stake in it with no upfront cost;
- There is an obvious upside to receiving coins without an initial investment: until you sell, you are in profit basically indefinitely. It does not mean there are no risks or hidden costs, not to mention a huge amount of impostors or scammers.
- The ChangeHero team compiled a large list of noteworthy airdrops for 2024. The campaigns are currently active but not for long!
Before You Start: All You Need to Know about Crypto Airdrops
Although airdrops are often described as free crypto, there is a little more nuance to this concept. Generally speaking, an airdrop is a distribution of tokens, most typically, free of charge but under other types of conditions. The free tokens can be distributed in a full-fledged campaign or it can be a one-off; airdrops are often associated with token launches but teams can choose to distribute tokens whenever.
Risks and Benefits of Airdrops
The benefits of airdrops are fairly evident: it’s free tokens for no extra cost and a way to get into crypto projects early on. The campaigns that reward users’ past engagement often put forward conditions that encourage active participation in a network’s development and growth. Finally, airdropping as a token distribution mechanism is arguably more fair than private sales which considerably narrows the range of early network supporters.
The upsides to free airdrops are speaking for themselves, so we won’t spend a lot of time and space talking about them. It feels more important to focus on the risks associated with these campaigns to know where exactly to exercise caution and which security practices to employ.
Getting the elephant out of the room: airdrops are one of the premises heavily favored by scammers to lure you into their schemes. This is not helped by the fact that a lot of these campaigns disincentivize joining with a new, empty wallet. Worst case scenario, you may end up losing all your assets if you provide private keys to your crypto wallet. Legitimate projects may ask to link your wallet but would not require you to give up access to your addresses — this is the most common and brightest red flag out there.
Airdrops do not involve investment directly but depending on the conditions, you may still need to provide liquidity, stake other cryptocurrencies, or perform similar tasks. If the token does not succeed in the future, you would not technically lose investment but the time, effort, and indirect expenses such as gas would have been wasted.
How can you tell a legitimate airdrop campaign from a scam? We compiled a checklist to make validating crypto airdrops for 2024 and forward easier.
Airdrop Campaign Checklist
- Background Check:
- Is there any information on the founders or team? An anonymous team is something to be wary of but it doesn’t mean a ‘doxxed’ one is always safe.
- Have they been previously involved in any suspicious activity? It’s rare for known scammers to launch new projects under the same names but it happens.
- Source of information:
- Does it come from an official or trustworthy source? Watch out for impostors!
- Has it been cross-referenced in one? A press release can be bought but at least reputable sources perform due diligence on their advertisers.
- Requirements:
- Are you asked for anything beyond a wallet address? Remember, never share your private keys with anyone! Some ICOs and presales have know-your-customer procedures but an airdrop normally should not need this much of your personal data.
- If the condition is to use the app or interact with a protocol, are they legitimate? Do they have any user reviews or audits? Phishing can occur even in an app listed in an official store.
- Expenses:
- Are the gas fees worth it? Try not to end up in the red by meeting the conditions.
- Airdrop is a taxable event! It might be a good idea to review how crypto is taxed in your jurisdiction.
This checklist is not a definitive measure against fake airdrops but it should help you avoid some of the most egregious ones. For our list, the ChangeHero team members picked some of the most promising and valid airdrops to check out in 2024, so dive right in!
Top Crypto Airdrops for 2024
Xtremeverse
The Xtremeverse is a web3 gaming ecosystem by GLIP, a Delaware-based mobile game and app developer. The team betting it all on blockchain and genAI comes from GameDev giants: Tencent, Crytek, Hoyoverse, Ubisoft, and many more. Currently, the ecosystem is pioneered by their anime mobile extraction shooter BTX Battle Xtreme, as well as the Glip App.
Xtremeverse is confirmed to have a native token XVERSE in the future. The most feasible condition for its airdrop is XNET points, which can be earned through ‘soft’ staking (without contract deposit), in-game loot boxes, holding $XTREME NFTs, referring friends, and playtesting.
Fyde
The Ethereum-based protocol Fyde introduces auto-rebalanced and liquidity-optimized Liquid Vaults risk-managed by AI. Fyde manages a basket of Ethereum-based assets and aims to optimize yields by rotating riskier assets with more stable and underperforming ones. The dual-token model of this protocol is currently represented by a wrapper token TRSY (pronounced ’treasury’) — with the governance token FYDE on its way.
The Fyde Points system is in full steam: early users accrue them by minting and staking TRSY, which also sees liquidity deposited into Liquid Vaults, and referring users. Special campaigns with awards and contests are also planned in the current Growth Phase of Fyde. The OG Phase has concluded but the distributed FYDE tokens are not publicly traded just yet.
Sanctum
This Solana-based protocol for creating Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) eliminates the staking dilemma and lets users participate in staking without giving up on DeFi. Sanctum promises SOL staking with improved UX to boot, and its ultimate goal is to create a unified liquidity layer.
Sanctum Wonderland is different from a normal airdrop campaign because it is gamified. Holding 0.1 SOL worth of any LST gives you a corresponding Pet which earns EXP. The pet can gain levels by accruing EXP, and evolve. Completing a Community Quest — reaching a milestone or solving a puzzle — will buff the EXP gain rate with a Multiplier. Finally, likewise, there is a referral program powered by Referral Cupcakes. The points and pets earned in current Season 1 do not expire, so there should be more seasons to come but the earlier you enroll, the more points you will earn.
zkPass
The commercial future of privacy-oriented projects might be in L2s such as zkPass. It is an advanced privacy-preserving protocol for private data verification. The creators claim zkPass enables verification of data from any HTTPS website for Web3 uses, covering the widest possible range of users and clients.
The zkPass protocol launched with no native token but it is going to be introduced down the line. For the time being, users can earn ZKP credits. Activities that generate these credits range from linking social media accounts to using the alpha version of zkPass Schema Market. All of them require personal data to an extent but the zkPass team claims all proofs are created locally and do not expose it. At the time of the token launch, the ZKP credits will be converted 1:1 to ZKP tokens.
Tabi
Tabi describe themselves as a modular Cosmos-based gaming chain with any-VM compatibility. Early this month they shared more details about the TABI airdrop: 800 million tokens will be distributed among qualifying groups such as Phase 1 participants, relevant asset holders, project builders, and testnet contributors.
Even though there is no determined date for the TABI token launch, official communication hints at it coming soon. At the same time, the second Voyage phase is online! Join with an invite code, complete missions in a gamified campaign, and earn in-game currency GG. Other options are taking part in Tabi’s testnet or doing social tasks.
Particle Network
Another Cosmos L1 which is teasing a potential airdrop is Particle Network. Its goal is blockchain abstraction or in simple terms, a single infrastructure for multiple blockchains.
The launch of the protocol is imminent, and users can already earn PARTI points on testnet. These points entitle users to future airdrops, the launchpad, and whitelists for ecosystem members. The points system is enabled by Particle Pioneer, a platform powered by Particle Network, so you can see it in action as well.
The actions that reward you with PARTI points are invitations, transacting, depositing and spending Universal Gas. Exclusive NFTs ($ALLY and CAPYBARA assets) boost the rate at which the points accrue.
Dwinity
Exciting things are happening in the Avalanche ecosystem. Dwinity is a novel data-focused L2, right now building a user base with an airdrop campaign.
The campaign lasts from May 16 to August 15, and users are asked to perform tasks on social media (more tasks can be added later). One participant can earn up to 1,000 points equal to the same amount of DWIN tokens after a 12-month cliff. The total supply of the airdrop is limited to 2.7 million, so time is of the essence.
Aperture Finance
You might have heard about this project around 2022 when it was building a cross-chain strategy marketplace. In 2024, Aperture Finance is staging a comeback as a handy add-on that translates your intents with an AI chatbot into actions such as managing liquidity on DEXs or claiming airdrops.
The upcoming airdrop will see about 7% of the APTR governance token distributed to campaign participants and past users. This means a high FDV ratio on mainnet launch, and to understand what it implies, you can read our recent guide.
Even if you missed out on Phase 1 or retroactive rewards, you can still take part in the current and future phases. The developers provide no deadlines for the token launch and distribution at the time of writing. The conditions are the usual: refer users, make transactions, use the protocol, give shout-outs and follows in social media, and so on. Aim for the raffles to boost your points-earning until the clock runs out!
Token Metrics
This blockchain analytics company, known for its use of cutting-edge AI tools, is finally launching a native token after five years. The campaign can currently be accessed on the Galxe Quest platform, and it will reward users not only for actively using Analytics, but also Data API, AI Chatbot, and Trading Bot in the following phases.
The current Token Metrics users get an advantage according to their spending on the platform. Anyone can still join by doing the Galxe Quest, which mostly involves social media tasks, and — you guessed it — referrals. The platform is loaded with tools to get almost any crypto market insight, and the points program further adds even more value to the mix.
Immutable
Unlike the previous entries, Immutable is not a new crypto project. However, this lets us estimate the value of the Main Quest campaign to be roughly $50 million worth. Check this option out if you prefer to get a token already known to have value.
Since Immutable (in its current iteration) is a gaming chain, to earn Gems, you will get daily tasks involving playing one of the web3 games on its roster or using decentralized applications on the Immutable zkEVM. Having more than 20 IMX idle tokens in your linked wallet will get you a daily Gem boost. The rewards come as game tokens and NFTs but bounties may come in the IMX coin as well.
Renzo
The EigenLayer launch is a hot topic in the airdrop hunter clique but hear us out: airdrop from a protocol built with it. Take Renzo for example, a liquid restaking token issuer for different networks (ETH, BNB, BASE, ARB, etc.) By earning ezPOINTS while utilizing the wrapped version of staked ETH in on-chain applications, you will be able to collect EigenLayer points as well.
Bear in mind that the distributed portion is also not projected to be too high (ergo, a high FDV ratio). Another word of caution is not to dive into the DeFi protocols without doing your homework: start with our guides.
tea
If you’re not big on playing games, shilling in social media, or recruiting referees, tea has just the right thing: an incentivized testnet. Originally planned to finish by May 15, due to the demand, the campaign was extended. More campaigns and rewards for active participation are teased in the roadmap around July 2024, after the token launch planned in June.
tea is a network aimed at open-source software (OSS) developers. It assigns their OSS with ranks that reflect the impact and reputation. Better-ranked applications receive more recognition along with scrutiny, which brings us to vulnerability reports that require staking TEA to claim a bounty. Overall, this is a decentralized network made for OSS people by OSS people but anyone can join to support and sponsor your favorites.
Conclusion
Airdrop hunting is far from being a passive income since it requires active participation in emerging platforms and networks, not devoid of risks. Nevertheless, this makes it more exciting, so we hope some of the crypto airdrops for 2024 picked by our team caught your eye. Happy hunting!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I find legit airdrops?
Many groups and websites compile legitimate crypto airdrops for a referral fee: an example would be airdrops.io, which we used in this article. Nonetheless, listings in these sources do not substitute due diligence, and you should use them for informational purposes.
How to get free airdrop coins?
The conditions for crypto airdrops vary greatly: from performing tasks on social media to actively contributing to a new protocol’s development. Thinking of it as completely free tokens is a little misleading because most often, participating will have an associated cost, such as gas fees.
Is LayerZero airdrop confirmed?
Despite LayerZero implying in the official communications that an airdrop is possible, the specific details are not yet confirmed. Any currently available information about the eligibility criteria is speculation.
Does crypto airdrop make money?
Airdrops are a popular way to get early access to crypto coins with no initial investment. Since they’re perceived as free tokens, any price after the launch and exchange listings will leave airdrop holders in the black. However, crypto airdrops may have hidden costs and can require you to invest time or social capital instead.
Disclaimer
This article is not a piece of financial or investment advice. No price prediction is guaranteed to provide exact information on the future price.
When dealing with cryptocurrencies, remember that they are extremely volatile and thus, a high-risk investment. Always make sure to stay informed and be aware of those risks. Consider investing in cryptocurrencies only after careful consideration and analysis of your own research and at your own risk.
