🔹 Everything starts beautifully: "Take a few simple steps - and get free tokens!"
Well, how can you not try? Signed up for Discord, liked tweets, connected wallet, made 3 transactions, another 2 in LayerZero, completed a quest in Galxe, then another form in Zealy, then in Zealy three more levels...
And two months later: "Congratulations! You received an airdrop worth... $11.73."
🔹 Now attention: this $11.73 - on the Ethereum network.
Withdrawal fee - $14.
So you officially became the owner of negative profit. Welcome to Web3!
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🔍 Airdrop hype as a ritual
In 2021, they were giving away thousands of dollars - ENS, dYdX, Arbitrum.
In 2023 - already hundreds.
In 2025 - the feeling that you were simply given a moral cashback for the time spent.
Want to get more? Be an 'active user'.
That is: create a bunch of addresses, provide liquidity, mint testnets. And when you get banned for 'sybil', they will say that 'everything is according to the rules'.
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🤹♂️ Irony is in the details
Airdrop is like a social experiment:
"How many actions are you willing to take to receive $12?"
And also:
Still no standard - what to consider as activity
Filters 'bot filtering' often cut off real users
Randomness is higher than in a lottery
Many projects also create tokens with a lock for a year. Thank you!
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🤑 But for the sake of fairness - some airdrops can actually be fair.
Projects like Arbitrum, Starknet, or Wormhole - they distribute not for a 'checkmark in Discord', but for real long-term activity.
It's not about farming, but about being an early user - and receiving rewards not as charity, but as a share in the network.
Simply, such projects are 1 in 50. And usually, you learn about them already after the snapshot.
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📌 Conclusion
Airdrop today is not 'free money'.
This is months-long gamification for a chance to receive a virtual badge: 'you tried'.
Most new projects instead of generosity - give you the feeling that you've interned in Web3 for gratitude.
So the main rule: don't waste time on what doesn't spend time on you.
Airdrop is not a profit. It's entertainment with elements of hope. If you understand this - all is well. If not - better buy yourself a coffee.
