Is the Era of Airdrops Coming to an End Are Projects Giving Away Billions of Dollars Worth of Chips Really Worth It

Is the Era of Airdrops Coming to an End Are Projects Giving Away Billions of Dollars Worth of Chips Really Worth It

Is the Era of Airdrops Coming to an End Are Projects Giving Away Billions of Dollars Worth of Chips Really Worth It

According to a previous report by Zombit, data from the blockchain analysis company Nansen indicates that nearly half of the top 10,000 wallets that received the most ZKSync native tokens ZK airdrop have already sold all of their allocations, sparking discussions within the community about the project’s token airdrop execution.

Cryptocurrency lawyer Gabriel Shapiro believes that no matter how strict the rules are or how much time is spent on precise witch hunts (what LayerZero is doing), it cannot prevent airdrop users from selling tokens. The only way to build a community should be to distribute chips to stakeholders, including those who spent money to buy them and those who participated in the construction, rather than airdropping them to zero-cost fake users.

On the other hand, well-known KOL Cobie stated that in the current environment, overall, the disadvantages of project token airdrops outweigh the benefits.

Cobie mentioned that to be considered “good”, airdrops require a high fully diluted valuation (FDV) after the project releases tokens, creating strange incentives for circulation and FDV. Additionally, if any mistakes are made during the airdrop process (including excluding or including certain groups), there will be a huge backlash from the community. In the days following the announcement of the airdrop inquiries, the recent two large airdrops (zksync and eigenlayer) were met with criticisms of “zkscam” and “eigenscam”.

Furthermore, Cobie pointed out that there is a project (presumably referring to Ondo) that has performed well in the market recently without conducting airdrops, indicating that airdrops are not the only choice for project parties. Finally, Cobie stated:

However, many in the community believe that this airdrop model will continue to persist, as project parties and airdrop hunters are actually symbiotic, with airdrop hunters actively participating in interactions to receive project tokens and project parties needing airdrop hunters to contribute attractive user interaction data, allowing them to raise funds at higher valuations from VCs.