Who doesn’t love an airdrop? Few events are more successful at attracting ardent community members desperate to get their hands on the hottest new token. Oftentimes tokens are distributed to existing users of a platform, such as participants whose addresses have contributed to liquidity pools, although untargeted drops are also commonplace.
To save you the trouble of combing through endless blogs, Telegram channels, Crypto Twitter, and all the rest, we’ve curated a shortlist of possible upcoming DeFi airdrops you’ll want to watch. To be in with a chance, it could be worth using these protocols if you haven’t already.
1. FinNexus
Launched by a team of blockchain veterans in 2019, FinNexus is a cross-chain DeFi protocol that describes itself as “a hub for connecting different decentralized ledgers to each other and users, and also for connecting with traditional finance applications.” Among other things, FinNexus is developing a marketplace for hybrid decentralized/traditional financial products and has just launched a new mining mechanism with a reward multiplier running up to 320x.
An airdrop is set to occur before the end of the month during which 500,000 FNX tokens will be dispatched to users already active in the DeFi market. That’s a rather large market, isn’t it?
Specifically, FNX tokens will be airdropped to those deemed eligible, namely users who have interacted with options protocol FPO v1.0, provisioned liquidity to WBTC and ETH pools at Hegic, and participated in the CRV DAO at Curve. FNX tokens will be automatically transferred as FPT pool share tokens, and holders can participate in mining for three months via the FinNexus Protocol for Options. Interestingly, the airdrop is very likely to be the first in an ongoing series. Keep ‘em peeled.
2. Paraswap
Ultra-fast DEX aggregator Paraswap is one of many projects looking to capitalize on Ethereum’s sky-high gas fees: as well as using ETH for gas, Paraswap uses the GasToken.io (GST2) when possible to minimize network fees. Paraswap splits orders across multiple exchanges (Kyber, Uniswap, Bancor, Curve among them) into one optimized and secure transaction, and rumor has it an airdrop is imminent.
Nourishing the notion is the announcement that the platform will launch a new UI and smart contracts soon, to which the inevitable first reply was “I know you won’t answer it and it has been asked a thousand times but: When token?” Welcome to DeFi.
3. dYdX
Margin trading platform dYdX recently celebrated a major milestone by surpassing $3 billion in transaction volume since launching in 2018. It also noted that unique wallets depositing funds into their smart contracts rose by 4.8x, from 8,000 to 38,588, through December 31. So why on earth doesn’t it have its own native token? It’s something users have been pondering for a while now, giving rise to the rumor of a retrospective airdrop. dYdX fed the flames on January 21 by tweeting “More major announcements coming soon.” All things considered, it’s difficult to imagine a dYdX airdrop not happening in the near future.
4. Matcha
Released in mid-2020, Matcha is a low-fee decentralized exchange built on 0x Protocol. It stands to reason, therefore, that an airdrop could be in the offing for holders of 0x’s ZRX tokens. Especially since Matcha recently airdropped ZRX tokens to ring in the New Year (or was it to commemorate surpassing $2 billion in total trading volume?). The fact that rival DEX 1inch recently completed a token airdrop probably augurs well for those who are craving their very own Matcha governance token.
5. Shell Protocol
Shell Protocol incorporates elements of DeFi protocols such as Balancer, Curve and Mooniswap, facilitating large stablecoin-to-stablecoin trades with minimal slippage and letting users earn yield. The AMM’s maiden liquidity pool, which launched late last year, is notable for its deep liquidity, reserve weights, and interoperability with aTokens and cTokens, with a weighting of 30% DAI, 30% USDC, 30% USDT, and 10% sUSD. Needless to say, if they hold an airdrop in the near future, you could earn a significant windfall.
6. Set Protocol
A platform to create, manage and obtain baskets of tokenized assets, Set Protocol makes it easy for retail and institutional investors to gain exposure to the entire crypto market or one of its sub-sectors. For instance, an investor could tokenize the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization as a long-term investment, on the basis that though every one of the tokens won’t mature, most will. Set Protocol recently launched V2, integrating the likes of SushiSwap, Uniswap, and Chainlink, and even if an airdrop doesn’t materialize, it’s a platform that’s only likely to attract more investors as time goes on.
7. Opyn
Opyn is a decentralized insurance platform that lets users trade options on ETH and ERC20s. Launched last year, the fully audited platform enables the management of long and short positions and recently announced the release of Opyn V2 on mainnet, featuring technical enhancements, a slew of new features and a Chainlink integration. Via the platform’s new Gamma Protocol, farmers can harvest earned and airdropped tokens – but what about an airdrop for an Opyn governance token? The team has been tight-lipped about the possibility, but that hasn’t stopped DeFi users speculating – especially after co-founder Aparna Krishnan quoted a tweet by the Uniswap Token Listing Bot about $OPN, replying “There is currently no OPYN token.” Perhaps 2021 is the year.
8. Unslashed Finance
Unslashed Finance is a decentralized insurance protocol, built on Ethereum by a team of mathematics and finance whizzes. Users receive a token for their “cover” and need only pay for the time their crypto is insured – no minimum duration required. Users can also earn yield by providing protection, underwriting risk and diversifying their exposure, with smart contracts transparently regulating the claims process. Unslashed have been publishing invite codes on their social channels of late, deleting them as soon as they are claimed; the codes are to get access to the platform rather than obtain tokens, but an airdrop could be in the pipeline – so watch this space.
9. MetaMask
MetaMask is a ubiquitous gateway to the crypto/DeFi market for over a million monthly users. Available as both a browser extension and mobile app, the popular Ethereum wallet recently launched its own aggregation tool, MetaMask Swap, and it’s not inconceivable that it might follow up by issuing a token in the near future. To qualify, you’ll probably have to have performed a swap via MetaMask at some stage. While the fees for doing so are pretty damn high right now, it could be worth it for a lucrative airdrop.
10. ZKSwaps (ZKS)
ZKS is a forthcoming ZK-Rollups based layer-2 DEX with AMM model. On January 6, ZKSwap’s Proof-of-Gas Testnet Incentive Program got underway, with the distribution of 500,000 ZKS in rewards drip-feeding to eligible participants. Essentially, the program involved sending test tokens collected from faucets to the ZKS payment contract address. Another such program launches January 25, encouraging users to test Liquidity Mining, Proof of Transaction fees, and Smart Contract Staking.
11. Loopring
Loopring is another layer-2 DEX for low-cost swaps, capable of settling up to 2,025 trades per second while assuring the same level of security as the underlying Ethereum blockchain. Like ZKS, it launched a busy program on January 6 – L2 AMM liquidity mining, an AMM swap tournament and orderbook liquidity mining, to be specific. On January 25, Round 2 gets underway, giving users the opportunity to earn tokens by providing liquidity and performing swaps. Tokens will be directly distributed to LPs’ layer-2 accounts within three days of the end of the round.
Well, there you have it: 11 possible defi airdrops worth watching out for. While there are no guarantees that all of them will take place, it’s worth taking the time to qualify for them all just in case.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay