- The Uniswap team conducted the largest airdrop in DeFi history, distributing tokens worth $6.43 billion (if taking into account the all-time high price of UNI).
- The biggest airdrop of 2023 was carried out by the L2 project Arbitrum ($4.56 billion).
From 2020 to 2023, in the course of the 50 largest airdrops, DeFi projects distributed tokens to users totaling $26.6 billion, CoinGecko researchers found.
What are the biggest crypto airdrops?
Our study shows that the top 50 airdrops have distributed $26.6 billion worth of tokens in total, based on their all-time high valuation, from 2020 to 2023.
Read the full study: https://t.co/JAB6rAM5Po pic.twitter.com/n9ecq2G85x
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) December 21, 2023
Analysts note that the distribution of UNI by Uniswap in September 2020 was the largest such campaign in DeFi history. Early users of DEX received a total of $6.43 billion.
1/ @Uniswap remains the biggest airdrop, distributing $6.43 billion worth of $UNI in September 2020.
The Uniswap airdrop was one of DeFi summer’s biggest events. Since then, airdrops have become a key part of crypto.
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) December 21, 2023
“Since then, airdrops have become a key element of the crypto industry,” the experts noted.
The second-largest airdrop was ApeCoin, which occurred in March 2022. Users received tokens worth $3.54 billion with the maximum price of APE at $23.63.
In third place on the list was the dYdX project. In September 2021, the developers of the non-custodial trading platform distributed DYDX for $2 billion (assuming the coin reached a maximum price of $26.8).
“The total value of the Uniswap, ApeCoin and dYdX distributions amounts to $11.99 billion, representing 45.1% of the 50 largest crypto airdrops,” CoinGecko researchers noted.
When did the largest airdrops take place?
18 of the 50 largest crypto-asset airdrops occurred in 2021. By comparison, in 2020 there were only five such events.
Researchers noted that due to crypto-winter in subsequent years, airdrops were not as “juicy”.
“In 2023, the total value of crypto airdrops reached $4.56 billion, using ATH. This is only 61.1% of the value of the 2022 distributions,” CoinGecko noted.
Thirteen of the 50 airdrops of the year went into the top 50. In these campaigns, tokens were distributed worth $4.56 billion.
The largest airdrop of 2023 — Arbitrum, during which ARBs were distributed worth $4.56 billion (including ATH). This sum is 2.9 times larger than the rival — L2-project Optimism, which conducted its first distribution in late May 2022.
The second-largest airdrop of 2023 — Celestia ($0.73 billion). In third place — Blur ($0.45 billion). Notably, the price of BLUR reached its ATH at $0.64 after the project\’s second airdrop.
Earlier in December, representatives of the Starknet Foundation confirmed rumors of a forthcoming STRK airdrop.
Shortly after, the LayerZero team announced the distribution of its native token in the first half of 2024.