Free money? In a way. Four crypto airdrop opportunities you might not want to miss
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, right? Crypto airdrops aren’t free money, but they’re the closest you can get to collecting some potentially valuable tokens for not really doing much (guided by the right knowledge).
In light of the recent Aptos airdrop we’re kicking ourselves for not participating in, we thought it was about time we go over some of the most promising potential opportunities that have yet to materialize. (And if you need a refresher on what airdrops actually are, here it is.)
Before we round off our list, just a quick word about the Aptos (APT) drop, as it’s a reminder of how powerful crypto airdrops can be.
Never mind Apto’s blockchain’s much-publicized rocky entry into the market, if you had signed up for Apto’s testnet—a process that essentially just required you to fill out a form—you could have earned somewhere between $1,500 and $6,000. It is according to various Twitter based sources as the most excellent airdrop guru olimpio.eth.
All the people who followed this strategy got between $1,500 and $6,000 $APT airdrop yesterday
All you had to do was fill out a form
Thread: how to potentially get other pending tokens launching soon / $ZKS, $ARB, $OP, $STRONG
— olimpio.eth ⚡️ (@OlimpioCrypto) 19 October 2022
Coin head have admittedly taken their eyes off the airdrop ball a bit lately. But we have given ourselves an uppercut and promise to regularly search for similar lucrative opportunities of an airdroppable nature in the future. Starting with the following:
Blur – NFT Marketplace
As another anonymous Twitter user “@0xExit” ponders below, “is airdrop back?” There certainly seems to be some buzz around this hypey crypto marketing and decentralized token distribution tactic at the moment.
Is airdrop szn back?? It’s been a while since we’ve had a proper stimmy, but today Blur announced care packages for all degenerates smart (or dumb?) enough to stick with the bear. Let’s talk about it 1/🧵 pic.twitter.com/f5OikIlkeW
— quit.q00t.eth (@0xQuit) 19 October 2022
Blur is near the top of that buzz. It’s another NFT marketplace, but it has pretty impressive support.
It aims to be majority-owned by the community, but has also previously raised more than US$11 million in seed funding from VC firm Paradigm and well-known crypto angel investors, including Cosomo Medici (aka Snoop Dogg), Punk 6529Deeze and others.
The project (although not the BLUR token yet) launched last week with an airdrop of “care packages” that currently contain an undisclosed amount of BLUR tokens per package.
Anyone who has traded NFTs in the last six months may be eligible for the airdrop, which requires you to enter an NFT on the Blur market to complete the claim.
While you won’t be able to open the packs and access tokens until January, it’s best to get on this one soon, as there’s only approx. 9 days left to ensure release at the time of writing.
The @0xQuit Twitter account (above) provides a clear outline of how to claim, as does olimpio.eth. Be sure to go to officially website address: blur.io/airdrop.
🚨 10 days left to collect 🚨$BLUR Airdrop Live for OpenSea/NFT users 🟠🪂@blur_io is a Marketplace (like OS) and an Aggregator (like Gem). Supported by Paradigm
Check eligibility -> https://t.co/ugUsHkH50b
Token IDO here -> pic.twitter.com/VcR6bJNdAD— olimpio.eth ⚡️ (@OllmpioCrypto) 22 October 2022
We do several rounds of Care Package drops.
The first airdrop can be claimed right now.
The second can be claimed in November.
More may be announced in the future. pic.twitter.com/IG9t7o4bZD
— Blur (@blur_io) 19 October 2022
zkSnync – layer 2 scaler
This likely drop has been in the speculative air for quite some time now. In fact, David Angliss of Apollo Capital first alerted us to it in early May of this year.
zkSync is a “layer 2” blockchain scaling technology that uses a different technology than the likes of Optimism and Arbitrum – ZK rollups, also known as zero-knowledge.
“ZK digests rely on mathematics to validate the digest,” Angliss explained, “whereas optimistic digests rely on observers of the layer 1 contracts to invalidate erroneous transactions.”
The result, Angliss told us, is that optimistic rollups are “slightly slower and more expensive” than zkSync.
Several airdrop watchers have noted that zkSync will launch a token with the ticker ZKS, and it may be set to hit the crypto market – perhaps either late this month or in November when the protocol launches its mainnet.
Minute 40
— olimpio.eth ⚡️ (@OlimpioCrypto) 20 October 2022
So how would you get the ZKS token potentially airdropped to your Ethereum wallet? As with most, if not all, of these types of capabilities, your best bet is to interact with the protocol however you can.
Hop on the testnet (make sure it’s the official site) and interact with the protocol’s decentralized applications there. You need an Ethereum wallet, such as MetaMask, with the correct RPC configuration – and this page can help you with the latter.
And for additional guidance and tips on the collaboration process, “Riddle” has a great, comprehensive Twitter thread on the matter:
zkSync Airdrop Guide
The ultimate Layer-2 @zksync launching soon.
– Quick guide to get zkSync #Airdrop
– Highest chance of getting $ZKSRead on, a thread 🧵👇🏻
— Ξnigma(💙,🧡) || 0_0_1.lens 🌿 (@its_daenigma) 18 October 2022
Sui – hyped team 1
Like Aptos, SUI is another hyped newcomer to the smart contract blockchain scene. And like Aptos, it was founded by former Meta employees who aim to develop a highly scalable layer 1, proof-of-stake chain to compete with the likes of Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche et al.
There is no guarantee of being eligible for a potential SUI drop at this stage, as the project ended accepting new validators at the end of August. But the rumors say so maybe still be a chance if the project wants to start with additional market liquidity.
Here is what the Twitter account @defiyield_app think you should try:
• Create a Sui Wallet: suiet.app/install
• Request Sui testnet tokens: sui.bluemove.net or discord.com/invite/sui
• Create Sui NFT on test net: sui-wallet-demo.sui.io
• Put a Sui name on the test network: sui-names.com
LayerZero
LayerZero is an “omnichain” interoperability protocol designed to connect multiple chains. That’s something Apollo Capital’s David Angliss highlighted briefly in his summary of the Astrolab DeFi return-pooling project, which leverages the so-far extremely secure LayerZero technology.
The protocol has major backers, with USD 135 million raised from FTX, Coinbase, PayPal (apparently their first Web3 investment), a16z and Sequoia Capital.
The potential ZRO token airdrop is again, covered well by various airdrop watchers, including Miles Deutscher.
LayerZero is an interoperability protocol designed to connect multiple chains.
This allows it to:
• Seamlessly bridge assets across multiple chains
• Achieve composition and functionality across chainsThink of it as the ultimate interoperability infrastructure layer.
— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) 20 October 2022
The token isn’t in circulation yet, but as Deutscher notes, “we know it exists because it’s visible on their information code“.
The Airdrop Hunter’s strategy isn’t super easy, but might be worth doing as much of it as you have time for.
It involves the DAO vote for Stargate Finance; with the help of various others crypto projects that build on LayerZero; User Aptos bridge; and user USDC X LayerZero bridge.
Additional possibilities
These four potential cases are the most promising we see, but the Twitter accounts we’ve mentioned above are all extremely well-informed and have their ears constantly to the ground.
Among many other airdrops that may be worth looking into, the following also stand out:
• ZetaChain – a cosmos-based layer 1 blockchain that also has “omnichain” capabilities.
• Quai network – a layer 1 network of blockchains that uses pooling to achieve high throughput.
• Optimism – this large tier 2 scaling solution has already released 5% of the 19% OP token supply it allocates for airdrop distribution. Which means that there is 14% more airdropping left.
