Airdrop New Forces: Finding the Next Gold Mine

As time goes by, the airdrop landscape has quietly changed. The once preferred Ethereum mainnet is no longer the first choice for airdrop players, replaced by some emerging public chain platforms. What is the logic behind this shift? Where should airdrop enthusiasts direct their attention? Let's explore this issue together.

This article will focus on the following aspects:

1. The Ethereum airdrop craze has subsided.
2. Emerging public chains become the main battlefield
3. New project features: Ample funds, mature gameplay
4. Projects to Watch and Participation Methods
5. The key to a successful airdrop lies in the selection.

Understanding the reasons behind this trend may help us foresee the next opportunity.

1. High Gas fees are no longer a guarantee for Airdrops

Jason, who entered the circle in 2022, once paid as much as $120 in Gas fees to interact with a certain NFT trading platform. At that time, he believed that this platform had a strong background and would definitely provide substantial Airdrop returns in the future.

However, by 2025, Jason had been out of the cryptocurrency scene for nearly a year. He lamented: "I didn't make any money at all; many project accounts were deemed to be bots, and even spending money on special browsers and independent IPs didn't help. In the end, I could only slink back to work."

In February 2025, that NFT platform suddenly announced the issuance of tokens. After work, Jason checked the official website and found the familiar routine still in place: points, blind boxes, and the experience points (XP) system.

2. Airdrop of Ethereum ecosystem projects is becoming increasingly rare

Not only have the legendary stories of those who became wealthy through Airdrops disappeared from social media platforms, but even the once-mighty Airdrop opinion leaders have also begun to transition. In 2025, a well-known Airdrop blogger even started to frequently defend multiple projects, paving a new path for the "rights protection persona."

Taking January 2025, a period with a better market condition, as an example, among the 14 launched Airdrop projects, there are almost no native projects from the Ethereum ecosystem. Most public chain projects choose to directly launch their mainnet and airdrop tokens, while other projects tend to opt for emerging public chains with lower Gas costs and greater exchange support.

Compared to the glory days of Ethereum in 2021, the current Ethereum ecosystem is vastly different. Even though Gas fees have dropped from dozens of dollars to less than 1 dollar, the number of projects announcing their launch on the Ethereum mainnet has not increased; rather, it has decreased. This may be due to other public chains becoming the preferred choice for new players, or certain public chains becoming shortcuts for project teams to enter mainstream exchanges. However, a more significant reason is that the innovation and development activity that the Ethereum ecosystem once prided itself on has gradually declined, and dissatisfaction within the community towards the Ethereum Foundation has been on the rise.

3. True "big projects" are not bound by their origins, but focus solely on returning value to users.

An officially certified airdrop project on a certain public chain undoubtedly became the brightest airdrop star of the first quarter after it was announced to launch contracts on a certain exchange on March 28. The airdrop standards for this project are very simple; even with the most basic participation, just depositing a minimum of 0.1 tokens can yield about 15 times the return.

This project is indeed unusual: it has raised as much as $140 million, with a valuation of $2 billion, and has attracted several top institutions as investors.

In the past, such backgrounds typically only appeared within the Ethereum ecosystem, but now, more and more star projects with similar backgrounds are starting to take root in emerging public chains.

These projects have several obvious common points: practical teams, steadily rising coin prices, and attempts to break historical highs.

4. Migrate from Ethereum and look for new Airdrop opportunities

In the business field, the blue ocean represents a market full of opportunities and unsaturated competition, while the red ocean symbolizes a market with intense competition. In the past, Ethereum has always been the "noble chain" of the airdrop circle, with new players flocking to Ethereum L2 for opportunities, while experienced players steadily enjoyed substantial airdrops on the Ethereum mainnet. However, the situation has changed; the market is gradually cooling down, and the airdrop track has become fully competitive, with Ethereum seemingly turning into a red ocean. To continue obtaining decent airdrop returns, one must board the new generation of the "Mayflower" and venture far abroad to explore new territories.

Where is the new land for airdrop players? Currently, some emerging public chains seem to have provided the answer. By carefully observing the ecosystems of these emerging public chains, it is not difficult to find that they have the following common characteristics:

1. High project valuation and large financing scale;
2. The native tokens of public chains have already landed on mainstream exchanges;
3. The public chain itself provides ecological incentives and has strong financial support;
4. Projects within the ecosystem have generally completed high-quality financing;
5. Following the traditional airdrop strategy of "low threshold, high return", focusing on zero-cost participation, test nets, and simple staking activities.

Some popular projects worth paying attention to include:

• Core protocols of a certain emerging public chain ecosystem: such as decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, etc.;
• Another emerging public chain with high popularity protocols: such as cross-chain bridges, DEX aggregators, etc.

5. Choose more than hard work, adapt to market cycles

A well-known crypto blogger commented on the power of cycles: "Those who can see through the essence of the market in one or two cycles, and those who can never understand the market in a lifetime, are destined to have completely different fates."

In the cyclical fluctuations of the crypto market, both project teams and players experience tides of rise and fall, hoping to gain wealth during the upward cycles, but often misstep in the rapidly changing market rhythm. However, projects that truly transcend cycles often showcase a perfect "deep V" in coin prices, providing stable rewards to supporters in ecological construction. As an Airdrop player, what you need to do from start to finish is actually the same thing:

Be patient and enjoy the game.