The average revenue for a standard airdrop hunter was $9384 per address (median $6497). In the premium segment, the corresponding figures were $18,935 and $14,288, according to a joint study by X-explore and Colin Wu.
Research on “Airdrop Experts” by X-explore
Found 34,547 Standard Airdrop Hunter addresses, with per address of $9,384 and a median airdrop income per address of $6,497; 932 addresses of Premium Airdrop Hunters, per address of $18,935.
Read more: https://t.co/8yx5bMjGeH pic.twitter.com/MjNmLxRFSU
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 26, 2023
The experts noted that after the Uniswap airdrop in 2020, the strategy of rewarding early adopters with tokens gained popularity in the Web3 industry.
However, the practice of free distribution of assets has led to the emergence of a category of “hunters” for distribution. Researchers estimate that up to 20% of Arbitrum’s March airdrop was claimed by so-called “free riders” using sibyl attack.
The experts tried to make a portrait of these “drop hunters” and predict what their future “goals” would be. The researchers analyzed five airdrops with more than 100,000 participating addresses and a distribution amount of more than $140 million each. We are talking about Uniswap, ENS, Optimism, Blur and Arbitrum projects.
Analysts classified the addresses that took part in three distributions out of five into the category of simple hunters. “Standard” became participants in four airdrops (34,547 addresses), and “premium” received tokens in all five airdrops. Experts attributed 932 addresses to the latter.
The researchers noted that, in fact, most drop hunters are early adopters of Ethereum. They are much more active on NFT platforms and DEXtrading, and remain involved in projects after receiving tokens.
For example, over 95% of addresses from the premium group are in the top 10% in terms of trading volume on decentralized sites. For NFT marketplaces, this figure is 68%.
According to experts, given the identified features, projects can modify the rules of airdrops for a “positive impact on hunters.”
Regarding their future likely targets, the researchers identified the activity of tracked addresses in the following projects in selected areas:
- DeFi: Uniswap, SushiSwap, 0x, Metamask Swap, Balancer, 1inch, Paraswap, Aave, Rarible, InstaDApp, dYdX, Compound;
- NFT: OpenSea, Blur, LooksRare, X2Y2, Foundation;
- L2 solutions and cross-chain protocols: Arbitrum, Polygon, ZkSync Lite, Optimism, HOP, ZkSync Era, Starknet;
- dApps: DeBank.
In most cases, drop hunters periodically carry out transactions for small amounts that do not make economic sense.
Recall that Cryplogger talked about two L2 protocols – Arbitrum Nova and zkSync, in the case of which the distribution of tokens is likely.
Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press CTRL+ENTER
Cryplogger Newsletters: Keep your finger on the pulse of the bitcoin industry!