Airdrop here, airdrop there, airdrop airdrop everywhere. Since everyone seems to be doing an NFT airdrop, let’s understand what it means. Let’s be real, why would you wanna miss out on potential free money? Did I just say free money? I sure did. I’ll stop talking nonsense and jump right in.
What’s An NFT Airdrop?
An NFT airdrop is as simple as it sounds: a free drop of NFTs in your wallet. Basically, projects decide to distribute NFTs, or cryptocurrencies, to multiple wallets at once. Got it but… why? There are many reasons:
- Market an upcoming drop by incentivizing people to spread the word about the project
- Reward community members
- Reward holders
How Does An NFT Airdrop Work?
First of all, you need a crypto wallet. Second of all, whoever wants to airdrop you an NFT or token, needs your public address. Either you connect to a website or dApp to be part of the NFT airdrop. Or, you sign up for a whitelist.
In some cases, you don’t have to do any of the above steps. If you’re a holder, the project already has your public wallet address. How do you know? Well, there are different types of NFT airdrops.
What Are The Different Types Of NFT Airdrops?
If you want to be part of an NFT airdrop, you must understand the difference between the various types of drops.
Standard Airdrop
A standard NFT airdrop is based on the person’s interest. Meaning, you show interest in the drop, and you sign up for the whitelist. Anyone who signs up their wallet receives the distributed NFT.
However, these drops are usually time and number limited. You want to make sure to sign up before the supply ends.
Holder Airdrop
This NFT airdrop is exactly like its name reflects. You hold NFT from a certain collection. The same people behind this collection decide to drop another collection. Since you’re a holder of their previous collection, they airdrop you one of their new ones.
This is to increase the hype and attention on their upcoming drops. Some projects airdrop all their previous holders whereas others randomly pick a certain number of wallets.
Bounty Airdrop
Bounty airdrops are task-based. To get a piece, you have to complete certain tasks. Usually, these tasks include:
- Sharing social media posts about the project
- Recruiting new people to the project’s discord
- Creating unique content for the project
This is marketing-driven. Its main goal is to shed light on the collection. Usually, projects specify a certain % of the supply for this marketing strategy.
Exclusive Airdrop
This NFT airdrop is similar to the one above but with more “exclusivity”. In this case, creators reward certain people for taking part in specific events or helping build a project, or even listening to a certain podcast. It also is a marketing tactic.
Raffle Airdrop
Raffle airdrop refers to a randomized NFT airdrop. A group of wallets will be whitelisted. Then, creators or founders randomly select some of these wallets to airdrop NFTs to.
How To Find NFT Airdrops?
Now that you know the different types of airdrops, you want in. But, how do you find them? Remember when I told you that airdrops are mainly for marketing and rewards? Right. This means we’ll be catching these airdrops mainly through social media.
Check upcoming projects as they’re more likely to do airdrops. Keep up with their Twitter as well as with their Discord. These two are the hubs for announcements, airdrops, and raffles. You can also check Reddit.
Previous collections are another place you wanna be looking at. As I already mentioned, some projects airdrop holders NFTs from their new collections. Always stay up to date with collections you hold.
NFT Airdrops Red Flag
We all want to be part of an NFT airdrop. However, while looking for these drops you want to keep in mind the red flags. Exactly how you would do while picking a partner (I hope). If there are red flags, you walk the other way.
Here are some red flags to keep an eye out for:
- The website requires you to pay a fee besides the transaction fee. Airdrops are free.
- The website requires access to your wallet.
- If it requests personal information besides your public wallet address. If you’re asked for your private key, secret phrase, or password it is most likely a fake airdrop.
- A website doing an NFT airdrop for a project but the project itself didn’t announce it.
- If you randomly received an airdrop link in your email.
Lastly, if the airdrop is too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
How To Stay Safe When Claiming An NFT Airdrop?
Of course, step 1 is being aware of the above-mentioned red flags. If you know the trouble, you know how to avoid it. Always be cautious.
If you need to connect your wallet to the website, double-check if the website is legit. And, because connecting your wallet always involves risk, you can use an empty one.
Moreover, if you need to perform tasks to be eligible for an NFT airdrop, be aware of what you’re sharing. In some cases, you need to post something on social media that links your public identity with your crypto wallet. This may lead to the common NFT scam going around.
It goes without saying but in-depth research is your best friend. I know about the excitement that comes with potential free money. However, doing your research on airdrops and projects or even marketplaces could save you a lot of money.
Biggest NFT Airdrops
All of this isn’t just another talk in the air. NFT airdrops are a thing and they truly create massive hype. Here are the biggest NFT airdrops to date:
- The $Blur token airdrop. More than 300M tokens were airdropped. And, the first bidder ALONE got more than 3M!
- The infamous Cryptopunks airdrop. Back in 2017, CryptoPunkss creators airdropped 5,000 proto-NFTs free of cost to anyone who came to mint one. They were unsure if anyone would care about the project and they’re a blue-chip.
Conclusion
NFT airdrops happen all the time as they are the fuel to any project’s marketing strategy. However, whenever there’s potential free money, there will always be potential scams. Always be aware of what you’re agreeing to do and where you’re signing up to. In all cases, always secure your wallet.