New Year, New Airdrop Hunts ($)

Sponsor: The DeFi Report — Industry-leading crypto research trusted by finance pros.

1. ‼️ Zcash Dev Team Resigns After Board Clash. Electric Coin Company's full staff resigned over governance issues, leaving Zcash's future uncertain.
2. 💰 SharpLink Deploys $170M ETH to Linea Network. The major ETH DATCo declared it would begin deploying ETH to Linea back in October.
3. 🏦 Morgan Stanley Sets Sights on Crypto with Proprietary Wallet Plans. The major bank continues to be a first mover in its class when it comes to crypto.

	Crypto $3.10T	↘ 1.0%	↗ 3.2%
	BTC $91,196	↗ 0.2%	↗ 3.3%
	ETH $3,117	↘ 1.0%	↗ 4.4%

Market Plays:

• 📈 Trading on Hyperdash
• 👻 Test out private transfers thru Privacy Cash
• 📱 Signing up for cashZ (ECC’s new ZEC wallet)
• 🤖 Automate yield via Zyfai
• 🐌 Farming stables with JupUSD from Jupiter

Hot Reads:

• 🏛️ How Blockchains are Preparing for Quantum Computing - Circle Research
• 🤫 Privacy and The Cypherpunk Revival — DeFi Dave
• 🛤️ Stablecoins are a Rail, not a Brand  — Artemis
• 🗺️ Ethereum’s 2025 in Review — Ethereum
• 🛢️ Suavamente — Arthur Hayes

Farming Opps:

• 🟠 BTC: 8% APR with Aerodrome’s tBTC-cbBTC pool on Base
• 🟠 BTC: 12% APR with Ekubo’s LBTC-WBTC pool on Starknet
• 🔵 ETH: 12% APR with Aerodrome’s cbETH-WETH pool on Base
• 🔵 ETH: 5% APY with Pendle’s Lido GGV PT on Ethereum
• 🟢 USD: 13% APY with Pendle’s sUSDai PT on Arbitrum
• 🟢 USD: 8% APY with Convex’s PYUSD-crvUSD pool on Ethereum

Airdrop Hunter:

• 📱 Seeker: Prepare for SKR airdrop
• 🤖 Brevis: Claim BREV airdrop
• 🕯️ Lighter: Locate LIT allocation
• 💫 Aster: Claim ASTER S3 airdrop

New year, new airdrops.

Kick off 2026 right with this newsletter, a curated guide that spotlights 5 of this year’s hottest early airdrop opportunities worth hunting right now.

While you’re hunting, check out Airdrop Hunter, our comprehensive hub of airdrop alpha on nearly 200 opportunities with step-by-step hunting instructions shared exclusively with Bankless Premium members.

Today, we’re recommending 5 airdrops for January 2026. 👇

🔮 predict.fun

Website | Twitter

Predict.fun is a BNB-based prediction market that allows speculators to bet on the future outcomes of an event. Although extremely similar in design to leading prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, predict.fun sets itself apart through backing from YZiLabs.

Formerly known as Binance Labs, YZiLabs is the $10B+ family office of Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. The firm carries significant clout within the crypto industry, and as demonstrated by Aster’s momentary overtake of Hyperliquid, YZiLabs’ backing can command hefty valuation premiums and generate immediate user interest in new applications.

Predict.fun has an ongoing Predict Points rewards program, which rewards users with 10M points per week for “market making” (placing limit buy/sell orders that get filled), holding positions in open interest markets, correctly predicting market outcomes, and referring others to the platform. Although unconfirmed at this time, it is likely these points will convert into liquid tokens at a future date.

⛽ ETHGas

Website | Twitter

ETHGas aims to revolutionize Ethereum by transforming onchain gas markets from a volatile friction point into a structured, liquid, and tradable asset class.

The protocol introduces a flexible marketplace for blockspace, allowing users to purchase guarantees from validators to ensure inclusion in the next block, confirm a specific execution threshold, or control how an entire block is organized. Additionally, ETHGas advertises ultra-fast onchain settlement, promising settlement times of 3ms and 100k TPS.

ETHGas currently runs a community rewards program that grants early users “Beans” for completing quests and referrals. While the precise function of Beans remains unconfirmed, ETHGas has indicated that larger balances may translate into greater future rewards.

🏃 Tempo

Website | Twitter

Jointly incubated by payments giant Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, Tempo is intended to serve high-volume stablecoin payments and real-world transaction use cases.

Currently accessible via public testnet, Tempo is EVM-compatible and uses a permissioned validator, allowing it to optimize for regulatory compliance and high throughput. The network advertises low fees, opt-in privacy, stablecoin gas fees, and can process over 100k transactions per second.

Despite its permissioned validator set, Tempo positions itself as built around “core principles of decentralization and neutrality.” To this extent, Tempo will be a neutral platform with respect to stablecoins, allowing users to make transfers and pay gas fees in any stablecoin.

While Tempo has not unveiled token launch plans, its prominent Paradigm backing is a positive omen for a future airdrop. Several of the crypto VC’s portfolio companies – including Uniswap, Optimism, Blast, and friend.tech – have conducted landmark token distributions that helped redefine the role of airdrops in crypto.

🔵 Arc

Website | Twitter

Arc is a payments-centric, EVM-compatible blockchain network created by stablecoin issuer Circle that uses stablecoins for gas, features opt-in configurable privacy, and offers direct integrations with Circle’s technology stack.

Currently deployed to testnet, Arc is designed around a permissioned Proof-of-Authority (PoA) validator set; this feature increases transaction speeds and blockchain control at the cost of credibly neutral decentralization guarantees.

The major distinction between Arc and many other blockchains is its use of stablecoins instead of volatile cryptocurrencies (e.g., ETH or SOL) as gas. Stablecoin gas is perceived by some as a desirable crypto user-experience upgrade.

Although Arc has not announced token launch plans and does not technically require one to operate with a permissioned validator set, it remains possible that the network may opt to distribute network tokens to early users as part of an airdrop rewards campaign.

💱 Nado

Website | Twitter

Nado (developed internally by Kraken) ranks as the top exchange on Kraken’s Ink L2 and its second-largest app by TVL. Nado is similar in design to other popular exchanges like Hyperliquid, featuring leveraged perpetuals and a central liquidity provider vault.

While access to Nado is limited at this time – the protocol is deployed to Ink mainnet in an invite-only format – a broader release could present an attractive opportunity for airdrop hunters targeting perpetuals on Ink.

It is unknown whether Nado will conduct a platform-specific airdrop, but we can be certain that early users will receive INK airdrop points rewards for activity, as denoted by the “airdrop” tag associated with Nado on Ink’s website homepage.