The Top Airdrop Hunts of the Month: September 2024
Hunting airdrops can be a financially rewarding activity that familiarizes you with up-and-coming crypto applications, but if you don't know where to start, it can get hairy very quickly.
Fortunately, the Bankless Analyst Team has already accumulated over 100 promising opportunities in the Airdrop Hunter, our repository of airdrop hunting knowledge available exclusively to our paying Citizens!
Today, we’re sharing the 5 airdrops you should hunt in the month of September (and we're giving away our first pick for free) 👇
🌐 DAWN Internet
Sector: DePIN
TVL: N/A
Chain: Solana
Website | Twitter
The sweetest airdrops are the ones that involve no capital down and a one-time commitment; DAWN, or the Decentralized Autonomous Wireless Network, is one such opportunity!
The project aims to create a decentralized, user-powered wireless network that provides affordable home and business Internet at multi-gigabit speeds. DAWN node operators are incentivized with token emissions to install and operate the essential network hardware required for them to re-sell their internet access, and those seeking internet access can purchase native tokens to exchange for node operators' excess bandwidth.
Users who download the DAWN Validator Chrome Extension to verify the availability and reliability of bandwidth resources will earn points for staying connected as a validator and referring others to download the extension. Crypto projects frequently implement early stage points programs to identify users contributing to their success as a precursor to an airdrop.
🌽 Corn
Sector: L2
TVL: $17.7M
Chain: Ethereum
Website | Twitter
Backed by an army of prolific venture investors, Corn is an L2 that settles to Ethereum and will use a wrapped version of BTC (BTCN) as its gas token while taking inspiration from Curve’s veTokenomics model.
Advertised as the “veChain,” Corn will allow CORN stakers to direct transaction fee revenue and inflationary CORN emissions towards specific applications or liquidity pools, who can pay onchain “bribes” to attract rewards. Through veTokenomics, Corn hopes to establish positive-sum economics which motivate users and developers to not only migrate to the network, but remain on it.
Depositors to Corn can earn "Kernels" as part of its airdrop program. Recipients will be able to redeem their Kernels for an unknown quantity of CORN tokens at an unspecified future date, and you may have already qualified for Kernels based on previous onchain interactions.
🪙 Ignition
Sector: Stablecoin
TVL: $134M
Chain: Ethereum, Mantle, BNB
Website | Twitter
Introduced by Ignition, a group of Mantle and Antalpha Global contributors, FBTC is a pegged representation of BTC that allows holders to put their tokens to work earning DeFi yields across multiple chains and applications.
While Ignition utilizes multi-party computation and threshold signature schemes to enhance security, as with any other pegged BTC instrument, FBTC holders remain vulnerable to breaches of the underlying multisig structure.
Ignition is currently providing users with 1 “Spark” per day for every 0.001 FBTC held, 2 “Sparks” per day for every 0.001 FBTC deployed in qualifying Ethereum or BNB DeFi protocols, and 4 “Sparks” per day for every 0.001 FBTC deployed in qualifying Mantle DeFi protocols. It is likely that recipients will be rewarded with liquid tokens at some point in the future.
🌊 Movement
Sector: L2
TVL: N/A
Chain: Ethereum
Website | Twitter
Movement is an Ethereum-based sidechain that substitutes the common Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for a Move-based execution environment with an embedded EVM interpreter, enabling the blockchain to support both MoveVM or EVM applications and smart contracts.
Unlike standard L2s, but similar to Polygon PoS, Movement substitutes standard proof generation schemes (like fault proofs and validity proofs) with a proof-of-stake design, which creates additional trust assumptions, but decreases transaction wait times. The “M1 Shared Decentralized Sequencer” aims to provide cross-chain atomicity between the Movement L2 and independent Movement ecosystem chains, and will support multi-asset staking.
Movement’s public incentivized testnet program is currently live and will distribute an unknown number of tokens to developers, users, and community who interact prior to Moment mainnet, the deployment timeline for which is also unknown.
🏛️ Babylon
Sector: L2
TVL: $60M
Chain: Bitcoin
Website | Twitter
Babylon is an upcoming delegated proof-of-stake BTC L2 sidechain that will utilize BTC as a staking asset and post verifiable transaction data to the Bitcoin blockchain.
Nodes operate on the Cosmos SDK, providing seamless bridging with other IBC chains, and a checkpoint module periodically aggregates validator block signatures and submits them to the Bitcoin network, providing strong finality guarantees.
Babylon currently distributes 3,125 points to stakers in every block. While the Protocol’s documentation states that points are not, and may never become, liquid tokens, it is likely the Protocol intends to reward early stakers via airdrop.
Although Babylon’s initial 1k BTC deposit limit was hit shortly after the mainnet launch of staking functionality on August 16, this cap is expected to be raised shortly and you can pre-deposit to Babylon liquid staking protocols like Bedrock in the meantime.