Dear Bankless Nation,
Airdrop Hunter is filling up with more and more opportunities, including an awful lot of places to provide liquidity 🪣
In today's issue, we dig into some of the top tokenless DEX protocols that our team is watching closely right now in Airdrop Hunter.
- Bankless team
5 DEXs to Start Exploring
Bankless Writer: Jack Inabinet | disclosures
As we often say... it's still early.
Today's DeFi power players who may feel unstoppable always need to keep a close eye on early upstarts. Fortunes can quickly shift, especially in today's regulatory environment. And with so many ecosystems out there, there's always an opportunity for a newbie.
This month, we've added some decentralized exchanges to the Airdrop Hunter product, so we're highlighting our latest releases below alongside a couple existing strategy guides.
If you want to be early to the next big DEX, you'll need to start hunting the airdrops today; here are five tokenless DEXs to get you started! Anyone can view the first airdrop opportunity, but the remaining four are reserved exclusively for Bankless Citizens 🤝
⚫ Aori
Status: Confirmed ✅
Confidence: High
Sector: Exchange
Chains: Goerli Ethereum
About:
Aori is an orderbook exchange based on OpenSea's Seaport contract. Seat NFTs play a core role in the Aori ecosystem. To access the exchange, users must trade through one (whether they own it or not). Seat holders set protocol fees, trade for free, and earn a portion of fees on orders placed through their Seat that varies with the tier of their Seat.
Aori Prime (the next iteration of dAMM Finance) serves as the protocol's leverage layer and brings capital efficiency to the exchange. Bad debt is siloed to the Prime pool it originated from, allowing individual Primes to extend off-chain credit-based loans without impacting the solvency of the broader exchange.
Why we're watching:
Aori has an early-stage NFT collection. HODLing a "Seat" provides numerous in-protocol benefits, and we believe their presence indicates a future airdrop, following a similar approach to NFT marketplace Sudoswap. Additionally, released tokenomic information confirms that 5.3% of the AORI token supply will be distributed via airdrop.
Maximize your eligibility by:
- Purchasing an Aori Seat
- Filling orders on Aori's Beta
- Making orders on Aori's Beta
- Citizens: use the below code to access the Aori Beta...
Use code "makearbitragegreatagain" to access the Aori Beta!
🟣 Ambient
Status: Unconfirmed 🚫
Confidence: Medium
Sector: Exchange
Chains: Ethereum
About:
Ambient (formerly known as CrocSwap) is a decentralized exchange run entirely from inside a single smart contract, an architecture adopted by Uniswap for its V4 singleton contract. This design helps to decrease transaction costs, translating to substantial gas savings over competitive DEXs, and allows LP fees to be automatically compounded into additional fee-earning liquidity.
Gasless transactions are possible thanks to Ambient's adoption of offchain EIP-712 messaging. Users can use any arbitrary token or DEX position to "tip" the relayers who actually send the transaction. This method is convenient for users who don't want to hold ETH for gas and is generally less expensive than completing an onchain transaction directly.
Why we're watching:
Ambient's Discord has noted since late 2021 that a token is coming "soon," and we're still awaiting its arrival! While there is no official indication that an airdrop will be chosen as a token distribution mechanism, many DEXs have rewarded early users with airdrops; we anticipate that Ambient will follow a similar approach.
Maximize your eligibility by:
💱 SyncSwap
Status: Unconfirmed 🚫
Confidence: High
Sector: Exchange
Chains: Ethereum, zkSync Era, Linea
About:
SyncSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX). In addition to Ethereum, SyncSwap has deployed to zkSync Era and Linea, making it a destination DEX for those looking to farm these ZKS and LIN airdrops! The protocol provides swaps and is set to deploy a token launchpad, a popular feature of many Arbitrum DEXs like Camelot.
Why we're watching:
While the protocol does not mention anything relating to tokenomics in its docs, it appears that the roadmap to token is soon™? SyncSwap previously launched its Pioneer Era Campaign and Loyalty Program, rewarding early users with NFTs and token allocations. While both campaigns are no longer active, according to Discord messages, SYNC is imminent.
Maximize your eligibility by:
Go direct to DeFi with the Uniswap mobile wallet. Buy crypto on any available chain with your debit card. Seamlessly swap on Mainnet and L2s. Explore tokens, wallets and NFTs. Safe, simple self-custody from the most trusted team in DeFi.
🔴 JediSwap
Status: Unconfirmed 🚫
Confidence: Medium
Sector: Exchange
Chains: Starknet
About:
JediSwap is a fully permissionless and composable Automated Market Maker (AMM) built on the Starknet Layer 2 rollup inspired by Uniswap. The protocol is led by the Mesh Community, a group of over 500 members who are contributing towards the protocol's success.
Why we're watching:
The project docs note that Mesh Community members contributing towards development, design, marketing, community managing, and other efforts will be awarded points in the form of NFTs to distribute Mesh community project tokens. Therefore, we can assume JediSwap will have a token. There is a strong precedent for DEXs to airdrop tokens to early users, and JediSwap may choose to do so with its token allocation.
Maximize your eligibility by:
✨ Pulsar Protocol
Status: Unconfirmed 🚫
Confidence: Low
Sector: Exchange
Chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Mantle
About:
Pulsar Protocol implements the "Time-Weighted Average Market Maker" (TWAMM) innovation of Paradigm Research to allow swappers to efficiently execute large orders across multiple blocks by breaking down large orders into an infinite number of infinitely small orders, executing transactions across time using an embedded AMM.
This results in a lower slippage trading experience for TWAMM users compared to AMM swapping models. Traders using Pulsar's term swaps have a similar experience to "Time-Weighted Average Price" (TWAP) orders in TradFi. You can use this order type to easily minimize slippage on small cap coins or slowly DCA into positions.
Why we're watching:
While no official announcements have been made regarding a token, Pulsar will likely follow the wei of competitive DEX protocols and launch a token. Nascent protocols often work to iron out bugs and gain organic protocol traction before crafting an airdrop roadmap.
Maximize your eligibility by:
Action steps
- 🎧 Listen to A Hitchhiker's Guide to Riding an MEV Bot
- 🧭 Explore DEX Screener to find new opps