Solana DeFi's Best Airdrop Opps
Feeling underexposed to the Solana ecosystem after SOL put in a face-ripping 80% rally over the past month? Fear not, for you are still extremely early.
Thankfully, many of the chain’s hottest projects are tokenless, and therein lies an airdrop opportunity!
Crypto’s largest airdrops, like dYdX, have netted their hunters near six-figure payouts, and we anticipate those interacting with top tokenless Solana applications could enjoy a similar bullish outcome in their future 👀
Before you pull the trigger and ape some SOL, explore the Solana ecosystem first-hand to experience the benefits of consensus at the speed of light for yourself, and while you’re there, make sure to position yourself for an airdrop by interacting with these five applications 👇
⚫ Jito
Website | Twitter
Ranking by TVL: #2
Sector: Liquid Staking
About:
Jito is a liquid staking protocol on Solana that allows you to stake your SOL to earn both network and MEV rewards while providing users with liquidity on their positions and enabling them to use the token within DeFi.
Jito-Solana is forked from the Solana Labs validator client and optimized for MEV extraction thanks to native support for bundles. This feature gives searchers fine-grained control over the transaction ordering and reduces the relative profitability of spamming MEV trades, a major problem for Solana validators as 98% of spammed MEV transactions (accounting for 58% of Solana's blockspace) fail.
Why We’re Watching:
Jito has an active points system that rewards early users for holding jitoSOL tokens, using jitoSOL within DeFi, or referring users to the platform. Crypto projects implement point systems with the goal of identifying users contributing to their success, who are often rewarded at a later date with the conversion of points into airdropped tokens!
Maximize your eligibility by:
- Staking SOL with Jito
- Lending jitoSOL in DeFi
- Providing DEX liquidity on jitoSOL
- Shilling your Jito referral link
⚪ marginfi
Website | Twitter
Ranking by TVL: #5
Sector: Lending, Liquid Staking
About:
Intentionally branded in all lowercase, marginfi aims to become a suite of smart contracts that create a DeFi prime brokerage, facilitating peer-to-peer lending and portfolio management across blockchains. Users can access marginfi via desktop browser or install it as a PWA on mobile devices!
The platform’s initial (and most popular) product, mrgnlend, is an overcollateralized money market protocol that allows anyone to lend or borrow assets on Solana. In September, marginfi extended its product line with the introduction of LST, a SOL liquid staking token with 0% commission offering depositors yields from network rewards and MEV extraction.
Why We’re Watching:
Like Jito, marginfi also has an ongoing points program, rewarding early users for lending, borrowing, and referring others to the platform! Protocols often implement a points system as a precursor to an airdrop to help identify accounts contributing towards their success.
Maximize your eligibility by:
🟣 Phantom
Website | Twitter
Ranking by TVL: N/A
Sector: Wallet
About:
While the Phantom wallet has long been a cornerstone of the Solana ecosystem, it also can be used to manage crypto assets and access dApps on Polygon and Ethereum! The wallet is available as a browser extension or can be downloaded as an app from the iOS and Android stores.
Phantom provides functionality for in-wallet buys, allowing users to purchase popular crypto assets on supported chains from a variety of payment partners, including Coinbase, Robinhood, and Moonpay. Users can spin up multiple Phantom sub-accounts to segregate transaction activity, with a unique Ethereum and Solana address pair created for each account.
Why We’re Watching:
While there is no strong precedent for wallets to airdrop tokens, and Phantom has provided no indication that they do so, using Phantom as your wallet solution on Solana is an easy way to simplify your experience with the chain while maximizing your potential to receive an airdrop!
Maximize your eligibility by:
🔴 Backpack
Website | Twitter
Ranking by TVL: N/A
Sector: Wallet, NFTs, Exchange
About:
Backpack is a non-custodial wallet solution for Solana and Ethereum that allows you to retain custody of your assets while exploring the world of Web3! To simplify your onchain experience, Backpack has pioneered a marketplace for xNFTs, which are assets that also contain executable tokenized code, enabling applications, like Jito, to be built as digital assets.
Core to the Backpack ecosystem is the Mad Lads NFT collection, which dropped exclusively to Backpack holders and is built using the xNFT standard. Deploying as an xNFT allows Mad Lad holders to access token-gated content directly via the Backpack wallet without forcing users to log onto a website or depend on third-party software.
To enhance the trading experience on Solana, the Backpack team has been developing a Dubai-licensed crypto exchange. It will utilize xNFTs to allow users to conduct trades on the exchange directly through the app. While a closed beta version of the spot exchange is currently live, Backpack is working towards enhancing trading functionality with the future introduction of derivatives, margin, and cross-margin accounts.
Why We’re Watching:
Despite a lack of precedent for wallets to airdrop tokens to users, Backpack is clearly looking to provide value back to early users, given their launch of the Mad Lads xNFT collection, making a future airdrop a strong possibility. A token may be used as a liquidity and trading incentive to bootstrap the launch of the upcoming Backpack exchange, increasing the odds that an airdrop could be just around the corner.
Maximize your eligibility by:
- Setting up a Backpack wallet
- Interacting with xNFTs in your wallet
- Purchasing a Mad Lad
- Signing up for the Backpack exchange waitlist
🟤 Drift
Website | Twitter
Ranking by TVL: #11
Sector: Exchange
About:
Drift is a comprehensive decentralized exchange built on Solana. Users can collateralize their Drift account to trade perpetual swaps with up to 10x leverage, lend and borrow at variable rates, stake assets into the insurance fund or provide liquidity for yield, and swap spot assets!
Thanks to Drift’s in-protocol money market, every token that can be deposited as collateral is eligible to earn yield earned from borrowers, who can tap the protocol’s deposits to take out over-collateralized loans.
Why We’re Watching:
While Drift has not indicated it will have a token, launching one would allow the platform to utilize inflationary token rewards as incentives to attract liquidity or reward traders. An airdrop is a possibility for any tokenless platform launching a token.