Airdrop

An airdrop is a distribution of free cryptocurrency or tokens usually done as a marketing tactic by new projects or less popular projects.

The purpose of giving free crypto via an “airdrop” is to increase user adoption, boost community engagement, or simply build awareness.

A cryptocurrency or token creator might offer airdrops at the very start of a project’s release to the public to hopefully increase the number of people using it, or they might use an airdrop with an existing community as a way of giving thanks to early adopters.

Some crypto projects build in simple tasks that would-be airdrop recipients need to complete before they actually get the airdrop, like sharing news on social media about the project, while others host contests and giveaways, where airdrops are the prize.

Airdrops won’t make you rich, as they’re usually a small amount of actual cryptocurrency.

With the increase in the number of cryptocurrencies offering airdrops, there are websites and social media accounts dedicated to keeping up with the latest airdrops across the entire cryptocurrency market.

But beware, some airdrops can be used to scam would-be participants.

Related Terms

Rug Pull

A scam tactic perpetrated against crypto traders and investors, that results in all investment funds disappearing without a trace. The scam usually takes the shape of scammers setting up a brand new coin that promises instant gains or too-good-to-be-true scenarios. Once the coin is made public, the scammers (criminals) drum up attention on social media and chat rooms, in hopes of enticing investors to buy the cryptocurrency of the project. The fraud materializes when the founders of the coin disappear without notice, taking all investor funds with them.

Shill

Crypto slang for promoting bitcoin or an altcoin for your own benefit. A person who does the shilling can be called a shill (and other things, too!).

Laser Eyes

The Laser Eyes meme started out as a show of enthusiasm and community bonding during bitcoin’s (BTC) journey up to $100K. Several Bitcoin community members decided to add laser eyes to some friends’ avatars in hopes of fueling the entire crypto community to push bitcoin’s price to a new ATH.

Dead Coin

Any coin or token that is no longer in use. Various reasons exist why a coin is no longer viable, including,being an outright scam, developers abandoning the project, the official website of a coin being offline or unreachable, funding for the development team drying up, and several others.

Dump

When a lot of selling of a cryptocurrency takes place all at once. This can happen across a single cryptocurrency, an entire sector like DeFi, Gaming, or Metaverse, with an entire ecosystem like Ethereum, or with all cryptocurrencies simultaneously. The dump usually causes sharp spikes down in price, often causing more investors and traders to sell off, reinforcing the selling pressure.