The best AIRDROPs to Farm, right now!

CWDB...gf69

23 Jan 2024

EVERYTHING YOU'RE ABOUT TO READ IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

INTRO

Right now, every single Chain or Dapp that is about to launch, is coming out with a points system for a possible future Airdrop. In this type of environment, it's getting harder to understand on which Airdrops to focus on, from the ones that get dilluted by too many people, the ones ruined by a pyramidal scheme based invite system that favours big investors, let's not forget about the increase in Airdrop Scams and Phishing Scams... And in all of this, many are starting to complain about this points systems, although I don't think they will end anytime soon, since they allow projects to increase and mantain high their TVLs for extended periods of time. Thus, it has become really important to understand which Airdrops are really worth Farming:

THE SOLUTION

Since it's pretty complicate to understand how much a Airdrop will be worth at launch, it's better to not just prioritize valid projects, but even better, projects that allow us to Farm the Airdrop with a asset that we have conviction on, without exposing ourselves to useless extra risks. For this reason, I believe the best Airdrops to farm right now, are the ones from LST protocols, or the more recent LRT protocols. That's because, they allow us to deposit great assets, earn yield from Staking, no necessary extra tasks and expose us to future Airdrops. Which means, that we don't really have to worry on when the Airdrops are going to come, cause we're holding a valid asset while earning interest on it, plus we don't need to do constant interactions to get points, since they increase just by holding. Little effort, probable great earnings, but even if they aren't, it wouldn't have been a big loss of time nor money. Let's take a look at best ones, right now:

ETHEREUM

We have to start with Ethereum, which for starters it's the second largest Crypto by market cap, which definetely is a big insurance. And it's also, for now, the only place where we can find Restaking (brought by EigenLayer) and consequently LRTs . Which means, that from some of the protocols that we're about to see, we can earn from the possible rise in $ETH price, from the Staking yield, soon also from the Restaking yield and finally from the various Airdrops coming during the year. Let's take a look at the most interesting ones, ordered by TVL from largest to smallest:

SWELL: On Swell, we can liquid stake our $ETH to get $swETH and start earning Pearls (points) that will be converted into $SWELL token at the end of Q1. Soon, it will also be available a LRT called $rswETH. Furthermore, on their website you will also be able to engage in other activities like DEFI, Referral... That will get you extra Pearls, but they're not mandatory, Staking will be enough to earn you a lot of points. Plus, from now till the 29th of January, you'll be able to get even more Pearls for Staking than usual, in preparation of the reopenning of EigenLayer's Caps. Since, it's a protocol that has already been on the market for a while and has the largest TVL of the tokenless ones, this is definetely the safest choice among the ones proposed. I leave you my Referral, in case you want to join: https://app.swellnetwork.io?ref=0xce40067bfdcc18ba120e85a14ebeece3958a24c6 .
ether.fi: Now, let's start with LRT protocols. First among them, for both TVL and time in the market, is ether.fi . Being this a new type of product, their time in the market is definetely a good thing. Since it's a LRT, holding their $eETH, will make you eligible for their ether.fi points, and also for EigenLayer points, thus making you eligible for 2 future Airdrops minimum (For example, $ALT recently Airdropped to both EigenLayer and ether.fi users). Also in this case, there's various other tasks to engage in, but just holding $eETH will be more than enough. One of them being, Referrals, I leave you mine: https://app.ether.fi/eeth?address=0xCE40067BFdcc18bA120e85a14EBEeCE3958A24C6 .
KELP: This is another LRT, but this time it is depending on EigenLayers Cap raises. Which translated means, that we'll have to first swap our $ETH for a LST, right now it works only with $stETH and $ETHx, and finally deposit them on KELP to get $rsETH. This is different from $eETH, because it deposits directly $ETH on EigenLayer, and that's uncapped. Even though it might not seem, it is advantageous to deposit on KELP right now, that's because on top of the KELP and EigenLayer points, by using $ETHx from Stader, we can earn even more EigenLayer points, since Stader will distribute some of the points they earn from their treasury deposit on EigenLayer. Same thing goes here as well, DEFI activities, although not mandatory, will get you more KELP points. And as always we got a Referral, if you're interested I'd really appreciate if you'd use mine: https://kelpdao.xyz/restake/?utm_source=0xCE40067BFdcc18bA120e85a14EBEeCE3958A24C6 .
RENZO: At the end, we got Renzo with its $ezETH. This one, is practically identical to ether.fi in terms of how it works, so I won't repeat myself. The only difference, being that it has been on the market for lesser time, thus making you early, although it already has a decent TVL. Also here, we got Referrals: https://app.renzoprotocol.com/?ref=0xce40067bfdcc18ba120e85a14ebeece3958a24c6 .

SOLANA

Even though, we could say that Solana has had its Airdrops from LST protocols, after the $JTO Airdrop, where people just by holding $jitoSOL, were rewarded with a minimum of 10000$. There are still a few interesting opportunities, which I wouldn't underestimate considering the attention Solana has been getting recently, let's take a look at them:

SOLBLAZE: The first one is $bSOL from SolBlaze. Although, they already have their own token $BLZE, they're running a campaign where they're distributing it to users, who use their LST on various DEFI Apps, and considering that there are many tokenless projects in the Solana Ecosystem, it might be worth using. Even though, this one requires you to make some actions, this time you're earning actual tokens, not points. Oh... And let's not forget, there's a Referral: https://stake.solblaze.org/?r=efef25710450c9b8 .
MARGINFI: One of those tokenless protocols is MarginFi, which is a Lending & Borrowing protocol. But, they also have their own LST, comfortably called $LST. Although, it doesn't earn you points in their points system, it might still end up being one of the criteria for their Airdrop. But, if you wanna make sure to not miss the Airdrop, you might wanna lend it out. As said, this might not be one of their criterias, but MarginFi is definetely one of the big Airdrops coming to Solana soon, if you wanna join me in farming it, this is my Referral: https://www.mfi.gg/refer/901db5bb-be43-4102-94f8-0d4d3e211f7f .

COSMOS

Before going into some more exotic LSTs, we have to make an honorable mention, to some coins in the Cosmos Ecosystem. This time we aren't talking about Liquid Staking, but simply Staking, but it has conferred some of the best Airdrops and has already other big ones coming like $DYM, $SAGA, $NAM, $MOV... We're talking about, first and foremost $ATOM, than surely $TIA that by being a technology that is and is going to be used in many Crypto projects, those projects often will end up Airdropping to $TIA Stakers, and last but not least we got $OSMO. If you want to go a little more speculative, you can also add $INJ and $KUJI, whose Stakers are preparing for a few new Airdrops.

APTOS & SUI

Both coming out of what remained of the $DIEM project from Facebook, they're currently getting more attention as their TVL is on the rise. Which has lead to many new tokenless projects, and in the LST category we can find, for APTOS:

AMNIS: With $stAPT, simular to what we've already seen above, with the extra DEFI activities and obviously a Referral: https://url3.me/3hqi32 .

And for SUI:

AFTERMATH: This one is definetely more interesting, since they've received funds from the $SUI Foundation, and they still haven't been listed on Defillama. So, we're talking about a project that is relatively safe, on which we can enter fairly early. And, this time if you want to participate in those extra DEFI activities, you won't even need to change website, since they also have their own DEX. Referral: https://aftermath.finance/stake?referrer=0x1ae6e4bcbc3987a2f0f5f6512351d0df08b4ed79054c26df5abbb51a62529c5 .

STX, ICP & FIL

Finally, we have 3 even more exotic Coins, that can be interesting for different reasons. $STX to ride the narrative of DEFI & NFTs on Bitcoin, $ICP cause it has been introducing many innovative features lately and lastly $FIL because of the recent integration of smart contracts on top of its Blockchain. Obviously, the same things said for the previous LSTs are worth for this ones as well, so I will proceed in listing them with the name of the project and their respective Referrals:

$stSTX from StackingDAO: https://app.stackingdao.com/stack?referral=SP61XQ5VC22VBC8A685W3JFCX3TD366GKGN11WSX .
$stICP from stakedicp: https://stakedicp.com/?r=Bkrwrm_p__4ylUVDUZr6P .
$stFIL from stfil: https://www.stfil.io/#/?ref=NzYzMzU1OTk= .

CONCLUSIONS

With the recent evolutions in the points systems programs and the just ended $MANTA Airdrop that favored bigger investors, it's time to take a step back and remind ourselves that we can do much less and still earn decent Airdrops. Liquid Staking protocols are the best way to do exactly that, where we can hold assets that are here to stay, while exposing ourselves to future Airdrops, without the need of doing constant interactions. Personally, holding assets that I would own anyways, it's the best way to Farm Airdrops. Apart from the price movements, I can't lose anything, even if it ends up being just a 10$ Airdrop, it's still 10$ extra... What about you? Which Airdrops are you Farming? Are you waiting for the next Tasks on Galxe or do you prefer my method?