Which Airdrop Has Earned the Most in Recent Years? TIA, JTO, and BONK Have All Created Significant Value.

CoinGecko has compiled a list of the highest-value airdrops from 2020, including recent airdrops of tokens such as TIA, JTO, and BLUR, all of which have created relatively high market values. (This article is not investment advice)

Table of Contents
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Ranking of Highest-Value Airdrops
Analysis of Timing for High-Value Airdrops
Compilation of High-Value Airdrops in 2023
Top 50 High-Value Airdrop Projects
Participating in Airdrop Projects with Precision
Uniswap’s airdrop scale is unprecedented. On September 16, 2020, in response to Sushiswap’s vampire attack strategy, Uniswap distributed 150 million UNI tokens, which, based on the all-time high price of $42.88, had a total value of $6.43 billion.
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With Uniswap’s airdrop, market expectations for DeFi were ignited, serving as one of the preludes to the previous bull market.
In second place is Apecoin (APE). On March 17, 2022, Yuga Labs also airdropped 150 million APE tokens, which, at the highest price of $23.63, had a total value of approximately $3.54 billion. The airdrop was meant to reward ecosystem participants, with a maximum of 10,950 APE tokens (approximately $250,000) available to a single wallet.
In third place is the token airdrop from the decentralized perpetual contract exchange dYdX. On September 8, 2021, the team airdropped 75 million DYDX tokens, which, at the highest price of $26.8, had a total value of approximately $2 billion.

Ranking of the Top 10 Airdrop Projects from 2020 to 2023
The total value of the top three airdrop projects, Uniswap, Apecoin, and dYdX, amounted to $11.99 billion, accounting for 45.1% of the top 50 high-value airdrop projects in this report.
Among the top 50 airdrop projects in this report, the distribution of high-value airdrops by year is as follows:
2020: 5 airdrops
2021: 18 airdrops
2022: 14 airdrops
2023: 13 airdrops
Although there were fewer high-value airdrops in recent years compared to 2021, the overall average value has been maintained, indicating that airdrop opportunities have not disappeared but require more diligent searching during bear markets.
However, when considering the total value, the average total value of airdrops from 2020 to 2022 was approximately $7 billion, while the total value of airdrops in 2023 was only around $4.5 billion, representing 61.1% of the airdrop value in 2022. However, it is important to consider that many tokens launched during this period are relatively new and have not experienced price increases in a bull market.

Distribution of Airdrop Values by Year
There were a total of 13 high-value airdrops in 2023:

Ranking of High-Value Airdrops in 2023
Arbitrum (ARB) had the highest-value airdrop in 2023. The team airdropped 1.162 billion ARB tokens on March 23, 2023, with a historical total value of $1.97 billion, which was 2.9 times higher than its competitor, Optimism (OP).
(Arbitrum’s astonishing performance in airdrops, Arbitrum hunters earn $3 million through thousands of addresses)
The second-highest-value airdrop in 2023 was Celestia (TIA), with a total value of approximately $728 million. The third-place airdrop was the Blur (BLUR) project, which distributed tokens worth $446 million and $372 million in two separate airdrops, with the token reaching a new all-time high of $0.64 after the second airdrop.
The growth in airdrop value this year was mainly concentrated in the second half, with examples such as the highly discussed BONK token reaching a new all-time high of $0.000025 in December and quickly entering the top 10 largest cryptocurrency airdrops. Other tokens, including JTO and TIA, were also airdropped in the second half of the year and showed market performance.
As of December 21, 2023, the top 50 cryptocurrency airdrops based on token’s all-time high price are as follows, with most of them being well-known projects in the industry:

Ranking of the Top 50 Airdrops from 2021 to 2023 (ChainNews editing)
The main purpose of this report is not to show off wealth or stir up market sentiment, but rather to provide readers with a benchmark to objectively assess the future changes in token market value. It allows readers to have a more accurate evaluation ability and serves as an important guide for participating in the market, without overly optimistic speculation.
If readers are newcomers or have missed most of the above airdrop projects, there is no need to be discouraged. They can approach airdrop activities with the right mindset. Participating in the ecosystem’s development through continuous action is already meaningful. If they are genuine users and use on-chain services based on their own needs, project teams will naturally come to them.
(Airdrop Map for 2024 | Missed JTO, What Other Projects Still Offer Potential Airdrop Opportunities?)
(This article is not investment advice)
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