This term, which is used in the military in the sense of “delivery of aid from an aircraft”, is the name given to the free cryptocurrency distribution process that is carried out under certain conditions or unconditionally by project owners or companies that issue cryptocurrency. With the emergence of many cryptocurrency projects in recent years, the concept of Airdrop has become quite popular. Today, airdrop events are very important for projects to stand out considering the number of cryptocurrency projects and the competition between them. Airdrop events generally involve cryptocurrencies issued on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains, but there are also Airdrop events that take place outside of these blockchains.
Why Airdrop?
The main reason for an airdrop is to increase the awareness of a project’s cryptocurrency by spreading it to masses. Thanks to airdrops, investors obtain cryptocurrencies for free. Thus, a cryptocurrency and a project can be introduced to many new potential investors. Thanks to Airdrops, investors are brought to projects. When the awareness of a project is increased, it paves the way for new investors. Increasing the liquidity by increasing the transaction volume of the projects is another important reason. By making transactions with the cryptocurrency that they obtained free of charge, investors can provide depth on the platforms where the cryptocurrency is traded. For this reason, trading platforms also issue their own cryptocurrencies and profit from Airdrops.
In these Airdrop events, even though the cryptocurrencies are obtained free of charge, users are asked to fulfill some conditions. For example, users might be asked to perform Know Your Customer (KYC) operations. Apart from that, projects can ask users to participate in various activities or social media accounts in order to build a community.
Airdrops often take place in ICOs (Initial Coin Offering). For more information on ICOs, you can click here.
Significant Airdrop Examples
Many cryptocurrency projects have carried out Airdrops for the purpose of promotion or attracting users to date. The most famous one is undoubtedly the Bitcoin Cash Airdrop. In 2017, Bitcoin Cash emerged as a result of a Hard Fork due to the disagreement in the Bitcoin community. For more information on Hard Forks and the Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork, you can read our article by clicking here. As a result of this Hard Fork, each Bitcoin owner was given Bitcoin Cash for free, equal to the amount of Bitcoin they owned, by Airdrop. Therefore, all Bitcoin investors became Bitcoin Cash holders, and Bitcoin Cash had significant liquidity as a new cryptocurrency. In addition, in July 2017, OmiseGo airdropped to users who had 0.1 ETH or more on the Ethereum blockchain. And the cryptocurrencies were distributed in Sept. 2017. OmiseGo distributed 5% of its total cryptocurrency supply in this way, and more than 460,000 users benefitted from this airdrop. Moreover, BTXN Coin is a Turkish cryptocurrency produced by Bitexen on the Ethereum blockchain with only 15 million units in ERC-20 standard. And for users to experience the platform, free BTXN Coins were distributed with the Airdrop method by Bitexen, and Airdrops continue with various competitions.
