Where do airdrops come from? 3 key terms beginners should understand

In the community, we often say “grab airdrops, interact, brush the chain,” so what exactly is an airdrop?

An airdrop is essentially a way for project teams to attract attention and reward early users by distributing a portion of tokens for free to wallet addresses that meet certain criteria. coinbase.com+1

Common airdrop logic is roughly as follows:

You have genuinely used a certain chain or protocol

Completed some operations: transferring, trading, providing liquidity, staking, etc.

The project team then takes a round of “snapshot + scoring” based on your past behavior, and qualifying addresses can claim tokens.

3 reminders for beginners:

1️⃣ Don’t recklessly participate just for “grabbing airdrops”

Some projects won’t distribute at all

Some projects do distribute, but the tokens lack liquidity.

2️⃣ Pay attention to interaction costs and security

Gas fees and cross-chain bridge fees are real money

Be cautious of fake websites, fake contracts, and fake “airdrop claim entrances” Sumsub+1

3️⃣ Treat airdrops as “handy rewards,” not your main business

The core is still to learn and truly understand what the protocol is doing

The deeper you understand, the easier it is to distinguish what is worth participating in and what is obviously fake.