Last week, a friend from a studio that once operated 500 accounts told me he decided to switch to a physical business. While I comforted him, I secretly felt relieved: when the tide goes out, you see who is swimming naked; when bulk scripts fail, the real opportunities surface.
As a veteran who has been involved in airdrops since 2017, I have witnessed too many myths of 'getting rich overnight' and tragedies of 'going to zero overnight.' Today, I want to share a counterintuitive view: in 2025, the airdrop market will not have declined, but rather become more professional. When 90% of participants are eliminated, the remaining 10% will share a larger cake.
Market reshuffling: from 'casting a wide net' to 'precise fishing.'
Recent market changes remind me of a classic metaphor: previous airdrops were like fishing in a pond with a net, everyone got a share; now it's more like fishing in the deep sea with a fishing rod, requiring skill and patience.
The failure of batch scripts is the market's self-purification. Project parties have learned to use clustering algorithms to identify witch attacks, and the era of relying solely on multi-account batch interactions is gone.
. But this is precisely a good thing — it brings airdrops back to their essence: project parties seeking real users rather than data spammers.
My personal observation is that successful airdrop projects in 2025, like Sign and Newton, share a common point: they reward real ecosystem participants, not mechanical interactions.
. For example, a user who continuously shares quality content in the Discord community has received airdrop rewards far exceeding those of ordinary interactors.
The weight of quality accounts significantly increases. An account with real interactions on Twitter, contribution records on Discord, and reasonable asset flow in the wallet may have an airdrop value more than 10 times that of a 'zombie account.'
. Project parties are increasingly valuing users' 'on-chain identity' rather than just trading frequency.
My three survival rules: hard truths that cannot be said on Xiaohongshu.
In the current environment, I have summarized three core principles to help me maintain stable returns during the reshuffling period.
Rule 1: Depth is better than breadth; three quality accounts outperform three hundred zombie accounts.
I am currently deeply operating three main accounts, but each one is invested with real effort:
Each account is linked to an independent social identity (Twitter, Discord), regularly publishing original content.
Participate in project community discussions, providing valuable feedback instead of mechanical spamming.
Wallet activity simulates real users: irregular and unpredictable transactions, rather than fixed pattern interactions.
The result of this strategy is: my individual account airdrop yield has improved 5 times compared to the batch operation period
Because the project's anti-witch system will identify me as a 'high-quality real user.'
Rule 2: Cost control is the lifeline; test with 'zero cost' and delve in with 'small funds.'
I divide funds into three tiers:
Zero-cost layer: completely no investment required for testnet interactions, social tasks, etc., taking up 60% of my operational time.
Small test layer: investment in a single project does not exceed 100U, used for paying Gas fees or minimal viable interactions, taking up 30%.
Key investment layer: only for projects that I am very optimistic about and that have been thoroughly researched, investing no more than 5% of total funds, taking up 10%.
This structure ensures that even if faced with project 'anti-pull' (as in the cases of Zksync and Linea), my maximum loss is still completely controllable.
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Rule 3: Time management is an invisible moat.
I spend a fixed 10 hours a week on airdrops, distributed as follows:
4 hours researching new projects and track trends.
3 hours maintaining existing accounts and community interactions.
3 hours of recording analysis data and adjusting strategy
Regular time investment is more effective than last-minute all-nighters for tasks. Airdrops are not a sprint but a marathon; it's about who can stay at the table the longest.
Where are the opportunities in 2025: Focus on tracks with real cash flow.
Based on my ongoing tracking of the market, airdrop opportunities worth paying attention to in 2025 mainly focus on three directions:
Demand for backup in exchange ecosystems. As regulations tighten, mainstream exchanges need decentralized backups.
. For example, Aster, invested by Binance, and Apex, launched by Bybit, have clear business models and listing expectations, making the airdrop value considerable.
Stablecoin public chain infrastructure. Tether-supported Plasma is a typical example.
Stablecoins are the most rigid demand in the cryptocurrency world, and related infrastructure projects have continuous cash flow support, making airdrop distribution more generous.
Testnets backed by top institutions. For example, Monad, Sahara AI, etc.
. The cost of the testnet is low and the certainty relatively high, suitable for individual players to participate. More importantly, the interaction data on the testnet will become your 'credit score' in that ecosystem, potentially earning extra rewards when the mainnet goes live in the future.
Sincere advice for beginners: do the 'right' things from day one.
If you are new to airdrops, I want to share a few insights to avoid pitfalls:
Do not blindly pursue the number of accounts. A person managing 3-5 quality accounts has a far higher input-output ratio than managing 50 poorly crafted accounts.
. Start with an ordinary computer and a few accounts, and consider whether to scale up after experiencing the whole process.
Value your on-chain identity construction. An address with a good record is your resume. Regularly conduct a reasonable number of interactions, participate in governance voting, and even volunteer in eligible communities; these actions will enhance your address weight.
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Mindset determines the ceiling. Airdrop returns have high uncertainty, and experiencing boredom, slowness, or even encountering 'anti-pull' is normal.
Consider it as a learning process to understand the Web3 ecosystem and a side hustle with a chance of rewards, rather than a path to overnight wealth, so you can go further.
When another friend complained to me that 'airdrops are dead,' I showed him my profit report — last month through airdrops from three projects, my net profit was equivalent to my monthly salary from my main job.
The market will never eliminate those who work seriously, only those who delude themselves into thinking they can gain without effort. Reshuffling is not the end, but a means for those who truly understand the rules to achieve better returns.
In this industry, longevity is the greatest advantage.#空投大毛
