The recent Token Generation Event (TGE) of the Scroll project in October signals the winding down of Layer 2 (L2) airdrops. Following the announcement of this airdrop standard, which uses a scoring system as the entry threshold, a Twitter user humorously noted a score of 199.99—talk about bad luck!

Indeed, the key focus for any airdrop is its “entry criteria,” as this determines the difference between receiving “nothing and hundreds of dollars.”

When considering multiple accounts, this can escalate to the difference between “nothing and tens of thousands of dollars.” In this article, I will summarize the “low-threshold” standards of mainstream airdrops to help you strategize for future projects.

Click to get free

1.1 UNI

• Airdrop Time: 2020
• Eligibility Criteria: Anyone who used Uniswap before September 1 could receive 400 UNI tokens, worth about $1,000 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

UNI kicked off the airdrop era, offering a true “click to receive” opportunity—just one transaction could net you over a thousand dollars in rewards.

1.2 DYDX

• Airdrop Time: August 2021
• Eligibility Criteria: Simply depositing on the mainnet earns you 310 tokens, valued at around $2,000 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If UNI is the heavyweight champion of decentralized exchanges (DEX), then DYDX is the game-changer in the perpetual contracts (PERP) arena. You only need to make a deposit (no trading necessary) to qualify for rewards; if your trading volume exceeds $1, you can earn even more tokens.

However, keep in mind that you’ll need to boost your trading volume before you can claim the airdrop, and this cost should be considered.

1.3 EIGEN

• Airdrop Time: May 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Users who deposit on the mainnet can earn an extra 100 tokens; LRT users who participated before March 15 will also receive an additional 100 tokens, with each account valued at around $400.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Initially, when the rules were announced, EIGEN did not offer low-threshold rewards and instead distributed tokens based on user scores. Some accounts with lower deposits missed out on airdrops, which drew significant criticism.

The team quickly revised the rules to be more favorable for retail investors. All users who deposited on the mainnet before the announcement received 100 low-threshold tokens in addition to the tokens earned through their scores.

Additionally, earlier LRT users (before March 15), such as Renzo, also received 100 low-threshold tokens. It’s clear that the EIGEN team has a broad vision.

1.4 PIZZA

• Airdrop Date: June 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Users who made transfers using the Unisat wallet or utilized the Unisat platform during the three-month snapshot from February to May 2024 can qualify for low-threshold rewards, valued between $600 and $800 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pizza represents another great opportunity in the BTC ecosystem and is quite simple; you only need to make one transfer using Unisat to qualify. However, the snapshot start date coincided with the decline of the inscription craze, meaning many players didn’t use their BTC wallets during that time.

1.5 ZIRCUIT

• Airdrop Date: August 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Users who deposit ZIRCUIT on the mainnet can receive 115 tokens as low-threshold rewards, valued at about $15 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️

The low-threshold rewards for ZIRCUIT aren’t particularly valuable, but due to very low ETH gas fees at the time, the costs were also minimal. Some accounts managed to keep costs under $2, and if done in bulk, there was still a decent return on investment. It’s reported that Feng (@0x0xFeng) registered 2,000 accounts.

Multiple Use

2.1 Optimism

• Airdrop Date: May 2022
• Eligibility Criteria: Users need to use the official bridge to transfer to the OP chain or utilize the OP network for at least two days (with a break of 24 hours), with rewards valued around $800 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

OP is the trailblazer of L2 airdrops. Thanks to the relatively low costs of L2, it also began the trend of maximizing rewards through multiple accounts. The requirements for OP’s low-threshold rewards are quite simple; you just need to use OP twice with at least a day in between. Other eligibility criteria are also easy to meet, like using OP during four separate weeks.

2.2 Arbitration

• Airdrop Date: March 2023
• Eligibility Criteria: A scoring system requiring at least three points, with the easiest criteria being: transfer to ARB, make more than 4 transactions, and use the service in two different months, valued at around $800 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ARB was a significant airdrop that offered very low costs for qualifying for rewards. The entire process was straightforward. Many users rushed to participate in this project. After the ARB airdrop, it marked the beginning of a new era for studios looking to optimize their earnings.

2.3 STRK

• Airdrop Date: February 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Users must have made more than 5 transactions, used the service for at least 3 separate months, had a trading volume exceeding $100, and maintained an on-chain balance greater than 0.005 ETH. All conditions must be fulfilled to qualify for rewards valued at over $1,000 per account.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The low-threshold rules for STRK follow a typical “multiple usage” model, with specific requirements for transaction count, usage duration, and trading volume, but they are not too strict.

However, one contentious requirement is that users must have a balance greater than 0.005 ETH. This blanket standard disqualified many DeFi users who had their funds in lending or liquidity pools. Furthermore, on L2 networks, such a high ETH requirement for gas isn’t necessary, which also left another group of users unable to meet the airdrop criteria.

Points System

3.1 Zksync

• Airdrop time: June 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: All eligible addresses receive $ZK tokens, but any tokens that do not meet the $450 low-threshold requirement will be reclaimed. The minimum qualifying amount is around $100. To meet the low-threshold standards, funds over $100 need to be held long-term in DeFi liquidity pools.

Since 2022, many L2 projects have used a “multiple usage” standard to determine eligibility for rewards, which has attracted many studios. Zksync, however, has opted for a points system, using TWAB (Time-Weighted Average Balance) to determine token accumulation. Simply put, the more money you deposit and the longer you keep it there, the more tokens you will receive in the airdrop.

If you interact with Zksync like you would with OP, ARB, or Starknet—by moving large sums, swapping, and quickly transferring funds to new accounts—you might end up with nothing because your time-weighted balance will be too low.

3.2 Scroll

• Airdrop time: October 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Users must have at least 200 points to qualify for rewards, with badges providing extra points (up to 60).

Scroll is open about its points-based airdrop system, also utilizing the TWAB mechanism. The 200-point threshold was something most users expected.

In a real-world example, a younger Biteye deposited 0.16 ETH to exchange for Stone at the end of May but didn’t put it into any DeFi protocols, resulting in a score of 190 points.

Depositing into lending protocols or liquidity pools yields higher points, leading to the conclusion that depositing 0.15 ETH in a DeFi protocol for over four months can qualify for low-threshold rewards.

3.3 Puffer

• Airdrop time: October 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Users must accumulate 1001 points or more.

In its initial phase, Puffer ran promotions where registering would earn users 1000 points, plus additional points for referrals, allowing users to qualify for rewards without needing to deposit any funds.

04Premium account rewards

4.1 LOVE

• Airdrop time: October 2023
• Eligibility Criteria: Active addresses of early adopters of Ethereum rollups (users who have interacted with the mainnet, OP chain, made Gitcoin donations, or engaged with ENS may qualify). The initial value of the airdrop is around $200, but the long-term benefits could be even greater.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Projects like Celestia, which focus on modular infrastructure rather than just L2 solutions, have many partnerships. This means you might have interacted with TIA without even realizing it. The TIA airdrop serves as a reminder of the importance of maintaining good activity across the mainnet, ENS, and Gitcoin.

4.2 AVAIL

• Airdrop time: May 2024
• Eligibility Criteria: Active users of rollups, including ARB, OP, Polygon zkEVM, Starknet, and Zksync.
• Biteye’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The project team did not clearly define what constitutes an active rollup user, making the requirements quite competitive. Neither the younger Biteye’s nor the older brother’s EVM addresses met the criteria, but the older brother’s Starknet wallet, which had a larger balance, received a few tokens.

Moreover, some group members mentioned that addresses that had interacted with zkEVM easily qualified, and wallets that had made inscriptions on Zksync also received low-threshold rewards.

Summary

5.1 Changes in Difficulty and User Challenges

Looking at the timeline, airdrops have evolved from “click-to-receive” ➡️ “multiple usage” ➡️ “points-based systems,” indicating that the difficulty is increasing over time.

In 2024, there will still be airdrops like Eigenlayer’s “click-to-receive,” but these are supported by strong project foundations and good visions. Early Eigen airdrops were also time-limited and had high gas fees.

As for results, even if you deposit $10, you can receive low-threshold rewards. However, it takes a lot of courage to spend high gas fees to deposit multiple accounts, as most projects won’t reward that kind of effort.

I believe there may still be “click-to-receive” opportunities with Babylon for a couple of reasons:

• There are relatively few addresses in the BTC ecosystem, which presents significant potential, as seen in previous examples like 符石 (Symbol Stone) and PIZZA;
• Babylon has limits for each round and short time frames.

However, such airdrops will likely become less common due to increasing competition. Similarly, transparent airdrops like ARB’s will also decrease. Although not always transparent, the returns after tokens are issued might be higher because non-transparent airdrops usually face less competition, allowing for more creative project ideas. This type of project challenges users’ ability to discover and strategize.

5.2 Strategies for Points-Based Projects

In my opinion, points-based projects should prioritize low-threshold accounts since projects like Blast and Mode lock funds for top-ranking wallets.

The best outcome for premium accounts would be to have rewards released in a linear fashion based on points. However, this makes it harder for project teams to engage in “mouse trading” strategies. Therefore, I suggest not focusing solely on premium accounts but rather splitting your funds—at least half for premium accounts and half for low-threshold accounts. This strategy could be more stable.

Low-threshold accounts should ideally rank in the top 30%. Based on past experiences, it’s advisable to deposit between $100 and $200 worth of tokens as soon as points are introduced, preferably into DeFi protocols such as lending or liquidity pools.

Additionally, some projects allow users to increase points through methods like circular lending (though it’s important to manage risks), like BOB. However, Scroll has made it clear that the funds used in circular lending will not count towards point calculations.

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