Dig deep into the airdrop hunter, is it a "free ride" or a high-quality user?

Original Author: X-explore

Original compilation: angelillu, Foresight News

The original English text was jointly published by X-explore and WuBlockchain

Since Uniswap started using the airdrop strategy to reward early users in 2020, airdrops have caused a huge upsurge in Web3. Affected by this, there has been a surge in the number of people looking for the next "free lunch" (looking for new airdrop projects) among many projects. Today, nearly three years have passed since the Uniswap airdrop, during which time many large projects have followed suit, using airdrops to reward users or attract attention. According to X-explore estimates, more than 20% of the Arbitrum airdrops in March this year were taken by so-called "free riders" who used Sybil attacks. Therefore, we hope to answer the following two questions through in-depth analysis of users who have successfully claimed airdrops many times:

1. Who are these airdrop “experts”?
2. What is their next "goal"?

In order to answer the above questions, among the numerous Ethereum and its Layer 2 projects, we have carefully selected 5 projects with "more than 100,000 airdrop receiving addresses" and "airdrop total value of more than 140 million US dollars". **They are Uniswap, ENS, Optimism, Blur, and Arbitrum. The users of these five projects will be explored in depth below, with a special focus on “experts” who have received multiple airdrops from these projects.

Note: The calculation of currency prices in this article is based on data from CoinMarketCap as of June 7, 2023. Most screenshots in this article are from June 14, 2023, so prices may vary slightly.

Who is the Airdrop Hunter?

We classify addresses that receive at least three airdrops from **out of five projects as airdrop hunters; those who receive **three to four airdrops are classified as standard airdrop hunters, and those who receive all five airdrops Known as the Advanced Airdrop Hunter. In this analysis, we found a total of 34,547 standard airdrop hunter addresses, each with an average airdrop income of $9,384 and a median airdrop income of $6,497. As for advanced airdrop hunters, we found a total of 932 addresses with an average airdrop income of $18,935 per address and a median airdrop income of $14,288 per address. In terms of average and median income, the word "advanced" does indeed apply to advanced airdrop hunters.

X-explore address label analysis

In order to better reveal the characteristics of airdrop hunter addresses, we combined X-explore's proprietary on-chain labeling system to conduct an in-depth analysis of the above addresses in terms of behavior, assets, activity, and transaction profitability. We found that whether it is standard airdrop hunters or advanced airdrop hunters, their trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) and non-fungible tokens (NFT) far exceeds that of ordinary users.

• Median DEX Trader: Top 10% of DEX trading volume users
• Median NFT Trader: Top 10% users by NFT trading volume
• Heavy Dex Trader: The top 1% users of DEX trading volume or number of transactions
• NFT heavy traders: users who rank in the top 2.5% of NFT trading volume or number of transactions

These data show that airdrop hunters are more active than ordinary users in the cryptocurrency market, showing higher enthusiasm for digital asset transactions, especially DEX and NFT transactions.

The initial active time of the airdrop hunter on the Ethereum chain

Combined with the airdrop time of the projects on the chain and the earliest active time of the airdrop hunter on Ethereum, we found that ** Most of the airdrop hunters are actually early adopters of Ethereum. **At the time of the Uniswap airdrop (September 2020), more than half of the airdrop hunters were already active on Ethereum. The earliest activity time distribution of advanced airdrop hunters is also significantly earlier than that of standard airdrop hunters.

Activity levels of airdrop hunters on the Ethereum chain

We randomly sampled user accounts created before June 2021, selected over 30,000 addresses, and added Its activity levels were compared to those of airdrop hunters. As shown in the figure, the airdrop hunters are active users on Ethereum. Among them, **advanced airdrop hunters conduct an average of more than 50 transactions on Ethereum per month, and standard airdrop hunters also conduct more than 21 transactions per month. **In comparison, our randomly sampled addresses average only 0.16 transactions per month on Ethereum. These results further underscore the enthusiasm and activity of airdrop hunters on-chain. They are significantly better than normal users in terms of the number of transactions.

Behavior of the airdrop hunter after the project airdrop

After tracking the activities of airdrop recipients (including ordinary users and airdrop hunters) after the airdrop of five projects, we found that, After the project airdrop, the activity of all users has a downward trend, especially ordinary users. At any given time, airdrop hunters are always more active than ordinary users.

However, Optimism is an exception: before the Optimism airdrop, the activity of ordinary users on the OP chain has actually surpassed that of advanced airdrop hunters. However, after the Optimism airdrop, the activity of ordinary users continued to decline. On the contrary, the activity of high-quality airdrop hunters on the OP chain showed an upward trend after receiving the airdrop, and their activity exceeded that of ordinary users one month after the airdrop. Through in-depth analysis, we found that this is mainly caused by the OP’s airdrop rules considering the activity of addresses on Ethereum. The results showed that many previously inactive high-quality airdrop hunters became interested in OP after receiving the airdrop, and began to actively interact with different projects on the OP chain.

Summarize

After sampling and analyzing the detailed on-chain behavior of multiple airdrop hunter addresses, we found that the above analysis has been further corroborated. The characteristics of Airdrop Hunter’s on-chain activities can be summarized as follows:

1. Most airdrop hunters are keen on DEX or NFT trading.
2. Airdrop Hunter is mainly composed of early users.
3. The activity of airdrop hunters is significantly higher than that of ordinary users.
4. Well-designed airdrop rules can have a positive impact on airdrop hunters.

What is the "next goal" of the airdrop hunter?

After learning a little about Airdrop Hunters, what's their "next goal"? Which projects are they optimistic about? To answer this question, we looked at the projects they participate in and their behavioral patterns when interacting with projects via on-chain data. While helping readers understand which on-chain projects are worth interacting with, it further reveals how airdrop hunters interact with these projects. It is worth mentioning that we have incorporated these airdrop hunters into our monitoring system. In the future, X-explore will continue to pay attention to the latest developments of these airdrop hunters and bring more valuable analysis to readers.

We divided the projects favored by airdrop hunters into several tracks, sorted each track according to the participation rate of advanced airdrop hunters, and screened out projects with participation rates above 25%**. If a project has multiple smart contracts, we will choose the one with the highest participation rate. Here are the tracks and project categories:

• DeFi：Uniswap、SushiSwap、0x、MetaMask Swap、Balancer、1inch、Paraswap、Aave、Rarible、InstaDApp、dydx、Compound
• NFT：Opensea、Blur、LooksRare、X2Y2、Foundation
• Layer 2 solutions and cross-chain protocols: Arbitrum, Polygon, ZkSync lite, Optimism, HOP, ZkSync Era, Starknet
• Decentralized applications (DApps): DeBank

Projects in bold and red circles indicate that the project has not yet conducted airdrops or issued tokens. We’ll take a deep dive into the behavior of drop hunters on these projects.

DeFi track: MetaMask, transaction routing

After our analysis, the total transaction volume of airdrop hunters on Metamask is $191,438,051,** the median transaction volume per airdrop hunter is $1255. **Additionally, we removed the airdrop hunters from all 1,811,782 Metamask Swap users and sampled the same number of other Metamask users from these 1,776,303 addresses. We found their total transaction volume on Metamask was $205,673,503 with a median transaction volume of $474. While the variance in total transaction volume is not huge, the median indicates a more even volume among airdrop hunters, with most transactions above $1,000. The following is the transaction pair information of the airdrop hunter and other users: ! Dig deep into the airdrop hunter, is it a "free rider" or a high-quality user?

We found that airdrop hunters have very similar preferences for trading pairs on Metamask Swap and Uniswap. Compared with ordinary users, airdrop hunters are more inclined to trade stable coins and more mainstream cryptocurrencies: USDC, USDT, WETH, DAI, WBTC, etc. These stablecoins and mainstream cryptocurrencies have high liquidity and relatively stable prices, reducing transaction risks. In addition, stable coins and mainstream cryptocurrencies are also easier to transfer and trade across platforms, enhancing the flexibility of funds. This shows that while pursuing returns, airdrop hunters also pay attention to risk control and flexible use of funds.

NFT track: Foundation

We randomly selected three airdrop hunters who had participated in Foundation, and found that their interaction in Foundation was not frequent. Most interactions involved bidding on NFTs, although two airdrop hunters actually purchased NFTs.

Blur's airdrop rules can give us some inspiration. Although some people have never bought NFT, they can get considerable airdrop income just by exchanging coins and bidding. So when interacting with the project, we can try different functions of the project, which may bring unexpected benefits.

Layer 2 赛道：zkSync lite、zkSync Era、Starknet

zkSync (lite): We randomly selected 4 airdrop hunters who have been bridged to zkSync lite, next, we will guide you through the behavior patterns of these airdrop hunters on zkSync with screenshots and explanations. If you want to know the full behavior of Airdrop Hunter, please refer to the link we have attached.

Airdrop Hunter 1:

The first transaction of the first airdrop hunter occurred on November 1, 2021, and he transferred an amount from another address. Notably, the interval between his two subsequent Swap transactions was only 15 seconds. He first exchanged ETH for USDT, and then exchanged USDT back to ETH. This rapid and continuous transaction behavior looks like an attempt to increase his activity on zkSync.

We omitted several cross-chain and address transfer operations in the middle. Airdrop Hunter 1 conducted a similar trading operation again 8 months ago, on October 20, 2022. This time, the stablecoin switched from USDT to USDC with an interval of about 30 seconds.

Two months ago, the address performed a series of similar transaction operations (a total of 39 transactions), with an interval of about 20 seconds between each transaction.

Airdrop Hunter 2:

The behavior of the second airdrop hunter was relatively simple, he bridged from the mainnet on November 10, 2021, and made his first transaction (exchanging ETH to USDC) three months ago. Then, that address has another transaction that bridges from the mainnet, and there are no other transactions after that.

Airdrop Hunter 3:

The behavior of the third airdrop hunter on zkSync lite is very similar to the first airdrop hunter. They all bridge from the mainnet to zkSync at the end of 2021, then use zkSync's Swap function to convert ETH to stablecoins, and then convert the stablecoins back to ETH (ETH <-> USDT). Moreover, they all performed multiple transactions, all with intervals of around 20 seconds. This may indicate that they are trying to increase activity through frequent trading.

Ignoring the few scattered transactions in the middle, Hunter 3 performed a set of similar operations on May 25, 2022, with a transaction time interval of about 20 seconds.

Airdrop Hunter 4:

After bridged to zkSync lite, Hunter 4 did some transactions, then bridged again after some time. This pattern of behavior likely means that they are trying to maintain a level of activity on zkSync and transfer and distribute funds as needed.

zkSync Era: In addition to zkSync lite, many airdrop hunters also choose to interact on the zkSync Era mainnet through cross-chain transactions. It is worth noting that two days before the zkSync Era mainnet went live, a large number of airdrop hunters began to interact, showing their high interest and active participation in the zkSync Era project.

Airdrop Hunter 1:

Airdrop Hunter 1 exhibits almost the same behavior pattern on zkSync lite and zkSync Era. After zkSync Era went live on March 24, 2023, Airdrop Hunter 1 bridged to zkSync Era immediately the next day, showing high interest and quick response to this new project. He then performs the token swap operation using the SyncSwap contract.

Airdrop Hunter 1 conducted a similar transaction again 7 days after the initial interaction (April 2, 2023) to increase activity. The timing is very clever and seems to increase the activity level of the address in different weeks.

The last operation of Airdrop Hunter 1 on zkSync Era occurred a month ago (May 19, 2023), and this operation still involves using SyncSwap to complete the exchange operation between ETH and USDC.

Airdrop Hunter 2:

Like Airdrop Hunter 1, Airdrop Hunter 2 bridged zkSync Era on the day the zkSync Era mainnet was launched, which shows its high level of attention and activity to the project. Many of his transactions on the zkSync Era were made through the Mute project. Unlike Airdrop Hunter 1, which exchanged between cryptocurrencies, Airdrop Hunter 2 exchanged ETH to ETH through the contract. This way can not only pay lower fees, avoid the risk of price fluctuations, but also leave active traces on zkSync.

Airdrop Hunter 3:

AirDrop Hunter 3 and AirDrop Hunter 1 were bridged to zkSync Era on the same day (March 25, 2023), with on-chain operations very similar to AirDrop Hunter 1. The only difference is that Airdrop Hunter 3 uses SpaceFi to exchange between ETH and USDC.

A week after the first interaction (April 3, 2023), Airdrop Hunter 3 was again operating on the zkSync Era, and using SyncSwap instead of SpaceFi. It can be seen that while increasing his activity, he also participated in multiple projects within the zkSync Era ecosystem.

Airdrop Hunter 3 continued to carry out transfers and other activities, and also participated in the iZUMi project, and carried out transfers between ETH and ETH. It is worth noting that on May 15, 2023, there were multiple transfer records for this address.

StarkNet: Since there are fewer airdrop hunters bridged to Starknet, and the transaction behavior of airdrop hunters is very similar to zkSync, we choose a representative address for analysis and illustration.

Airdrop Hunter:

1. About two months ago (April 12, 2023), the airdrop hunter crossed to Starknet and used the myswap project on Starknet to conduct a transaction between ETH and USDC on that day.
2. On Starknet, he also minted some NFTs.
3. 25 days ago (June 1, 2023), he traded between ETH and USDT again through myswap.

Dapp track: DeBank

DeBank is a decentralized finance (DeFi) data analysis and asset management platform that provides users with a comprehensive view of their investments and liabilities across different DeFi projects. It provides real-time project data, transaction history and risk assessment to help users make informed investment decisions.

Recently, DeBank has been expanding its DeFi services to include trading features. The community eagerly awaits the DeBank airdrop. However, unlike community members who follow the airdrop tutorials to use DeBank, most airdrop hunters just register with DeBank. They did not use DeBank's Swap function as suggested in the airdrop tutorial. Below, we illustrate how the airdrop hunter interacts with DeBank: ! Dig deep into the airdrop hunter, is it a "free rider" or a high-quality user? ! Dig deep into the airdrop hunter, is it a "free rider" or a high-quality user?

Judging from the behavior of these high-quality airdrop hunters, it seems that they are more like registering with DeBank to enable its analysis function, rather than using DeBank's Swap function to increase the chance of potential airdrops.

Summarize

Through an in-depth analysis of the airdrop projects that on-chain airdrop hunters choose to interact with, we identify the key drivers of their selection:

1. Industry influence: Most space hunters tend to choose projects with extensive influence and reputation in their field. Except for DeBank, the contract interactions of these projects on Ethereum have exceeded a staggering 700,000 times.
2. Preference for Layer 2 solutions: Airdrop hunters clearly prefer Layer 2 projects such as Arbitrum, zkSync lite, and zkSync Era. Layer 2 solutions provide faster transaction confirmation times and lower transaction fees, which is obviously very important for hunters who are often involved in DeFi and NFT projects.

Through an in-depth analysis of X-explore, we found that while airdrop hunters on Arbitrum and Optimism exhibit high-quality interactive behavior, on zkSync and Starknet, they seem to be artificially deliberately increasing transaction volume and activity. This is closely related to the integrity of the on-chain ecosystem. Optimism and Arbitrum had some development and settling time before the airdrop announcement, while zkSync released the airdrop information before the Era mainnet went live. These findings forced the project team to rethink: What is the real point of an airdrop? How to identify truly valuable users when formulating airdrop rules, rather than those users who only use airdrops and engage in meaningless interactions?

Opinions about Airdrop Hunter

Airdrop hunters are mainly real high-quality users: They actively participate in various blockchain projects, engage in cross-chain transactions, and maintain consistent activity on multiple platforms. Despite the lively discussion about "Sybil addresses", we did not see significant "free-riding" behavior among airdrop hunters. On the contrary, their behavior patterns reflect deep participation in the project and enthusiasm for the blockchain world, not just for short-term airdrop benefits.

You can refer to successful examples when setting airdrop rules: When analyzing the traces of airdrop hunters on Optimism, we found that there are many high-quality airdrop hunters who received a large number of OP airdrops because of their activity on Ethereum, and eventually became OP Loyal users of the chain. Therefore, when formulating airdrop rules, the project party can consider the behavior of airdrop hunters to ensure that airdrops are more effectively distributed to such high-quality users. This also helps project parties use airdrops as an incentive mechanism to increase project participation and user loyalty.

**A good airdrop needs to meet two core conditions: **Reasonable airdrop rule design and a sound ecosystem. Under the well-designed airdrop rules and strong ecosystem, we have witnessed how high-quality users on Arbitrum/Optimism continue to be active. But if you rush to release airdrop information before the ecology is perfect, it may lead to superficial prosperity. Even high-quality airdrop hunters may engage in "intentional boosting" on zkSync/Starknet.