Bankless: 10 Potential Airdrop Opportunities to Watch in 2022

Original source:Bankless

Compilation of the original text: The Way of DeFi

Original source:

Compilation of the original text: The Way of DeFi

Since Uniswap launched the airdrop campaign in September 2020, airdrops have been one of the most profitable opportunities.

Since then, we've seen many people walk away with thousands of dollars worth of candy, and the most loyal users of these protocols win huge prizes -- we're talking 6 to 7 figures.

The good news is that we are very confident that this trend will continue. This is the core primitive in web3: use a cryptographic protocol and get a piece of ownership in return.

That's why we published an ultimate guide to airdrops last November.

Today, Ben outlines the top 10 airdrops we need to keep an eye on in the next 3-6 months. Hint: We think various L2 projects are preparing for this.

Here are our most anticipated airdrops so far in 2022.

Top 10 Airdrops to Watch in 2022

Yield farming farmers can employ many different yield-increasing strategies, but perhaps the most profitable of these is retroactive airdrops.

Retrospective yield farming sees massive upside in 2021 and early 2022. A motivated farmer can earn well over six figures if they qualify for Ribbon, dYdX, ENS, Gitcoin, Bankless DAO, and LooksRare airdrops.

All you have to do is use these products.

While this strategy is highly unwieldy or prone to failure — losing a lot of fees after the airdrop dream is shattered — it’s surprisingly easy to pick up since users only need to interact with one project or protocol.

Let's take a look at 10 potential retroactive airdrop opportunities on Ethereum, competing L1s and L2s, betting on tokens they may launch in the coming months.

1.Hop Protocol

Project Overview

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Project Overview

Hop Protocol is a cross-chain liquidity network that allows users to transfer funds between Ethereum L2 and EVM compatible chains, bypassing Optimistic Rollup withdrawal times.

How to Earn Airdrops

Use Hop to move funds between a chain or rollup, or provide liquidity on one of the chains supported by the protocol (Arbitrum, Optimism, Gnosis Chain, and Polygon).

Airdrop probability: 9/10

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $1 billion

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Project Overview

2. ZigZag Exchange

Project Overview

ZigZag is a decentralized order book trading platform based on zkSync. Users can go long, short or place limit orders on a large number of different token pairs while taking advantage of less than $0.50 gas fees on zkSync.

How to Earn Airdrops

Bridge to ZigZag and open positions. For the sake of safety, it is best to perform two operations to obtain air investment qualifications, long + short.

Airdrop probability: 8/10

This is calculated by taking the average valuation by volume of the three largest perpetual exchanges in the EVM ecosystem: dYdX, Perpetual Protocol, and GMX.

3.zkSync

Project Overview

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Project Overview

zkSync is a Zero Knowledge Rollup (ZK Rollup) for Ethereum. The network inherits the security of Ethereum while offering users near-instant transactions and gas fees below $0.10.

How to Earn Airdrops

Connect to zkSync and use the most popular apps currently on the web, like the aforementioned ZigZag.

Airdrop probability: 9/10

The valuation is based on the average market capitalization of Cosmos and Near, two networks similar to zkSync that are technologically innovative but have yet to gain substantial traction among users.

4.Arbitrum

Project Overview

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Project Overview

Arbitrum is a generalized Optimistic rollup for Ethereum. The Layer 2 scaling solution provides users with lightning-fast transaction confirmation and cheaper transaction fees, while inheriting the security of Ethereum L1.

How to Earn Airdrops

Arbitrum is a network and not an app, which makes this tricky, but the safest approach is probably to "cast the net and pray", as users should interact with the chain in as many different ways as possible. This includes using popular applications on the network and connecting to the chain via the native Arbitrum bridge.

Airdrop probability: 8/10

The Arbitrum team has yet to officially confirm the token launch or airdrop. However, given the steady growth of the network in terms of users, TVL, and number of deployed applications, a token launch coupled with a similar broad-based liquidity mining program employed by Polygon and Avalanche may be a strategy under consideration. The team is growing at an accelerated pace.

Given that the network has the full support of the Ethereum community, and tens of billions of dollars worth of L1 awaiting migration, this valuation seems feasible based on the future traction the network is likely to gain.

5.Optimism

Project Overview

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Project Overview

Optimism is a generalized Optimistic rollup for Ethereum. Like Arbitrum, the network offers users the security of layer1 Ethereum, along with incredibly fast confirmations and lower transaction fees.

How to Earn Airdrops

As with Arbitrum, a "cast a wide net and pray" strategy as the user maximizes probability is probably best. This means that as many of the web's popular applications as possible should be used with the native Optimism bridge.

Airdrop probability: 7/10

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $30 billion

6.Ondo Finance

While Optimism may lag behind Arbitrum on some key metrics, it is almost certain that it will eventually find the same support and traction in the ethereum community and popular applications. Because of this, it should eventually launch at a similar valuation to its fellow scaling solutions.

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Ondo Finance is a decentralized investment bank offering structured products such as batched liquidity supply vaults and, together with Fei Protocol, a Liquidity-as-a-Service (LAAS) solution for DAOs looking to rent liquidity.

How to Earn Airdrops

Ondo vaults can be deposited when spare funds are available.

Airdrop probability: 6/10

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $500 million

7.Opyn

Given the unique, multi-faceted nature of its protocol, it is difficult to value Ondo. However, given its close connection to the Fei protocol and its uniqueness to LaaS, we can accept this $500 million valuation.

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Opyn is a protocol that enables the creation and trading of options. Opyn is the infrastructure for protocols like Ribbon and Stake DAO.

How to Earn Airdrops

Opyn is an extended protocol. Therefore, airdrops can be obtained in a variety of ways, such as directly minting oTokens (put or call options), buying and holding oTokens, utilizing protocols built on Opyn, such as the aforementioned Ribbon and StakeDAO, and holding or minting the latest products of the protocol Squeeth.

Airdrop probability: 6/10

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $1 billion

8.Euler Fiance

This estimate is based on the valuation of other options infrastructure protocols, and given Opyn's massive traction, we value its market cap at 10x the valuation of these competitors.

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Euler is a next-generation lending protocol that enables permissionless listing of assets.

How to Earn Airdrops

The most likely way to qualify for Euler's air investment is through agreement lending.

Airdrop probability: 6/10

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $350 million

9.Slingshot

This valuation estimate is based on that of its previously mentioned peer, Silo Finance.

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Slingshot is a decentralized exchange aggregator and trading platform based on Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism.

How to Earn Airdrops

To be on the safe side, make transactions on every chain that Slingshot deploys. There is also an NFT marketplace worth exploring. For this, you can also enter text to chat with traders.

Airdrop probability: 8/10

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $220 million

10.Membrane

This is calculated based on the valuation of another DEX aggregator, ParaSwap, which recently airdropped a token of its own.

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Membrane is a decentralized OTC protocol under development. While not a direct copy of the Tokemak project, there appears to be a developer and mind-sharing overlap between the two protocols.

How to Earn Airdrops

The best way to get airdrops is to interact with the Tokemak ecosystem in as many different ways as possible. This includes participating in CORE voting events, depositing assets into the protocol, and directing Staking TOKE to balance reactors and direct liquidity.

Airdrop probability: 9/10

While there was no clear catalyst, the existence of the BRANE token was all but confirmed, and the “Wenbrane” meme was commonly cited in the Tokemak community.

Estimated Valuation (FDV): $350 million

The lack of many comparable agreements makes it difficult to predict Membrane's valuation. However, our best guess is that it will trade at around 10% of TOKE's fully diluted valuation, which would give it a market cap of around $350 million.

Airdrop Opportunities on Solana

While there are plenty of opportunities for retroactive airdrop farmers on Ethereum L1 or its various L2s, there are plenty of opportunities in other ecosystems as well.

Let’s talk about Solana’s opportunities and see why it is a strong candidate for a broad airdrop. Additionally, we will highlight some specific opportunities available on-chain.

Why is Solana a strong candidate for a massive airdrop?

Despite network performance issues and the underperformance of its ecosystem tokens, Solana remains prime real estate for airdrop farming.

There are many new protocols on the network launching without tokens, and considering that low, floating, high FDV tokens that launch IDOs will be hard to beat even during the fall 2021 bull run, the next generation Solana protocol may turn to airdrops to This serves as a way to build goodwill within the DeFi community.

• Drift Protocol Furthermore, since the gas cost on the Solana network is less than 1 cent, the cost of obtaining the airdrop strategy is very low.

• Katanaairdrop target

• Friktion - A decentralized perpetual exchange where users are likely to qualify by opening an account and holding long and/or short positions.

• Psy Finance- An automated options vault manager, most likely to qualify by depositing funds into one of the protocol's vaults.

• Francium- A third type of automated option vault manager like Katana and Fricktion - The best way to qualify is to deposit into a vault.

in conclusion

- A leveraged yield farming protocol where users can cover all eligibility requirements by lending to the protocol and opening leveraged yield farming positions.

in conclusion