Report: Top 50 Biggest Crypto Airdrops Distribute Over $26B Tokens

Leading crypto aggregator CoinGecko reports that the top 50 biggest crypto airdrops between 2020 and 2023 distributed $26.5 billion worth of tokens.

While many people began their crypto journey by committing huge capital to their favorite digital assets, others started trading with tokens obtained via airdrops.

Since the inception of the crypto industry, multiple projects have distributed huge amounts of tokens in the form of airdrops.

Over $26B Tokens Distributed in Top 50 Airdrops

According to a recent report by popular crypto aggregator CoinGecko, the top 50 airdrops that occurred from January 2020 to December 2023 distributed a whopping $26.6 billion worth of tokens. The valuation of these tokens is derived based on their all-time high (ATH) figure.

Out of the 50 biggest airdrops, CoinGecko revealed that only five occurred in 2020, while 18 happened in 2021. The CoinGecko report shows that 14 of the biggest crypto airdrops happened in 2022, while the remaining 13 drops occurred the following year.

Notably, CoinGecko highlighted the top 10 biggest airdrops within the 2020 – 2023 period, with Uniswap, Apecoin (APE), and dYdX (DYDX) ranking as the three biggest airdrops within this period.

The cumulative value of the three biggest airdrops amounted to $11.99 billion, representing 45.1% of the top 50 airdrops.

Top 10 Crypto Airdrops

CoinGecko highlighted the top 10 biggest crypto airdrops from 2020 to 2023.

1/ What are the biggest crypto airdrops?

Our study shows that the top 50 airdrops have distributed $26.6 billion worth of tokens in total, based on their all-time high valuation, from 2020 to 2023.

Read the full study: https://t.co/JAB6rAM5Po pic.twitter.com/kada7hWzvq

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) December 26, 2023

Interestingly, Uniswap (UNI) is the biggest crypto airdrop during this period. The team behind the prominent decentralized exchange (DEX) distributed an astounding $6.43 billion worth of UNI to users in September 2020.

Specifically, crypto enthusiasts who interacted with the DEX were selected for the airdrop, with each user receiving 400 UNI tokens, ranging between $2 and $4 apiece. 

The token surged to an ATH of $44.92 per unit in May 2021, thus placing recipients of the airdrop in massive profit. 

Per CoinGecko, the second-biggest airdrop is Apecoin, which disbursed $3.54 billion worth of APE in March 2022. In the Apecoin airdrop, owners of Yugu Labs’ NFTs received 10,950 APE tokens, equivalent to $258,737. 

The aggregator highlights dYdX (DYDX) as the third-biggest airdrop within 2020 – 2023. According to CoinGecko, the dYdX team distributed $2 billion worth of DYDX tokens in September 2021. 

Arbitrum secured the fourth position, following a distribution of approximately $1.97 billion ARB tokens via airdrop in 2023. Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Internet Computer (ICP), and Bonk (BONK) ranked as the fifth, sixth, and seventh biggest crypto airdrops, respectively, with a cumulative value of $4.94 billion. 

Other projects in the list of the top 10 biggest crypto airdrop ranking include Celestia’s (TIA) $728 million in 2023, LooksRare (LOOKS) $712 million airdrop in 2022, and 1inch Network (1INCH) airdrop in 2020 worth $671 million.