Free money on the internet? Yes, but make it crypto.
That’s the essence of airdrops—they’re basically crypto’s way of saying “thanks for showing up”.
Let’s explore how crypto airdrops work and how to make sure you never miss a Solana airdrop again!
What are crypto airdrops?
Airdrops refer to the distribution of free tokens to your wallet(s) for interacting with certain projects and protocols within a given timeframe.
Projects and protocols may do an airdrop for a variety of reasons, such as:
- Promotional campaigns: Teams may use airdrops to raise awareness about their specific protocol or project. By giving away free tokens, they aim to attract more users and increase community engagement.
- Community rewards: Some protocols/projects airdrop tokens as a reward for your support, participation, and/or loyalty.
- Fork initiatives: When a blockchain undergoes a fork, resulting in the creation of a new blockchain and cryptocurrency, holders of the original token might receive the new one as part of an airdrop.
- Vampire attacks: Apart from blockchains, individual projects and protocols can be forked as well. In order to win over the user base of the incumbent project/protocol, the forked protocol can conduct a vampire attack. In this scenario, the forked project airdrops tokens to the users of the incumbent project/protocol with the aim of incentivizing them to switch services.
Airdrops are often preceded by a “snapshot”, which captures the state of all user activity at that given time. This is done to record your activity and engagement to determine your allocation of airdrop rewards. At the time of the snapshot, if you’ve performed the desired actions for the airdrop criteria (e.g. buy, sell, trade, and stake tokens), you become eligible for the token airdrop. And once the airdrop is live, you can claim your token rewards on the project’s official website.
Notable crypto airdrops
Airdrops on Solana are not an entirely new phenomenon. Yet, they’re more recent than most major airdrops in the past:
- Ethereum Classic (ETC): Following a contentious hard fork of Ethereum (ETH) in 2016, Ethereum Classic emerged as a separate blockchain. Consequently, ETH holders received an equal amount of ETC after the fork was implemented successfully.
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH): In 2017, Bitcoin (BTC) underwent a hard fork that resulted in the creation of Bitcoin Cash. BTC holders were eligible for an equivalent amount of BCH, which was later airdropped to their Bitcoin wallets.
- Ripple (XRP): Ripple has performed various promotions to increase the adoption of its XRP cryptocurrency—including airdrops, giveaways, and partnerships.
- Uniswap (UNI): In 2020, Uniswap airdropped its native token, UNI, to users who had interacted with the platform in the past.
- Arbitrum (ARB): In order to incentivize adoption, Arbitrum gave out up to 10,000 ARB to users that interacted with applications on the network before December, 2022.
Solana airdrop history
Notable Solana airdrops include Orca, BONK, Pyth, Jito, and more.
- Orca: On August 9, 2021, Orca released their ORCA token to early contributors and community members.
- BONK: The project aims to accelerate the adoption of Solana, which is why the team airdropped 50% of the coin's supply to the Solana community on December 25, 2022.
- Pyth: The claim process for the Pyth airdrop opened on November 20, 2023. The purpose of the airdrop was to stimulate participation in onchain governance and bring the Pyth Network to a permissionless, decentralized, and self-sustainable mainnet state.
- Jito: Eligible users were able to claim their airdrop on December 7th, 2023, on the airdrop claim page. For more details, read our Jito (JTO) airdrop guide.
- Jupiter: Jupiter's original airdrop took place in "Jupuary" (January, 2024). To check your airdrop allocation, visit Jupiter's official checker. As for the rest of the details, you'll find them in our Jupiter (JUP) airdrop guide.
- Kamino: The KMNO airdrop checker went live on Friday, April 4th, 2024. For more details, make sure to read our Kamino (KMNO) airdrop guide.
- Tensor: Since Monday, April 8th, 2024, eligible users can view and claim their TNSR airdrop. For more details, head over to our Tensor (TNSR) airdrop guide.
- Parcl & Sharky: Both the PRCL and SHARK airdrop took place on April 16, 2024. Read our PRCL airdrop guide or SHARK airdrop guide for more details.
- Zeta: Since Thursday, June 20th, 2024 you can check your token allocation on the ZEX airdrop checker. More details on all things ZEX can be found in our extended guide.
- Drift: Drift opened the DRIFT airdrop checker on Thursday, May 16th, 2024. Also, make sure to read our DRIFT airdrop guide.
- Magic Eden: The ME airdrop took place on December 10, 2024. For more on all things ME, read our comprehensive guide here.
- Pudgy Penguins: PENGU launched on December 17, 2024, as one of the largest airdrops in Solana’s history. For a step-by-step guide on how to buy PENGU, check out our in-depth guide here.
- Doodles: This was one of the most anticipated airdrops on Solana, with DOOD hitting wallets on May 9, 2025. Here’s our full guide on how to buy DOOD.
Upcoming Solana airdrops
We’ll update this section as new airdrops are confirmed.
How to claim airdrops on Solana?
On Solana, most airdrops are not sent directly to your wallet(s). More often than not, you need to claim your tokens on a dedicated website.
To make things easier, if one of your Phantom wallets is eligible for an airdrop, we’ll notify you via push notifications and in-app banners. Once you see the banner, just click it to go to the official airdrop page and claim your tokens.
How to trade airdrops on Solana?
The easiest way to trade Solana coins and tokens is through your Phantom browser extension or mobile app.
- After logging in, select a wallet that holds the crypto you'd like to trade.
- Next, click on the “Buy” tile on your home screen.
- In the swap widget, select the token pair you'd like to trade.
- Then, review the order and submit it!
How to share Solana airdrops with friends and family
Know someone who might be interested in airdrop tokens? You can share a simple token page with them so they can get involved.
Here's how:
- Open Phantom
- Search for e.g. “PENGU” and select the token
- Click the “Share” button
- Copy the link
- Send the link through your preferred app, such as iMessage, Telegram, Instagram, or others
When you share this link, the recipient will receive the official PENGU token page from Phantom.
How to bridge tokens to Solana withPhantom?
If you’d like to bridge funds to Solana, use our very own Crosschain Swapper! With our Crosschain Swapper, you can bridge tokens across Solana, Ethereum, Base, and Sui right in your Phantom wallet.
FAQs
Disclaimer: This guide is strictly for educational purposes only and doesn’t constitute financial or legal advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
