Glossary
Airdrop
Free distribution of tokens to a set of addresses — typically used to bootstrap a protocol's user base, reward early users, or decentralize governance.
An airdrop sends tokens to addresses that meet some criterion: previously used the protocol, hold a partner token, ran a node, provided liquidity above a threshold, and so on.
Airdrops became a popular launch mechanism after Uniswap's September 2020 drop of 400 UNI to every prior user — worth around 1,500 USD at the time and tens of thousands at peak. "Airdrop farming" — using protocols specifically to qualify for future drops — is now its own sub-industry.