Airdrop
Token airdrop · Free token distribution
When a project gives new tokens away for free to holders of a coin or users of a service, to promote itself or reward early users.
Simple explanation
Background: Most people in Korea keep their coins on Korea's won exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Digital X, formerly Korbit), so whether they receive an airdrop usually depends on whether their exchange supports it.
As the name suggests, an airdrop drops tokens on people from above: anyone who meets the conditions gets them free, without buying anything. Projects do it to get noticed, to reward early users, or to spread their tokens across many holders.
There are three main kinds. First, holders of a coin get tokens in proportion to their holdings (for example, Flare's FLR tokens for XRP holders). Second, people who used a service early are rewarded after the fact (for example, Uniswap's UNI in 2020). Third, when a hard fork splits a chain, holders end up with the same number of coins on the new chain, and in Korea this is often called an airdrop too (for example, Bitcoin Cash, split from Bitcoin in 2017).
The moment that decides who gets what is the snapshot. The project records wallet balances at a set time or block height and later pays out according to that record. Coins bought after the snapshot do not count, and selling after it usually does not stop you from receiving.
If your coins sit on an exchange, you get the airdrop only if the exchange supports it, because the coins are held in wallets the exchange controls. Korean exchanges announce whether they support an airdrop, the payout rules and the timing, and many airdrops are not supported. Even when one is, the payout can be delayed or handled differently if the new token is not listed, so check the exchange's notice.
Around a snapshot or network work, exchanges sometimes pause deposits and withdrawals of the coin. While transfers are blocked, coins cannot move between Korea and abroad, so the Korean price of that coin, or of a newly listed airdrop token, can drift away from overseas prices and open a large kimchi premium or reverse premium.
Korean exchanges also run marketing "airdrop events" that give coins to users who trade or meet conditions. Despite the name, these are exchange promotions, not project airdrops, and the conditions and payout dates vary.
Scams are common. Fake "free airdrop" sites ask you to connect your wallet and sign a transaction that drains it, or ask you to type in your seed phrase (recovery phrase) or private key. A real airdrop never asks for your seed phrase or private key. Unknown tokens that suddenly appear in your wallet with a link in their name can be phishing, so do not click the link.
Free tokens carry the same price risk as any other: right after a listing, many recipients sell at once and the price often swings hard.
Example
Announcement: 0.1 B token for every 1 A coin held at the snapshot
At the snapshot your exchange account holds 250 A coins → B tokens due = 250 × 0.1 = 25
They reach your account only if the exchange announces support (otherwise 0)
If B lists on a won market and trades at ₩2,000, they are worth 25 × 2,000 = ₩50,000
If the overseas price in won is ₩1,800 at the same moment, the kimchi premium = 2,000 ÷ 1,800 − 1 = +11.11% (while transfers are blocked, a gap like this can last a while)
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
See it on CoinGaja
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