9 Tools to Make Airdrop Farming for Perp DEXs Easier (Part 1)

A simple breakdown for farmers who want to make money with their capital and get airdrops across different perp DEXes, without having to trade all day.

The perp DEX airdrop meta is getting more automated, competitive, and expensive. There are so many volume bots, delta-neutral engines, and copy-trade layers out there that most serious farmers are using some kind of automation. Here is a detailed list of the nine tools that are currently being used to farm these opportunities.

In part 2, we’ll look at some real-world performance data for some of the best strategies on this list.

1. Blot (Ink/Nado)

Website: blot.wtf | DEX: Nado

Blot is a simple way for beginners to learn about basis trading. The mechanic is simple: have both a spot position and a perp position on the same asset, but in opposite directions. You are delta-neutral because you are long spot and short perp (or the other way around). The difference between the funding rate that the perp side pays you and the cost of borrowing your spot position is what makes you money.

The Basis Trade dashboard in the app shows live opportunities ranked by Net APR (Funding APR minus Borrow APR) across all available markets. This makes it easy to quickly find and choose the pair with the highest yield at any time.

Why this is important for Nado/Ink farming?: Nado’s unified margin system is designed just for basis trades. When you run a spot long against a perp short in the same account, Nado’s risk engine sees the hedge and lowers your total margin requirement. This means you get more capital efficiency per dollar spent than on most other perp DEXes. For every $1,000 in trading volume done through Blot, you get 100 Drip points and Nado points. This includes all basis trade activity.

What makes it better than running the strategy manually:

• The hedge is automatically recognised without having to split up the capital because the position pair is managed in Nado’s unified margin account.

• Both legs run on-chain on Nado, which means that all volume, open interest, and fee activity goes straight into Nado Season 1 point tracking.
• No directional risk: your yield is the funding rate, not the market direction.

The risk to the model is that basis trades only make money when funding rates are higher than borrowing costs. If funding rates go down (shorts pay longs instead of longs paying shorts), the strategy changes from making money to paying money. Blot’s dashboard shows the Net APR live, which makes it easy to watch for bad rate conditions. However, there is no automatic close when rates change. That’s up to the user.

Leveraged Tokens

Blot also turns leveraged Nado perp positions into ERC-20 tokens, like ETH-2X, ETH-3X, ETH-5X, BTC-3X, BTC-5X, SOL-3X, and short equivalents. These rebalance every day to avoid liquidation, which is a big upgrade compared to manual perp management. They are also LayerZero OFTs, which means they can be used as collateral in lending protocols and can be bridged across chains.

This is the directional product. IIt helps people who want to get leveraged BTC/ETH exposure while passively farming Nado volume, but it loses value in choppy markets. Don’t think of it as a pure alpha trade; think of it as a farming vehicle with directional exposure.

What It’s Best For

A basic tool to familiarize yourself with Basis Trading. It’s delta-neutral, earns real funding yield on top of Drip + Nado points.

Airdrop Exposure

Both of Blot’s strategies generate on-chain trading volume and open interest on Nado’s perpetuals and spot order books. Nado Season 1 gives points for this activity, which will convert into $INK tokens at TGE. Blot does this automatically: every $1,000 in volume earns 100 Drip points and Nado points, and both perps and margin spot positions are eligible. Basis trades and pair trades are both eligible.

Ease of Use

Basis Trading: Low-to-moderate. Go to the Strategies page, look at live Net APR opportunities, choose a market, and enter both legs. The rest is taken care of by Nado’s unified margin. There isn’t much ongoing monitoring, but it’s not zero. Check Net APR every now and then to see if the rates have changed. No need to code.

Leveraged Tokens: Very easy. You can mint through Blot’s UI or buy it on a secondary market. Management that is almost nonexistent. The main problems are getting to Ink L2 and getting USDT0 collateral.

Typical Costs

• Leveraged tokens carry implicit costs: daily rebalancing fee (a small volatility decay applied each rebalance), funding rates paid to Nado, and Nado’s standard taker fees (~0.03–0.05% per execution)
• No subscription or platform fee from Blot directly
• Gas on Ink L2 is negligible

Capital minimum: No explicit minimum; practically, $100–500+ makes sense to justify bridging overhead

Estimated Payoff

The airdrop payoff depends on the value of $INK TGE and Nado’s eventual token event. Both are speculative but credible because Kraken backs them and the confirmed $INK allocation favours Nado users.

Basis Trading gives you real, ongoing funding yield in addition to airdrop exposure. The net APR changes depending on the state of the market. In bullish markets with high funding rates, basis trades can make a lot of APY in addition to accumulating points.

Be careful with leveraged tokens: They don’t do well in choppy, directionless markets because their volatility decays. If your main goal is to farm and you don’t have a strong opinion about which way to go, start with Basis Trading.

2. Otomate (Ink / Nado)

Website: otomate.trade | DEX: Nado

Otomate is a non-custodial automation layer purpose-built for Nado. All execution happens inside the user’s own sub-account. Otomate never takes custody of funds. It wraps Nado’s perp infrastructure into three automated execution modes:

1. Copy trading (mirror a top Nado wallet),
2. Volume bots (market-making / non-directional activity generation),
3. Delta-neutral vaults (market-neutral strategies that capture funding while generating activity and minimizing directional risk).

What It’s Best For

Users who want to aggressively farm Nado points (and the associated $INK airdrop) without managing manual trades.

Airdrop Exposure

Otomate’s execution strategies generate continuous trading volume and open interest on Nado’s perpetuals order book. This on-chain activity directly feeds into Nado’s Season 1 points program, which rewards trading activity, NLP participation, and referrals. Points convert to $INK tokens at TGE.

If you want to lower your risk and limit your losses, use the delta neutral vaults to farm Nado points.

You can also use the Smart Volume strategy to get the most Nado points while keeping your money safe.

The High Activity Volume Strategy has the most risk, but also the largest potential rewards. The main differences as compared to the Smart Volume strategy are:

• Up to 20x leverage (compared to 3x for the Smart Volume strategy)
• Runs for longer timeframes (from 1 week up to 1 month, compared to just 1 hour for the Smart Volume strategy)
• There is a higher risk of losing money, but you can get more Nado points, which means a bigger $INK allocation.

Ease of Use

No code needed to set up, and it works on mobile devices. Connect your wallet, pick a strategy mode, put money into it, and sign two wallet authorisations. You don’t have to monitor (you can see your positions on the dashboard). You can stop or change strategies right away. The biggest problems are bridging Ink L2 and figuring out the differences between the three strategy modes.

Typical Costs

Fees are assessed on executed volume:

• Copy Trading: 0.10% of executed volume
• Market-Making / Volume Bot: 0.02% of executed volume
• Delta-Neutral Strategies: 0.10% of executed volume

Plus Nado’s standard trading fees on top. For pure volume-generation strategies, the 0.02% Otomate fee is relatively low cost per dollar of volume generated.

Capital minimum: No hard minimum stated; practically $200–500+ to be meaningful.

Estimated Payoff

Tied to $INK TGE value and potential value of Otomate points. Users who push a lot of volume would create a lot of Nado volume every day, which should lead to a lot of points.

3. Liminal

Website: liminal.money | DEX: Hyperliquid

Liminal is a DeFi protocol that runs only on Hyperliquid. It automates delta-neutral strategies to get perpetual funding rates without having to worry about which way the market is going. It has two lines of products:

Liminal Customised: For retail and institutional users, you can choose between self-custody and a custodial vault. Strategies run on their own, rebalancing positions and getting the best funding rates across a number of assets (BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE).

Liminal Tokenised (xTokens): When you deposit money, you get xTokens (like xBTC, xETH, xSOL) that represent your share of the strategy. You can use these tokens as collateral in other DeFi protocols, LP them, or hold them for yield and Hyperliquid airdrop farming at the same time. xTokens give you a funding rate APY and HyperEVM. DeFi activity/points and maybe points for Hyperliquid.

Liminal has been audited and its code is transparent. TVL caps apply per asset class (e.g., BTC positions were near cap in early 2026).

What It’s Best For

Users who want to farm a potential Hyperliquid Season 2 while earning funding rate yield.

Airdrop Exposure

Liminal runs delta-neutral perp positions on Hyperliquid’s HyperCore perpetuals engine, which keeps the platform’s trading fees and open interest going. This activity on the blockchain adds to the farming metrics for Hyperliquid Season 2. With ~42% of the $HYPE supply still set aside for future emissions and community rewards, active HyperCore participants are well positioned for an upcoming airdrop.

Holding xHYPE gives you Kinetiq kPoints in addition to generating volume on Hyperliquid.

Ease of Use

Very simple for Customized: deposit, select a strategy and run it. xTokens are equally simple — mint and hold with no active management needed.

Typical Costs

• Performance fee: 10% of gross funding profits (charged only when profitable)
• Builder fee: 1 basis point (0.01%) per Hyperliquid transaction
• Cross-chain deposits via deBridge: 0.04% deBridge fee + 0.02% Liminal fee
• Hyperliquid taker fees: 0.024–0.045% (paid to HL, not Liminal)
• No management fee, no deposit/withdrawal fees on Hyperliquid

Capital minimum: Not explicitly stated; practically $500+ to make the 10% performance fee structure worthwhile vs. costs.

Estimated Payoff

Funding rate APY on Hyperliquid has historically ranged from low single digits to 20%+ annually depending on market conditions. After Liminal’s 10% performance fee, net yields are variable. $HYPE airdrop exposure is speculative but credible — Hyperliquid has already distributed one of the largest airdrops in crypto history and still has ~42% of the supply left for future emissions and community rewards.

4. Planemo Trading

Website: planemotrading.xyz | DEXes: Extended + Lighter

Planemo Trading is a public alpha algorithmic trading platform targeting two of the hottest perp DEXs: Extended (30% community allocation confirmed TGE anticipated for H1 2026), and Lighter (25% of the $LIT supply remains for the community). Planemo offers five strategies on Extended and one on Lighter, with a dedicated leaderboard and Vault system.

Extended Strategies:

1. Orderbook Surge: Maximum point accumulation. 50ms order book imbalance scanner, taker orders only. Expected ~1,000× daily volume on collateral. Minimum = $200.
2. Surge Pro: Fewer trades, better risk-adjusted returns. ~500× daily volume. Minimum = $1,000.
3. Momentum Edge: Maker orders, trend-following, lower frequency. Minimum = $500.
4. Hyperliquid Copy-trading: Mirrors Hyperliquid wallets on Extended via maker orders. Minimum = $200.
5. Delta Neutral: Closed alpha; operates across Extended + Lighter simultaneously for funding arbitrage. Contact team for access.

Lighter strategy: Balanced long/short, high-volatility approach for Lighter farming. Minimum = $200.

What It’s Best For

Traders focused on maximizing Extended points before its TGE and positioning for Lighter’s round 2 $LIT airdrop.

Airdrop Exposure

On Extended: the Orderbook Surge and Surge Pro taker volume creates fees and volume metrics that translate straight into Extended points. Extended has confirmed a TGE with a 30% community allocation, and the farming season is expected to end in the first half of 2026.

Farmers who want to put profits ahead of getting the most Extended points should use the Momentum Edge strategy.

On Lighter: The Planemo strategy for Lighter is best for long-term performance rather than short-term stability, since 25% of the $LIT supply is still available. It takes both long and short positions.

Planemo will run its own internal points program that will start in the second quarter of 2026. This will be followed by a TGE later that year. Planemo’s tokenisation adds another layer of rewards on top of the airdrops from Extended and/or Lighter.

Ease of Use

Moderate: To set it up, you need to connect a wallet, choose a strategy, and turn it on through the platform interface. It takes a few steps to get initial API authorisation. After being turned on, strategies run on their own, but it’s recommended to monitor positions. Support for Discord is up and running.

Typical Costs

Builder fees vary by strategy:

• Orderbook Surge / Surge Pro: 0.01% builder fee + Extended taker fees
• Momentum Edge / Hyperliquid Copy: 0.05% builder fee, but maker rebates may offset or exceed this
• Delta Neutral: 0% builder fee
• Planemo Strategy 1 (Lighter): Exchange fees apply

Capital minimums: $200 – $1000 depending on strategy. High-frequency strategies (Orderbook Surge) generate very high gross volume, which can eat into PnL via taker fees if market conditions don’t cooperate — this is a farming tool, not a PnL optimizer.

Estimated Payoff

Orderbook Surge’s 1,000× daily volume multiplier means that $1,000 deployed generates $1M in volume every day, which is great for accumulating points. Realistic users should think of this as “spend taker fees to get points exposure.” The math only makes sense if TGE FDV is high enough to make the fee worth it.

Honest warning: Taker strategies like Orderbook Surge lose money over time through fees if PnL doesn’t make up for it. Monitor closely as the strategy is explicitly built for points, not PnL.

5. Minara

Website: minara.ai | DEX: Hyperliquid

Minara is an AI-assisted trading platform backed by Circle and launched the public beta in August 2025. The Trading Copilot is the main product. It uses AI to create trading signals, look at market conditions, and trade crypto perpetuals automatically.

What It’s Best For

Traders who want AI-assisted trading systems to automate perp trading on Hyperliquid.

Airdrop Exposure

Minara has its own Sparks points system. You can earn Sparks by subscribing to a platform (which passively builds up), trading on the platform, being active in the Discord community, or referring others. As of March 2026, there is no official token or airdrop for the Sparks program. It could turn into token allocations or Gen-0 NFT whitelist access.

You can pick from a number of Trading Copilot strategies:

1. Sharpe Guard v2 is a directional strategy that has drawdown limits and the highest estimated APR right now (+237%).
2. Super Trend Monitor, which is another directional strategy, has limits on how much you can lose.
3. Futures Grid (a non-directional strategy)

The platform isn’t mainly a perp DEX farming tool, but all trading happens through Hyperliquid. This puts users in a good position for a possible Season 2 $HYPE airdrop, as well as a possible Minara airdrop after the Sparks points program.

Sharpe Guard v2 is best for markets that are going up or down, while Futures Grid is best for markets that don’t have a clear direction.

Ease of Use

Relatively accessible — You just sign up, subscribe, and link your accounts, and the AI makes trades based on three different strategies.

Typical Costs

Subscription required:

• Lite: $19/month → 190 Sparks
• Starter: $49/month → 490 Sparks
• Pro: $199/month → 1,990 Sparks
• Annual discounts of ~17% available

This is the most expensive subscription model on this list relative to what it automates. Capital minimums not explicitly stated.

Estimated Payoff

There is no set date for the airdrop or token launch. Right now, the Sparks-to-value conversion is just a guess. Circle’s support makes it more believable, but the fact that there is no confirmed tokenomics means that this is the least certain tool on this list when it comes to airdrop return.

If you’re farming just for exchange-level airdrops, Minara AI is the weakest choice here. If you want AI-assisted trading on top of platform-level rewards, this is a better tool.

6. Spreads Finance

Website: spreads.finance | DEXes: Nado, Pacifica + Variational

Spreads Finance is a structured yield and automated farming protocol that introduces a new idea: “Principal Tokens and Yield Tokens, but for Perps.” This means that you can get tokenised access to future perp DEX airdrop yields.

The main product is a Perpetual Airdrop Vault. Users put money into it, the protocol farms on-chain activity across multiple perp DEXs, and users get tokenised yield that shows how much of the total airdrop exposure they own. The protocol’s own rewards layer, called Spreads Points, and a Yield Vault (which lets you earn money from active farming strategies) are two other products.

What It’s Best For

Broad airdrop exposure without managing multiple positions.

Airdrop Exposure

The protocol actively farms across its list of supported perp DEXs, which leads to trading volume, open interest, and fee activity. People who take part in the Perpetual Airdrop Vault get money from these farming activities. Users also earn Spreads Points that can be used to get their own protocol token.

Ease of Use

Simple: deposit-and-hold mechanic. The complexity of multi-DEX strategy management is entirely abstracted away. Users interact with a single vault interface.

Typical Costs

Fee structure is not clearly specified in public documentation. Vault-style protocols typically charge a management fee and/or performance fee; these details should be confirmed before depositing. No subscription required.

Capital minimum: None.

Estimated Payoff

It’s hard to put a number on it without knowing the exact farming goals and conversion rates. People who deposited money early on when the protocol was first launched would be in queue for a Spreads token allocation. Think of this as a high-risk, high-reward situation.

7. Tread.fi

Website: tread.fi | DEXes: Hyperliquid, Extended + Nado

Tread.fi is an institutional-grade algorithmic trading terminal and OEMS (Order and Execution Management System) made for professional crypto traders. This is not just a pure airdrop farming bot; it is a full-featured trading platform with advanced execution algorithms, market-making bots, delta-neutral bots, portfolio management, and Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA). It has a single interface that works with both CEXes and perp DEXes.

Important bots for airdrop farming:

• Market Maker Bot: Use institutional market-making strategies to get spreads and liquidity provision rewards.
• Delta Neutral Bot: Handle both sides of funding arbitrage with a single dashboard and tools for reversing positions.

Tread.fi got $3.5 million in funding and is now known as an algorithmic trading terminal that also finds DEX farming opportunities.

What It’s Best For

More experienced traders or fund operators who want to run market-making and delta-neutral strategies at scale across multiple venues.

Airdrop Exposure

Treadfi’s bots work on Hyperliquid, Extended, and Nado, among other platforms, where they make money and volume. This helps people earn points at the exchange level (Hyperliquid S2, Extended TGE, Nado/Ink TGE). Users can also earn Season 1 points from trading volume and providing liquidity on Treadfi. These points will be converted at a future TGE. Season 1 ends in May 2026.

The unique thing about Season 1 is that staked points vote on which exchange integration comes next. If the exchange charges an integration fee, liquidity providers get a share of the community, which helps offset trading costs.

The Maker bot’s mid-price mode is the best way to provide liquidity out of all the options. The diagram below shows how it works and what the best setup is.

Ease of Use

Moderate to high complexity: This is for traders who know how to manage their portfolios, understand order types, and execution quality. The bots do the work automatically, but they need to be set up first and it’s recommended to monitor your positions. You need to know how to use technology to get access to the Enterprise API for programmatic integration.

Typical Costs

Pricing details are not fully disclosed in the public documentation — the platform appears to operate on a builder fee model per trade (similar to others here), but exact percentages are not listed publicly. Enterprise plans are available for institutional users at custom pricing. Gas costs on Ink L2 and Starknet are minimal.

Capital minimum: No explicit minimum, but to run effective market-making strategies, $1,000+ is the practical floor.

Estimated Payoff

Exchange-level airdrop farming (Hyperliquid, Extended, Nado) and TreadFi’s own TGE are both possible. The $3.5 million raise makes it more likely that a token event will happen. The 100,000 weekly points pool for Season 1, which ends in May 2026, makes it clear that people need to join quickly. There are no specific values available.

8. PulseTrader

Website: pulsetrader.xyz | DEXes: Hyperliquid, Polymarket, Decibel, Ostium + Lighter

PulseTrader is a quantitative trading platform that uses three different algorithms to automatically create trading signals. It then finds the best one based on real-time market regime detection. This is more like “quantitative signal automation” than a pure farming bot. The system looks at the markets, finds conditions (trending, momentum, mean-reverting), and acts accordingly.

Three ways to do it:

• Q-XTrend: Following trends with bands that change based on volatility. Works best in markets with a lot of volatility.
• Q-Pulse: Short-term momentum based on the alignment of three momentum ribbons.
• Z-Score Mean Reversion: A way to use statistics to look at markets that are stuck in a range.

Polymarket hedging is a unique feature of the platform that lets you use prediction market contracts to hedge stop-loss levels on perpetual trades, which lowers the risk of your position in a completely new way.

What It’s Best For

Quant-minded traders who want automated signal execution across multiple venues and exposure to the $POLY airdrop.

Airdrop Exposure

PulseTrader makes trading volume and open interest on Hyperliquid (Season 2 $HYPE farming), Polymarket ($POLY airdrop confirmed), Decibel ($AMPS airdrop confirmed), Lighter (post-TGE yield), and Ostium (points program still going on). The XP system in PulseTrader rewards successful trades, but PulseTrader has not yet confirmed its own TGE.

Ease of Use

Relatively accessible given the feature set. Connect your wallet, allow agent trading (trade-only permissions), look through signals, and execute with one click. It is fully automatic to detect the regime and route the strategy. Polymarket hedging makes things more complicated, but it’s not required.

Typical Costs

Pricing not explicitly listed in the documentation. No subscription fee is mentioned. The platform likely charges via builder fees on exchange trades. Confirm current pricing in the app before committing capital.

Capital minimum: Not stated; practically $200–500+ for meaningful Hyperliquid + Ostium activity.

Estimated Payoff

Hyperliquid Season 2 exposure is important because there is more than $14 billion in unclaimed $HYPE. Ostium farming is a less competitive angle; it’s a perp DEX with less competition among farmers but strong infrastructure. This means that being an early participant could be valuable if Ostium drops a token. There is no confirmed information about the payoff.

9. Shift Protocol

Website: shiftprotocol.xyz | DEXes: Multiple perp DEXes (specifics evolving per roadmap)

Shift Protocol is a structured yield layer that make market-neutral strategies easier to understand.

Shift takes delta-neutral and pseudo-delta-neutral perpetual strategies and turns them into Shift Liquid Tokens. These are ERC-20 tokens that are composable and liquid. They show how much of an active strategy you own and can be staked, used as collateral in money markets, or split into PT/YT through Pendle integration.

Products:

• Delta Neutral Strategies: Full market neutrality, capturing funding rates from perp DEXs
• Pseudo Delta Neutral Strategies: Partial hedges with slightly higher expected yield but some residual directional exposure
• Pendle / Yield Pools: Composable integration allowing PT/YT exposure on Shift’s yields

The protocol is explicitly designed with DeFi composability in mind — Shift tokens are meant to plug into every major money market and yield aggregator.

What It’s Best For

Yield seekers who want exposure to delta-neutral strategies and the upcoming Extended airdrop.

Airdrop Exposure

Shift’s strategies work on perp DEXes continuously, creating volume and open interest that earn points from supported exchanges. The protocol clearly says that perp DEX points and airdrops are “extra yield,” which goes to people who have Shift vaults. Shift Points, which are the protocol’s own reward layer, also add up to a future Shift TGE.

Ease of Use

Easy: Deposit into a Shift vault or mint Shift Liquid Tokens. Everything else is automated. Pendle integration adds optional complexity for more sophisticated users.

Typical Costs

Performance fee of 20% (only on profits) and a management fee of 2%.

Capital minimum: $150.

Estimated Payoff

Shift’s stated yield target is high-single-digit to mid/high double-digit APY from funding rates alone, with perp DEX airdrop points as additional upside. This is plausible in favorable funding rate environments. No verified community-reported returns available yet — Shift is a relatively early-stage protocol. The Pendle integration unlocks leveraged yield exposure for sophisticated users willing to take on more risk for higher upside.

Summary Comparison

Quick Picks by Strategy

• Passive Hyperliquid farming strategy: Hold Liminal’s xHYPE – earns passive funding yield, kHYPE points plus two potential airdrops: Liminal and $HYPE (if there’s a Season 2).
• Aggressive Extended airdrop farming: Use Planemo’s Orderbook Surge.
• Aggressive $INK airdrop farming: Otomate’s volume based strategies.
• Prioritize both profit and airdrops: Planemo’s Momentum Edge strategy and the PulseTrader strategies.

In part 2, we’ll evaluate some of these strategies to see how much volume can be generated with these tools and more importantly, how many points you can earn with ease.

All airdrop valuations are speculative. No TGE is guaranteed. Farming costs are real and guaranteed. Do your own math before deploying capital.