These show up constantly in post-mortem threads on Reddit and X:
Using an exchange wallet. You can’t receive an airdrop on Binance or Coinbase. Countless people did real on-chain work through their exchange accounts and received nothing.
Low-value, low-effort interactions. Projects have learned to filter out wallets that did one $0.50 swap three years ago. If your activity is minimal, so is your allocation — or you’re excluded entirely.
Farming too obviously. Repeating the same sequence of actions across multiple wallets in the same time window gets you flagged. Projects have seen enough farming playbooks that the patterns are well-documented.
Missing the claim deadline. You went through all the work, you qualified, and you forgot to check when the claim window closed. Set reminders for every airdrop you’re tracking.
Selling at the worst time. Most airdrop tokens dump hard at launch as recipients rush to sell. If the allocation is large enough to matter, think about whether selling in tranches over days or weeks makes more sense than market-selling everything at TGE. Most airdropped tokens — around 88% — lose value within three months of distribution.
Ignoring gas costs in the ROI calculation. Farming 10 protocols across 3 chains is expensive in gas. Track what you spend. It’s entirely possible to spend $300 in gas across a year and receive $50 in airdrop value.
