Retroactive airdrops are the ones most people chase. The project rewards past behavior — “you used our app before X date, so here’s some tokens.” These are announced after the activity already happened, which is part of why early on-chain activity is so valuable. Arbitrum, Optimism, Starknet, and Blur all ran retroactive distributions.
Task-based (bounty) airdrops require you to complete specific actions to qualify: following a Twitter/X account, joining a Discord or Telegram, sharing a post, signing up for a newsletter. The effort level is low, and so are the rewards. These are mostly promotional campaigns for early-stage projects.
Holder airdrops go to wallets holding a specific token at the time of the snapshot. You don’t have to do anything active — you just need to be holding. The Bitcoin Cash fork in 2017 was an extreme version of this (every BTC holder got BCH). In DeFi, it often means holding the project’s governance token or a related asset.
Governance/exclusive airdrops target a specific group — DAO members, NFT holders, active forum contributors. The goal is usually to deepen engagement with people already invested in the project’s direction.
Raffle airdrops don’t guarantee anything. Eligible wallets enter a random draw. Some projects use this when demand is overwhelming and they don’t want to dilute rewards too far.
Point-based systems are the dominant model in 2025. Instead of a one-time snapshot, projects run months-long campaigns where your activity earns points. Those points determine your token allocation at launch. Blast, Eigenlayer, and most newer L2s have used this structure. It rewards sustained engagement over one-off gaming.
