Airdrop
In short: An airdrop is a token distribution campaign aimed at a specific audience, in which a project sends tokens, usually free of charge, to eligible wallets.
An airdrop is a token distribution campaign aimed at a specific audience, in which a project sends tokens, usually free of charge, to eligible wallets. The audience might be holders of another coin, early users of an app, or community members who completed simple tasks.
Why it matters
Projects use airdrops to spread ownership widely, reward early supporters and draw attention to a new network or token. Eligibility is often fixed by a snapshot, a record of which addresses met the conditions at a particular block, and some airdrops arrive automatically while others must be claimed. Airdrops are also a favorite disguise for scams: a genuine airdrop never needs your seed phrase or private key, and fake claim sites often ask you to sign a transaction that can empty your wallet.
Example
A new decentralized exchange announces that every address that made at least one trade on its platform before a snapshot block can claim a fixed amount of its governance token. Eligible users open the official claim page, connect their wallet, pay a small network fee and receive the tokens. Anyone who started using the platform after the snapshot is not eligible, and messages promising a “bonus” claim on another site are a classic phishing trap.