What’s Airdrop

When releasing a coin into the cryptocurrency house, one of the vital distinguished web3 methods to draw new customers is utilizing crypto airdrops. These airdrops are advertising and marketing occasions that present free cash to the customers for collaborating within the occasion. The customers are normally required to do easy duties to suit the standards to assert free tokens. These duties embrace social media sharing or interacting with the protocol earlier than a specified date.

The method is kind of easy; this normally includes asserting the airdrop, specifying the eligibility standards, after which distributing the tokens to customers for finishing the duties. The airdrops are supposed to be rewarding to early adopters, encourage energetic participation, or seed liquidity in mission participation.

TOP 5 most controversial Crypto Arirdrops

Flare (FLR) and Songbird (SGB) on Coinbase

Coinbase, the favored cryptocurrency trade, did not distribute FLR and SGB tokens, which have been promised to XRP holders. Coinbase refused to distribute the tokens regardless of having acquired them from Flare Community on the time of SGB and FLR distribution. This led to a lawsuit in opposition to the Coinbase trade for accusations of neglect, particularly when different exchanges distributed the tokens accurately.

Wormhole Airdrop

Wormhole began as a decentralised blockchain interoperability mission. They announce a governance token which shall be distributed as an airdrop for sure NFT holders from affiliated collections. However when the token distribution befell, many inside the NFT communities – similar to holders of Unhealthy Youngsters, DeGods, and Mad Lads NFTs weren’t given their share of tokens. Sudden adjustments in necessities, like acquiring particular Discord roles inside a short while, brought about group uproar and complaints from the affected customers.

Starknet (STRK) Airdrop

Starknet is a layer 2 Ethereum scaling answer based mostly on zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup expertise. Starknet confronted backlash over its extremely anticipated STRK token airdrop.

The principle focus centered on the eligibility standards and token allocation quantities that many customers identified to be unfair. Rumors began to unfold that many eligible customers have been not noted, whereas others with minimal involvement got increased quantities.

Redstone (RED) 

A cross-chain oracle mission confronted backlash throughout its 2025 RED token airdrop. Initially, they deliberate to allocate 9.5% of their tokens to the group, however abruptly modified the quantity to five% which triggered group outrage. Many loyal customers who engaged with the extended duties set by this mission have been left empty-handed, creating widespread accusations of airdrop exploitation.

Kaito (KAITO)

Kaito, a platform that incentivizes content material creation by means of an AI-powered system, confronted widespread criticism over its 2025 airdrop distribution. A really massive portion of the token provide, 43.3% was held by insiders and influencers, whereas the authentic group held solely 10%. This led to the rise of accusations of manipulation and favoring insiders.

Crypto AirDrops: What we discovered?

Airdrops are highly effective instruments for crypto progress; nonetheless, they arrive with high-stakes challenges.

• Initiatives and exchanges should talk successfully to behave responsibly through the time of token distributions to keep away from authorized penalties.
• Transparency in eligibility and allocation of tokens is essential to take care of belief.
• Airdrops must be truthful and take needed steps to keep away from exploits and prioritize group inclusiveness.

Conclusion

As crypto continues to evolve, crypto airdrops are additionally gaining publicity as a result of their success.  Though there are airdrops like Flare, Wormhole, and StarkNet that didn’t meet the group expectations and function a cautionary story, there are a lot of airdrops that gave the early traders excessive rewards for his or her involvement.