In 2025, the best airdrops come in many flavors: Layer 1 (Monad), Layer 2 (Linea), tap-to-earn (Sidekick, Midas), DePIN apps (Grass, Dawn), Game projects (B3, zkCandy), and testnets (Sahara, Hemi).
With current on-chain data, Sidekick, Grass, B3, and Sahara have the largest user bases. Midas, Cytonic, and Vlayer are still in their early stages.
Quick take:
If you’re eyeing new Layer-1s with strong airdrop chances, Monad is one of the best choices at the current time. The Monad infrastructure is a fully EVM-compatible L1, with 10,000 TPS, with near-instant finality and almost zero gas fees.
Looking into Layer-2s and zkEVMs sector, Linea by Consensys is a project worth watching. It’s a zkEVM L2 scaling Ethereum, with a fee system that burns 20% in ETH and a staking model tied closely to Ethereum.
When touching into the restaking sector, Symbiotic is worth a try. Joining Symbiotic, users could stake ETH or any LSTs related to secure multiple networks, boosting capital efficiency for retail holders, validators, etc.
If you like weird-but-cool projects, Sidekick is worth checking out. Instead of only watching livestreams, users can tip, trade, or grab airdrops right inside the stream. It sounds odd, but it’s working. Furthermore, the tap-to-earn sector is always an easy to attract user base that many gaming project are heading to.
Considering the RWA trend, Midas is a hot project to watch. It builds a platform to turn real-world assets into on-chain, tradable tokens. The protocol is built to get exposure with institutional-grade assets.
Everybody will take an eye on the easy-to-earn sector, and the AI + DePIN is the one that is worth trying. GRASS is hard to ignore. It tokenizes bandwidth to feed AI data, is built on Solana, and has already run a huge airdrop.
If you prefer farming by sharing your home internet, DAWN is a solid pick. In short, DAWN is Decentralized Autonomous Wireless Network. It is a decentralized wireless network that allows users to share their bandwidth and earn money from their shares. It basically turns your PC into a mini-ISP.
B3 is not just a single game. B3 is a Layer 3 decentralized network that plays the role of a gaming hub for a wide range of non-chain games. The B3 included many games from the Base ecosystem and was built by ex-Coinbase engineers. Expect near-zero gas and very fast trades. B3 is the platform’s native utility token.
zkCandy pairs zkSync (Matter Labs) with iCandy, a major gaming studio in Southeast Asia. The protocol puts its emphasis on AI-gaming, Ai-enabled entertainment, bring the best AI experiences for players.
When talking about AI + Web3, Sahara AI is building a decentralized AI stack focused on fair and transparent training data. The protocol helps to build AI products, contribute to the AI sector, and especially monetizeAI.
Hemi wants to make Bitcoin programmable, combining Bitcoin’s security with smart contract capabilities. Hemi is developing a modular Layer-2 blockchain network. In its core, the protocol combines the security of Bitcoin with the programmability of Ethereum. In which we say, it is a “super-network” powered by the Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM) and a trust-minimized “Tunnels” system.
Funding & ecosystem: The Hemi protocol raised $15M in a growth round, bringing total funding close to $30M. The project has backers like YZi Labs, Republic Digital, and others.
On-chain traction: The network shows strong user engagement. There are about 100k+ verified users, strong community with more than 400k+ members. The protocol TVL is $1.2B. Furthermore, the protocol also partners with many projects.
Airdrop & tokenomics: Hemi plans a community distribution of roughly 10% of supply (about 1 billion HEMI) via airdrops, while 25% goes to on-chain pre-sale.
