Airdrops in Cosmos | What’s the upcoming airdrop list 2022?

The Cosmos ecosystem has seen exponential growth in recent months, with a lot of interest in its blockchain from developers and users wanting to join in order to benefit from the technology and decentralisation it offers.

An "airdrop" is a free cryptocurrency distribution that projects use to promote their token and generate interest among users. Those users who meet the requirements set by the project issuing the airdrop will be eligible to claim their tokens. This is a marketing strategy that is very popular in the Cosmos ecosystem, although new blockchains are recently joining the trend.

Unsurprisingly, the increase in projects built on its core network has led to them competing with each other to attract as many users as possible to their sovereign blockchains or decentralised applications. To this end, they have designed incentive programmes to grant them tokens through airdrops, but each network or application has its own requirements that users must meet to be eligible. Some of them are listed below:

• Holding ATOM and other cryptocurrencies: some projects require users to be ATOM holders, i.e. to have ATOM in their wallets, such as Keplr's wallet. This is applicable to any other token in the ecosystem. It is also common to see how being a OSMO or JUNO holder has also become another essential requirement.

• Staking ATOMand other cryptocurrencies, such as OSMO: in this case, in order to qualify for airdrops, users must be staking ATOM in any of the validators in the Cosmos Hub. Each project could indicate the validators in which tokens should be (or not) staked. Encouraging staking is a good method to maintain the viability of the project, since users will not only get ATOM as a reward for contributing to the security of the network, but will also receive additional tokens from other networks.

• Providing liquidity to protocols (farming) built on the Cosmos blockchain: other projects give their airdrops to users who provide liquidity in the DeFI protocols they indicate. In this case, to be eligible, the ideal is to do so in pools where one of the tokens that make up the pair is ATOM, for example in the ATOM-OSMOS, ATOM-JUNO pair.

Note that projects may require users to do each of the above actions, or a combination of all of them.

First of all, airdrops will not make anyone rich. As we have already said, they are tokens that are distributed with the intention of attracting new users, however, there are airdrops on Cosmos that have yielded good profits; not only because the tokens distributed are equivalent to a good amount in fiat, but also because those who have received them have been able to increase their earnings by staking or farming on their native networks. It is worth remembering that the main intention of the projects that make these airdrops is for the users who receive them to interact with their ecosystems. Let's take a look at the Cosmos airdrops with the most impact this past year:

1. Osmosis Airdrop: Osmosis is the most important decentralised exchange built on top of Cosmos Hub. In early 2021 it launched an airdrop to ATOM stakers. They received their 20% of the airdrop as long as they were staking ATOM, to receive the remaining 80%, they had to do other additional tasks such as:

   • Performing a swap;
   • Contribute liquidity to a pool;
   • Staking OSMO;
   • Vote on a governance proposal.

2. Juno Airdrop: Juno is a smart contract platform deployed on Cosmos Hub. Like Osmosis, it launched an airdrop to ATOM stakers at a ratio of 1 ATOM = 1 JUNO.

3. Chihuahua Airdrop: this is a green blockchain using PoS; it also holds Cosmos' first meme coin: HUA-HUA, a utility token within its network. This token is used for staking and governance. Earlier this year it launched an airdrop with very good results to all users staking ATOM.

4. Desmos Network Airdrop: Desmos is a blockchain focused on the development of social networks. At the end of 2021, it launched an airdrop to users staking/ farming ATOM, OSMO, LUNA, AKT, BAND, CRO, JUNO, KAVA, LIKE, NGM or REGEN.

5. LUM Network Airdrop: LUM Network is a layer 1 blockchain that has its own Delegated Proof-Of-Stake (DPoS) algorithm, and LUM is the utility token within its network. In September 2021 it launched to ATOM stakers and OSMO liquidity providers an airdrop of 15% of their total supply with the following minimum requirements to be eligible:

   • At least staking 5 ATOM.
   • At least providing 30 OSMO in liquidity pools.

6. Stargaze Airdrop: Stargaze is one of the first NFT markets to be launched on Cosmos. It aims to be decentralised from the very start, fully owned and governed by its users. At the end of 2021, it launched an airdrop of its $STARS token to those with:

   • ATOM Staking
   • OSMO Staking
   • Staking with the Stargaze validator on Cosmos Hub
   • Staking with the Stargaze validator in Osmosis
   • Staking with Stargaze validator on Regen Network

To receive the airdrop the stakers had to:

• Complete some tasks to claim tokens, in the same way that Osmosis and Rabbithole have done.
• Have at least 5 ATOM or 50 OSMO in staking.

7. **Bitsong Airdrop: Bitsong is a multifunctional blockchain created to empower the music industry. It aims to create a decentralized marketplace for the music space powered by the $BTSG token that includes fan tokens and NFTs. In early 2022, it launched an airdrop to ATOM, OSMO and JUNO stakers. To be eligible, you only need to have these tokens in staking, no need to complete any additional tasks.

We can see how the projects that are starting to build in Cosmos, besides promoting themselves through their airdrops to attract users, encourage the use of their network and as such, the usability of ATOM. It is a unique formula which purpose is the expansion and growth of the ecosystem as a whole.

And as you might expect, the airdrops are not over and are still in motion. If you still have an airdrop to claim, don't let it go! If you don't want to miss out on any more aidrops and want to have a better chance of being eligible from now on, we recommend you start staking ATOM as soon as possible and keep an eye out for announcements of the next projects, they might have something for you soon:

• Agoric
• Axelar
• Evmos
• Tgrade
• Umee
• Decentralized Web Services
• Archway
• Celestia
• OmniFlix Network

May the luck be with you!