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What exactly is an airdrop, though? When it comes to crypto tokens, an airdrop is typically a way for a project to reward its early users and contributors by giving them a share of a newly launched token, all while spreading the tokens far and wide for decentralized governance.
When it comes to blockchain networks and tokens primed specifically for gaming, there are some pretty compelling airdrops on the horizon in the months ahead. Here’s a look at what’s coming for gamers—there may still be time to get involved and score some tokens ahead.
Portal
Portal is one of the buzziest airdrops of the year, though it has also been controversial. The multi-chain gaming token, designed to bridge the gap between Web3 games across various blockchains, has incentivized crypto users to earn credit towards the airdrop by creating, sharing, and interacting with Twitter content—which they did en masse.
And it paid off, at least for some of those users. PORTAL debuted on February 29 via Binance after a Launchpool rewards campaign that saw users stake over $9 billion worth of crypto to earn the gaming token. If you were eligible for the airdrop, you can claim your tokens now through the project's dashboard.
Portal debuted to a market cap above $500 million, though it has dipped since, and is one of the biggest gaming token launches of the year. On top of that, the team said that it plans to continue its airdrop farming campaign with new seasons, and also that it's launching staking benefits that include early access to games, as well as to token and NFT sales.
Notcoin
Notcoin is a gaming project that runs on messaging app Telegram, and it has racked up over 26 million players who are frantically tapping a shiny coin to mine trillions of Notcoin.
What's the point? Well, it's not a real crypto token yet—but Notcoin plans to mint the token on The Open Network (TON) in the next few weeks and offer tokens to players based on the virtual coins they mined in the game. Don't ease up, though: the project said on March 1 that it will purge the Notcoins earned from inactive accounts that haven't been used in 30 days.
Saga Protocol
Saga is a new blockchain network designed primarily for gaming, so it makes sense that the way to potentially earn a share of the upcoming airdrop is by playing games. In December, Saga launched a “play-to-airdrop” campaign across several games running on testnet, with the top leaderboard finishers set to earn a share of SAGA tokens.
In fact, Saga CEO Rebecca Liao told Decrypt’s GG that some players might ultimately earn “double airdrops,” since games may also launch their own tokens and award them to early users. The Saga mainnet is set to go live in spring 2024, with more competitions set to take place in the coming months.
Saga has also revealed that some users on Polygon, Avalanche, Cosmos, and Celestia will also be eligible to claim tokens in the airdrop. Furthermore, Saga is launching a "Three Kingdoms" play-to-airdrop campaign across games on Solana, Polygon, and Avalanche, including heavy hitters like Parallel, Shrapnel, and Gas Hero.
Nifty Island
Launched in open beta in January, Nifty Island is a sandbox-style game that mashes up the feel of Animal Crossing, Roblox, and Fortnite's Creative mode, letting you customize your own island and play with other users. And it offers a play-to-airdrop campaign with many different ways to potentially earn ISLAND tokens.
According to a tweet thread, Nifty Island will award users points based on factors like how much they play, how many players they refer into the game, and which other NFT assets they own in connected wallets. It's unclear when the token drop will happen, but people are flooding in to get a potential share of the ISLAND launch ahead.
Nyan Heroes
Solana hero shooter Nyan Heroes, which features cats piloting giant mech suits, is set to launch its early access version in the near future and debut a play-to-airdrop campaign alongside it. Details are still to come, but the Overwatch-like shooter—which is listed in the Epic Games Store—will award NYN tokens to early players. Owners of Nyan Heroes NFTs will be eligible for even greater token rewards.
Apeiron
Along with Pixels, here's another game running on Axie Infinity's Ronin chain that's doing an airdrop campaign. Apeiron is billed as a glossy mash-up of classic god games (like Populous) and card-battling "roguelite" experiences, delivering an experience that's sure to require careful strategy.
In January, Apeiron revealed a play-to-airdrop campaign that will reward players of the Epic Games Store battle demo with points towards the future ANIMA token drop, along with incentives for completing other actions or owning certain NFTs. Click here for more details.
Shuffle
Crypto casino Shuffle is planning three airdrop waves for its SHFL token on Ethereum, in an effort to reward users from its first year of operation. The online platform, which supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other coins, plans to kickstart the drop during the first week of March. Shuffle says 28% of its token supply will go to airdrops.
AI Arena
AI Arena, a game that pairs Super Smash Bros-style brawling with artificial intelligence smarts, is launching a play-to-airdrop campaign with 40 million NRN tokens up for grabs. Another 40 million tokens will be allocated for the game's NRN prize boxes. The game challenges players to train AI combatants that fight automatically on their behalf. The play-to-airdrop drive is underway with the token launch expected in about three months, the developers told Decrypt.
WUFFI
The WAX blockchain has been promoting the upcoming airdrop for a "gaming meme coin" called WUFFI, albeit with the token name WUF, which will apparently start on WAX and then expand to Solana at some point.
WUF took a snapshot of eligible holders on January 31 ahead of an eventual first airdrop wave, but no timing has been confirmed for the actual drop. Numerous WAX games and apps have pledged to support the incoming token.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
Editor's note: This story was originally published on December 27, 2023 and was last updated with new info on March 2.