Retro drops: how millions of dollars end up in your wallet?

Retrodrop is when a crypto project suddenly gives tokens to those who used them before. It sounds like a fairy tale, but it's reality. Arbitrum has distributed over one billion dollars to 600 thousand addresses — on average $2000 per each. How did such an amount come about? The answer is simple: tokens are numbers whose price is determined by the market. The project attracted 100 million in investments but was valued at 1.5 billion, so it had plenty to generously distribute.

How do projects choose happiness?

Onchain activity is what you do on the blockchain:

• Number of transactions
• The amount of funds you transferred
• How long have you been active
• Which contracts did you interact with

Off-chain activity — this is outside the blockchain:

• Subscription to Discord, Twitter, Telegram
• Referral invitations
• Ambassadorial roles

Key Point: The criteria are often unknown in advance. Projects often combine both types of activities and provide bonus multipliers to those who have done both.

Real examples that worked

Arbitrum ($ARB): At least 3 out of 14 criteria — and already $625 tokens. The maximum was 10250. The project was so filled with criteria that even passive users received something.

Arkham ($ARKM): An extremely abnormal scheme – just register and get $150. For each referral, another $150. With 10 referrals, that's already $1500. People have literally gotten rich just by registering.

Maverick ($MAV): For $100 liquidity, one could obtain $450. Classic. The reward depended on TVL, holding time, voting, trading volumes, and even NFTs.

Why do projects do this?

1. Hype - it's simple, drop = news = people are talking about the project
2. Legitimacy — regulators are pressuring. Airdrop is considered a gift, not a sale, so it does not fall under securities.
3. Decentralization — tokens spread around the world, no one controls everything.
4. Loyal community — the people who received the drop are already your supporters. They will talk about the project.

How not to miss the next drop?

Checklist when choosing a project:

1. Twitter account — learn about the project, see followers (influential nodes?), what funds are backing the project?
2. Funding — the more good investors, the better the drop usually is. The total amount of investment — Arbitrum raised 100M, but was valued at 1.5B ( exit profit 15x)
3. Tokenomics — learn about the plans for token issuance. Discord, documentation, roadmap
4. Ecosystem — what major projects are already working there? It's good that there is already some activity there.

Actions to Take Right Now

• Bridge tokens - transfers between networks are often counted as a separate activity
• Swaps — exchange tokens, fill transactions
• Liquidity — add tokens to pools ( but choose projects with high TVL)
• Social — make sure to subscribe to Discord and Twitter, participate in events, receive roles (Sui gave $1200 for simple participation in Discord)
• NFT marketplaces — buy, sell, mint NFTs — this is also considered as an activity

Golden rule: DYOR (Do Your Own Research). Don't rely on advice, verify everything yourself. Retro airdrops are a real opportunity, but only if you choose projects wisely and not just chase every new pump.