👋🏽 Hello everyone, gm gm, WELCOME BACK to another edition of the Overpriced JPEGs newsletter!
Today, we’re talking about airdrops on Solana, the hottest new narrative that everyone’s excited about.
What you’ll read below is an airdrop guide put together by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, showcasing potential upcoming airdrops that should be on your radar.
This type of content is a little bit different from what we typically do, so, if you enjoy it, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.
Yesterday, Jito airdropped 90 million $JTO tokens, worth over $330 million, to 9,852 unique addresses, and I got thousands of dollars for it. 🤯
The best part? I never really farmed this airdrop. 😂 The reason I became eligible is because a few months ago, I started to play around within the Solana ecosystem.
I just bridged, swapped and staked some tokens, and voila, free money. 🤑
This reminds me of the airdrop season from the last cycle, when I made over $20,000 from tokens like $UNI, $ENS, $OP, $ARB and a few others that I can’t even remember.
But I’m not writing this to brag! Yesterday, we asked the community if they got into this airdrop. 95% missed it.
We’re about to change that, because today, I have a list of upcoming Solana airdrops that are set to distribute millions of dollars to active participants, and I’ll show you what to do to become eligible.
But first… Why are airdrops happening right now?
It’s simple: demand!
Here’s the thing. During bear markets, everyone’s quiet, scared to invest, so the demand is very low, especially for new tokens.
During bull markets, it’s different. People are hyped up, FOMO is creeping in and new people are entering the markets.
During times like these, the liquidity, active users and overall demand goes through the roof, which makes airdrops a lot more interesting. 📈
I suspect that all protocols/applications that have wanted to launch a token, have all been waiting for prices to go back up, so it’d make sense for them to do it.
We’re at a point in time where opportunities are too easy for you to miss, so today, I’ll share a list of imminent airdrops & tell you how to become eligible. 🚀
P.S. - The goal of airdrops is to decentralize governance & that’s the core reason for why they’re occurring.
Time is valuable in a bull market so let’s get right into it. ⏬
I will start with the 5 easiest airdrops you can farm right now, and give you an exact route that you can take to do so.
5 Easy Airdrops You Can Farm
Okay, so I’ll just assume that you’ve never airdrop farmed before and that you have 0 assets on Solana. Let’s get you sorted & farm the MayanSwap airdrop in the process.
MayanSwap (+Wormhole)
MayanSwap is a decentralized exchange on Solana for swapping assets and bridging between Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Solana networks.
You’ll use MayanSwap to bridge some funds from Ethereum to Solana. Here’s how.
First, make sure you have funds ($ETH/$USDC/$USDT) on your Ethereum wallet (Metamask or Coinbase Wallet).
Then head to MayanSwap & connect your wallet.
Then, pick the token & blockchain you want to swap from, and the token & blockchain you want to swap to.
I swapped $ETH (Ethereum) to $SOL (Solana).
The gas I paid in total was about $15 and it took ~20 minutes for the bridge to complete.
Cool. You have now bridged some funds to Solana & you’re also closer to getting a MayanSwap airdrop. Congrats.
P.S. - MayanSwap is using the Wormhole bridge in the back-end & by using Mayan, you could qualify for a potential Wormhole airdrop too. A great 2-in-1 deal.
MayanSwap + Jupiter
Wait, Kyle, didn’t we just do MayanSwap? And didn’t Jupiter already airdrop their $JUP token?
Yes, and yes! But there’s still an opportunity to do more…
Both MayanSwap and Jupiter are decentralized exchanges, allowing you to swap between tokens, an action that could get you an airdrop.
So let’s do that, because in order to farm the next airdrops on today’s list, we need another token, other than $SOL, and that’s JitoSOL (Jito Staked SOL).
Important: While a $JUP airdrop has already happened, only 10% of the tokens have been distributed so you can still qualify for future allocations.
Now here’s what I’ve done.
I’ve split the $SOL I deposited 50/50 and traded half on MayanSwap and the other half on Jupiter for JitoSOL (to farm on both exchanges).
P.S. - You can do much more if you have the time & funds! On Jupiter, you can set limit orders for swaps, DCA, bridge or even trade futures.
Feel free to explore more opportunities, but for this newsletter, I’m just looking to keep it simple.
MarginFi
MarginFi is an application for lending, borrowing, and margin trading across various protocols.
To qualify for a potential MarginFi airdrop, you can participate in their points program by lending & borrowing, which I’ll now do with the JitoSOL I just got.
Simply head to MarginFi and start by lending JitoSOL.
Once you do, you’ll be able to borrow assets. I decided to borrow mSOL (and I’ll tell you why in a sec).
By doing all of this, you farm the MarginFi airdrop like this:
Lend Assets: Earn 1 point per day for every dollar lent on MarginFi. Supported assets include stablecoins, SOL, mSOL, etc.
Borrow Assets: Borrowing earns more points (4 points per day for each dollar borrowed). You can deposit collateral like mSOL and borrow assets like SOL, ensuring to maintain a healthy loan-to-value ratio.
Additionally, you can also earn additional points by referring new users to MarginFi. You'll receive 10% of the points earned by the users you refer.
If you want to get started, you can use my referral link. But keep in mind I get points if you use it.
Kamino Finance
Kamino Finance is a platform that allows you to borrow/lend assets, supply liquidity, participate in futures trading and more… It’s similar to MarginFi.
They’re teasing points on their website, which are probably accruing to people using their platform right now!
Here’s how you can get started to accrue points.
Head to Kamino Finance & connect your wallet.
Now, remember I just borrowed some mSOL on MarginFi? That will come in handy here, because I’ll use that mSOL to lend it on Kamino.
Essentially what I’ve done so far is this:
Farm MayanSwap & Wormhole by bridging from ETH to SOL
Farm MayanSwap & Jupiter by swapping $SOL to $JitoSOL
Farm MarginFi by lending $JitoSOL & by borrowing $mSOL
Farm Kamino by lending the $mSOL I borrowed from MarginFi
You could add another step into the mix by staking $SOL on Marinade Finance, where you get a nice 9% APY, and also receive the mSOL token.
Then you can lend mSOL on MarginFi, and borrow bSOL from there. You can then put the bSOL to the bSOL-SOL liquidity pool on Kamino.
This would also get you some activity on Marinade Finance, an app that doesn’t yet have a token (but could be coming soon).
Genius? Maybe… But beware of liquidations!
In DeFi, you can endlessly borrow/lend money but you always have a liquidation price, which, if you hit, you’ll lose all of your money that you’ve used to lend/borrow.
Read until the end where I’ll share more about how you can stay safe.
Okay, I’ve now shared 5 airdrops that you can farm pretty easily. Now, I’ll share 3 that aren’t so easy but might be worthwhile.
Tensor
Tensor is an app known for enabling advanced NFT trading activities and financial transactions. Kinda like Blur, but for Solana.
Similar to the $BLUR airdrop, Tensor has hinted at its own token drop.
To increase your chances of eligibility, you should:
Head to Tensor & connect your Solana wallet
List or place bids on the top 100 Solana NFT collections
Buy/sell the top 100 Solana NFTs
This one requires you to be somewhat skillful and active. It’s also a bit risky so if you’re going to do it, I suggest you bid/buy only on NFTs you don’t mind holding.
Alternatively, you could also snatch up a Tensorian NFT to boost your chances.
However, these have soared in price yesterday, with everyone farming this airdrop.
This is why this one’s a bit more difficult.
Backpack
Backpack is a decentralized exchange on Solana, enabling users to swap cryptocurrencies like SOL, PYTH, and USDC efficiently.
Backpack is also behind the current largest NFT collection on Solana (MadLads), and, most likely, being a holder will get you a hefty chunk of this airdrop.
But this NFT costs 236+ $SOL so if you don’t want to do that, you can simply swap between tokens to qualify.
Keep in mind though that trading requires KYC, which is why I’ve put it in this ‘harder to use it’ category.
Meteora
Meteora is a DeFi platform on Solana, known for its Dynamic Vaults and Pools.
It optimizes yield and reduces risk by rebalancing capital among lending protocols and uses idle liquidity from its pools to lend through these vaults, enhancing efficiency and liquidity in the Solana ecosystem.
According to a recent tweet, they’re focused on optimizing their platform right now, but will implement a 10% community stimulus, which are likely airdrop points for using their platform.
While this one might not accrue points today, it probably will after January 24th so keep an eye on it.
All you have to do to qualify for an airdrop (most likely) is provide liquidity on their platform.
Wrapping Up 🧵
Beware of risks!
When considering farming airdrops in early-stage DeFi applications, it's crucial to assess the risks, such as potential smart contract vulnerabilities, asset liquidation, or impermanent loss.
Remember, most of these applications launching tokens are brand new, so the risk here is higher than using blue chips like AAVE or Uniswap.
Additionally, as airdrop season picks up, there is a high likelihood that scam projects start promoting an upcoming airdrop and end up rugging your assets. Don’t just toss your money into anything!
Do your research first and/or stick to the more notable projects in the ecosystem, like we have suggested above.
My recommendation is to only farm with a small % of your overall portfolio. The last thing you want to do is lose your precious $SOL.
These moments don’t come often. Take advantage of them, but don’t get greedy and make sure to take profits!
Good luck out there. ✌️
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.