Monad airdrop query goes live, almost all testnet users “get rekt”?

Original article from Odaily Asher

"1 million NFTs, 1,200 testnet transaction records, over 100 faucet claims, 8 months of weekly activity, more than 50 mainnet interaction records, a mainnet balance of 0.05 ETH, over $50,000 in mainnet transaction volume, wallet age over 4 years, and yet not eligible for the Monad token airdrop."

Last night, the Monad airdrop checker (link: https://claim.monad.xyz/) finally went live, and the hopes of "airdrop hunters" were dashed—almost all early testnet participants were "counter-farmed."

Who was the Monad airdrop distributed to?

According to official information, this Monad airdrop distributed tokens to 5,500 Monad community members and nearly 225,000 members of the broader crypto community. The specific airdrop allocation for these 225,000 "broader crypto community users" is as follows:

• DEX trading users: Users who traded on the Hyperliquid platform and Phantom wallet (spot and perpetual contracts), corresponding to EVM/Solana chains;
• Meme trading users: Users who participated in meme coin trading on platforms such as Pump.fun and Virtuals, corresponding to EVM/Solana chains;
• DeFi deposit users: Users who deposited large amounts into major decentralized finance protocols such as Aave, Euler, Morpho, Pendle, Lighter, Curve, PancakeSwap, and Uniswap;
• DAO governance users: Recent active participants in DAO governance of major DeFi protocols on Ethereum;
• Long-term NFT holders: Users holding well-known NFTs such as Azuki, Chimpers, CryptoPunks, Doodles, Fluffle, Hypurr, Mad Lads, Meebits, Milady Maker, Moonbirds, Pudgy Penguins, Redacted Remilio Babies, Sappy Seals, Solana Monkey Business, and Wassies, corresponding to EVM/Solana chains;
• Monad Cards holders: Most of these holders are KOLs and Web3 media on the X platform;
• Mainstream platform users: Participants in the Legion fundraising platform, Backpack users, and Fantasy Top hero players;
• Active users in partner communities: MetaDAO token holders, ARC community members, active participants in the LobsterDAO Telegram group, and well-known Farcaster users, etc.;
• Security experts and researchers: Monad specifically included well-known crypto detective ZachXBT, SEAL 911 organization members, Cantina selected auditors who made significant audit findings, and Protocol Guild members identified through Splits contract review, among others.

In addition, the addresses that received the airdrop are divided into 6 levels, with the specific number of tokens still undisclosed:

• Community Last???
• You're cooked
• Permament underclass
• Mid, but we like you
• Top 99%
• Participation Award

Community Last??? level illustration

The detailed rules for Monad's airdrop distribution have been met with complete disapproval from the community. On one hand, this airdrop only distributed tokens to 5,500 community members, which is obviously too few. According to community feedback, almost all users who actively participated in early testnet interactions were eliminated, and the official selection criteria were not disclosed, leading to serious concerns about transparency. On the other hand, most of the airdrop shares went to "general on-chain active users" who have little connection to the Monad project, leaving the early participants who truly supported ecosystem development deeply disappointed.

"Meme image" expressing community dissatisfaction with Monad token distribution

Testnet users who were "counter-farmed" may only be able to "hunt for exchange airdrops" now

Despite the complaints and criticism, any opportunity to "farm airdrops" should not be missed. Although early users were largely "counter-farmed," Monad is still one of the hottest projects, and major mainstream exchanges are highly likely to list it at TGE, possibly launching various token airdrop campaigns. The specific strategies for token airdrop hunting are as follows:

"Accumulate" enough Binance Alpha points or hold BNB tokens

Last month, most popular projects allocated a certain number of token airdrops to Binance Alpha, and in many cases, the share for Binance Alpha users was much higher than that for early project participants. Therefore, although there have been many "low-value" airdrop projects on Binance Alpha since October, it is still worth continuing to accumulate points before Monad's TGE—perhaps Monad will be the "next big airdrop" for Binance Alpha. In addition, popular projects like Monad may be listed on Binance spot, so users holding BNB tokens may also have a chance to receive MON token airdrops.

Pay attention to airdrop campaigns on major exchanges

Generally speaking, for hot projects like Monad, most mainstream centralized exchanges will launch both contract and spot trading, and to attract users, there will be various token reward programs, such as depositing USDT to "earn free tokens," trading to earn tokens, inviting new users to earn tokens, and so on—these are worth paying attention to.

In addition, the next project on OKX Boost may also be Monad, so users should weigh their wallet balance and trading volume to decide whether to "top up" in order to qualify for the airdrop.

So, with almost all users "counter-farmed" in the Monad testnet, is it still worth interacting with Monad ecosystem projects for airdrop hunters, or should they "change their approach" and focus on participating in Binance Alpha or OKX Boost to hunt for token airdrops?