What to expect from crypto airdrops in 2025

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GM, Tim here.

A very Merry Christmas from everyone at DL News!

Last year, I predicted that the airdrop ‘points’ trend would grow in 2024. DeFi projects, fearful the US Securities and Exchange Commission would label their tokens securities, opted to issue points instead to avoid falling foul of regulations.

As we’ve seen with airdrops over the past 12 months, points have become more ubiquitous than ever.

With Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January set to usher in an era of looser crypto regulation, and SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s imminent resignation, the legal need to issue points instead of tokens may soon disappear.

Despite this, points will likely continue to play a major role in crypto airdrops in 2025, maybe to an even greater extent than they did this year. Here’s why.

The Hyperliquid effect

Issuing points in lieu of tokens has kept regulators at bay. But it has other benefits for DeFi protocols.

Done right, points campaigns are also an effective marketing tool. They can build loyalty and give users a sense of progression where one wouldn’t normally exist.

Perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid showed the power of points with its November token launch, which was arguably the most successful airdrop of the year.

Its points campaign and airdrop were praised for its generous allocation of tokens, and for rewarding users solely based on how much they used the exchange.

Any DeFi protocol planning to launch a token in 2025 would be mad not to attempt to replicate Hyperliquid’s success.

To be sure, Hyperliquid’s points campaign and airdrop are only part of the picture. The exchange itself is widely popular, and its HYPE token’s 623% rally since launch is largely due to investors wanting exposure because they believe in the project.

Several points campaigns and airdrops will probably attempt to replicate Hyperliquid’s success next year.

But investors must be careful. Whenever there’s a popular idea in crypto, those looking to make a quick buck will copy it in an attempt to piggyback off the association.

Looser regulations

My second prediction is that crypto projects that have previously held off on launching tokens will take the plunge.

The reason? A friendlier regulatory environment.

Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick for SEC Chair, is broadly viewed as pro-crypto. There is little doubt among the industry that his appointment will put an end to the SEC’s crypto crackdown.

Trump himself has a horse in the race. His associated DeFi project, World Liberty Financial, sold WLFI governance tokens to investors, but has kept them untradable, and makes explicit that the tokens are not securities.

We do not know yet whether World Liberty’s team wants to make the WLFI token tradable, just like almost every other governance token.

Many crypto projects will likely anticipate friendly token legislation from the Trump administration and will prepare accordingly.

2025 airdrop candidates

Several projects have already confirmed new, inbound airdrops, possibly in 2025.

Solana-based exchange aggregator Jupiter will conduct its second token airdrop in January, giving away $860 million worth of JUP.

Then there’s memecoin platform pump.fun. Its creators announced a future token in an X Spaces in October.

“We are definitely planning on launching a token at some point in the future,” pump.fun’s pseudonymous co-founder Sapijiju said.

Other projects that have hinted at launching tokens — possibly through airdrops — include betting platform Polymarket, and NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive. There will almost certainly be some surprise airdrops over the coming months. This is crypto after all.

Got a tip about DeFi? Reach out at tim@dlnews.com.