Complete airdrop strategy to get high-quality rewards without burning out in 2026
“Just grind harder” is the worst advice for airdrops. KOLs promise you great returns if you keep clicking buttons, but they will forever be tightly coupled to your time ‘in the trenches’.
The moment you stop clicking, you won’t get rewards anymore.
That’s what happens when you don’t have a roadmap (I didn’t in 2023) to decide what airdrops to interact with, only to blindly trust everything you see on CT.
So if you don’t want to be horribly burnt out because you’re doing actions that drain you (like what happened to me), this framework helps you take back control and build an airdrop strategy that you truly enjoy:
Airdrops were meant to be fun, not something you hate
Cynicism is everywhere on CT about how airdrops have died.
We’re so jaded by the next launch because time after time, the tokens turned out to be useless.
For every chat group I’m in, there’s someone complaining that no airdrops are cooking, and there’s nothing to farm right now.
Airdrops have changed completely because of the Sybil war and projects becoming greedier, but they should be treated the same as always by us:
Have fun while exploring new protocols and getting airdrops as a byproduct of our actions.
Instead, it’s become something that we’re ‘forced’ to do, ticking off items on our ‘daily grind’ checklist and performing tasks that can be replicated by anyone.
And that’s why so many airdrop hunters are burnt out right now:
They are stuck on an endless hamster wheel, interacting with projects they hate, just to get tokens they would dump immediately for a poor return.
Here’s how I’m treating airdrops differently now:
Adopt Airdrop Minimalism by doing 90% less while earning 10x more because I choose to interact with protocols that I enjoy (and not everything).
This is the framework I’m using to find these protocols:
The DTRI framework for finding better airdrops
This framework involves 4 key steps: Decide, Test, Reflect, Iterate.
Decide on your initial convictions
KOLs on CT are telling you to farm this or farm that project as it’ll give you your next 5-figure airdrop, because of the past successes they’ve seen with similar projects.
Just like how everyone is raving over perp DEXes until I’ve lost count of how many platforms there are now.
But everyone has different time and capital constraints. These KOLs could have more capital or more time to grind that gives them a better result.
So instead of blindly trusting everything you see on the timeline, it’s time to start looking at every post through this lens:
So this worked for them, and I could learn some lessons from their strategies. But it doesn’t mean that I’ll get the same result as them.
Everyone wants to push their truths on you on the timeline, hyping up something just to get attention (and likely, you to farm the same protocol through their referral link).
I made the mistake in 2023 when I followed every Ardizor thread religiously, completing everything he shared in his threads until I started to question the value of these interactions.
That’s when I started thinking for myself and adapting a strategy that works for me based on whatever I’ve read on CT.
And that’s the more sustainable way of finding projects that you like to interact with:
Start with a small number of protocols that you think you like to interact with. It could be a certain category of apps that energises you, instead of draining you.
It could be something as simple as LP-ing on a new DEX can help me earn profits and qualify me for an airdrop.
This conviction has to come from you, instead of letting others tell you what is right.
And once you’ve decided on them, here’s how we find how effective they are:
Test your convictions
The cost of inaction is too high. Instead of spending too much time thinking about what’s best for you, just take action.
Again, this has to be a small number of protocols to avoid burning out.
Too many KOLs and airdrop accounts are shilling anything and everything for engagement, just because of their fundraising amount, or because they have a point system.
But many of them have zero skin in the game. They can’t give you a compelling reason why the protocol is actually useful, except for certain hype terms that capture the most attention.
In this age of infinite leverage where you can do or build anything, judgment becomes the most important skill in airdrops to decide what you should do based on the limited time you have.
Judgment is built through doing and finding your truths, but only when you do this:
Reflect on your results
Each airdrop is either a win or a failure. And with both results, there’s a new truth that you can add to your personal library:
Win: What did I do that helped me get this result? How could I replicate it again, or do even better next time?
Lose: What didn’t work for me this time? How could I avoid future mistakes like this again?
Usually when someone loses, they adopt the victim mentality and blame every other factor except themselves.
The team are full of scammers, BTC is doing badly, and so on.
But you could learn so much more if you take responsibility for your actions and the time and effort wasted, so you know what to skip in the future.
Instead of focusing on tactics like ‘I used this trick to 10x my points’, focus on principles that you can adapt to any situation so you’ll continue earning airdrops in the future.
This is how I’ve evolved my strategy over time:
Galxe campaigns like MANTA gave me good returns because of low participation, so I started finding more campaigns with decent prize pools and few participants
Campaigns started burning me out because of the mindless grind, and I wanted something more passive like retroactive airdrops, where we get rewarded because of our onchain actions
Onchain actions are no longer enough because they can be easily Sybiled, so we need the social pillar to build a Magnetic Reputation
Burnout is due to doing actions that I hate, and these are the ones that I’ve tried and learnt that I disliked because it deviates away from my goal of time freedom:
Perp DEXes (I don’t want to spend time monitoring my positions)
Prediction markets (I don’t want to spend time being in the trenches to find the latest alpha)
Multiple wallet farming (it’s a huge time sink having to manage them all)
Yapping (being a paid ad billboard ruins my reputation)
I find that the most effective way to reflect on your results is (unfortunately) through writing. I know many of you would hate writing, but it gives you clarity by taking the jumbled thoughts in your brain and writing them down in a clear and structured way.
And it’s even better if you share these reflections publicly, as it helps you build up a reputation based on your judgment (and they amplify your actions).
Others who share the same worldview will naturally resonate with your content, which could give you greater opportunities with an increased luck surface area.
Reflection gives our truths meaning, and lets us build a stronger mental process for airdrops:
Iterate and build a framework
We found our truths by doing and reflecting on whether an airdrop worked for us or not. With this new information, we can adapt our strategy to find better airdrops that are suited for our unique circumstances.
I found that building a framework (here’s mine) keeps my thoughts in check, so I can reference it at any time to critique a new airdrop, or refine it with any new truths I’ve found.
What I won’t recommend is doing what I did at the start of airdrops, where I kept finding new projects to interact with and it spread my time and capital thinly across all of them.
While it helped me to learn faster because I kept doing, I didn’t iterate quickly enough through reflections and it was a pain having to consolidate all of my funds afterwards (since they were on different L2s and protocols).
Instead, I would recommend starting with a small number first and then slowly iterate on what works for you the most.
Airdrops don’t have to be a mindless grind
This DTRI framework helps you to spot better airdrops for yourself, and build a Magnetic Reputation at the same time:
One that attracts rewards to you passively because you’ve proven that you’re a high-value individual who stands out from any Sybil.
The Magnetic Skill Stack includes:
Sensemaking (finding your truths and convictions)
Signal Creation (doing and reflecting on the results)
Judgment (iterating and building a framework that works for you)
Airdrops should be a tool for freedom, instead of one that consumes your whole life at the expense of your health, family, and other commitments.
So build your Magnetic Reputation as a high-leverage asset that attracts these rewards without burning you out.
More on my ideas of Airdrop Magnetism can be found here.
Airdrop Magnetism Academy is a 14-day live cohort designed to help you build a reputation and earn recognition from high-signal accounts without relying on the algorithm or grinding content.
Early-bird pricing is still available with limited spots.