Airdrops are once again back in style following the recent five-figure token drop from the Ethereum Name Service protocol that kicked off a flurry of protocol engagements from hopeful crypto enthusiasts looking to get in on the next “crypto stimulus check.”
Paraswap is the most recent project to reward early adopters, despite their early October statement that the project had no intention of conducting an airdrop. The decentralized exchange aggregator is designed to help decentralized finance traders and decentralized applications find the best rates currently available in the market.
ParaSwap is not planning any airdrop
— ParaSwap (@paraswap) October 1, 2021
This attempt to throw airdrop hunters was likely done to prevent crypto holders from trying to “game the system” by conducting a Sybil attack in which one account uses multiple fake addresses to interact with Paraswap’s interface as a way to obtain a larger airdrop.
Unfortunately for many honest DeFi users, ParaSwap’s attempt to weed out nefarious actors appears to have gone overboard as data indicates that out of the 1.3 million addresses that interacted with the protocol, only 20,000 are eligible for the PSP airdrop.
I’d been using Paraswap with like 6 wallets, but only received the airdrop in one of my least-used wallets.
Pumped to claim some $PSP, but seems like many early and dedicated users are ineligible.
The requirements are prob overly restrictive, disappointing for the community
— Goose (@DavidJGoosey) November 15, 2021
The increased scrutiny that led to only 0.015% of the total number of wallets that interacted with the platform qualifying for the airdrop has been a boon for those who did qualify because the smaller pool of participants resulted in a larger allocation of PSP tokens to each qualifying wallet.
Users in the lowest airdrop tier received 5,200 PSP tokens while the middle tier received 7,800 PSP and the most active traders received 10,400 PSP tokens.
Despite the uproar the qualification criteria caused with the DeFi community, most recipients are staking their new PSP tokens for up to 643% APY.
— ParaSwap (@paraswap) November 15, 2021
Related: OMG price crashes by one-third after BOBA airdrop snapshot
Data from CoinGecko shows that in its first day of trading, the price of PSP has ranged from a high of $2.10 shortly after launch to a low of $1.18 at midday and is trading at a price of $1.43 at the time of writing.
Assuming PSP price holds at the current levels, it could mark yet another five-figure stimulus check for DeFi users who continue to benefit from their willingness to interact with new protocols and help evolve the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
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