In brief
- The top five crypto airdrops in 2025 paid users more than $4.5 billion at their respective peaks.
- Top airdrops were led by tokens from new layer-1 networks like Story Protocol and Berachain.
- JUP, the token from Solana DEX aggregator made the list again, alongside ANIME and LINEA.
Crypto airdrops provided users a major stimulus in 2024, granting users more than $19 billion at all-time high token prices.
But 2025 was a different story, even as crypto majors like Bitcoin and Ethereum stampeded to new all-time highs. There were fewer high-profile token drops over the course of the year, and the peak gains weren’t quite as eye-popping this time around.
Nevertheless, the top five crypto airdrops accounted for $4.5 billion in “free money” for users, at peak prices. Below are some of the airdrops that rained funds on community members and token traders alike.
Story Protocol
Story Protocol launched its layer-1 network and IP token in February, aiming to disrupt the “rent-seeking intermediaries” that exist in the traditional world of intellectual property.
As part of its launch, the protocol provided around 10% of its IP token—about 100 million tokens—to its community and early users via an airdrop.
Those tokens, valued around $171 million as of December 15, peaked at greater than $1.4 billion in September when the IP token reached a new all-time high of $14.78. Since that time, though, the token has fallen nearly 89% to change hands around $1.71.
The network raised $80 million in 2024 to help shake up the world of IP in the era of AI.
Berachain
Proof-of-liquidity network Berachain rewarded holders of its cannabis-smoking bear NFTs and other community participants with around 79 million BERA tokens upon the launch of its novel layer-1 network in February.
At its peak, the tokens were worth more than $1.17 billion, based on an all-time high price of $14.83 per BERA token.
Unfortunately for BERA token holders, the all-time high token price was achieved right after launch, and the token has been pretty much down only since, falling nearly 96% since February to change hands at $0.67 as of December 15.
The layer-1 network previously raised $100 million to build an EVM-identical competitor to Ethereum and Solana.
Jupiter
Solana-based DEX aggregator Jupiter rewarded users of its products with another “Jupuary” airdrop in January. This time around, Jupiter rewarded three different user groups with a total of 700 million JUP tokens.
At the peak price post-airdrop on January 27, users’ tokens were worth around $791 million, based on a price of $1.13 per JUP token.
That’s down from last year’s amount, when the protocol dropped 1 billion JUP tokens worth as much as $2 billion at Jupiter’s all-time high price of $2 from January 31, 2024.
Plus, the Jupiter DAO has already granted approval for another 700 million JUP tokens to be airdropped to eligible parties in January 2026—but that amounts to only $133 million as of December 15, far below its previous airdrop peaks as JUP traded at $0.19, 90% below its all-time high.
Animecoin
Animecoin (ANIME), a token from the team behind the Ethereum-based NFT collection Azuki, launched on Arbitrum in January.
Described as a culture coin with intentions of aligning incentives for Anime fans worldwide, the token provided 39.5% of the supply, or 3.95 billion tokens, to Azuki ecosystem NFT holders and partner communities upon token launch.
At its peak, the tokens were valued at around $711 million according to data from CoinGecko, which lists ANIME’s all-time high around $0.18.
The airdrop announcement created a short burst in the price of the Azuki NFT collection, sending the floor price—or price of the cheapest listed asset—as high as $41,505 on January 13. But since that time, the flagship project has fallen to just $2,139 as of December 15 according to NFT Price Floor, a drop of nearly 95%.
Similarly, ANIME was trading at just $0.006 on December 15—about 97% off its all-time high mark.
Linea
Ethereum layer-2 scaling network Linea earmarked 10% of its native LINEA token supply, or around 7.2 billion tokens, to early contributors.
It added another 2.1 billion tokens to others as part of its LINEA token airdrop, ultimately granting 9.36 billion LINEA tokens to nearly 750,000 eligible addresses.
At a peak, that amount was worth around $437 million based on a LINEA all-time high of $0.046, according to data from CoinGecko.
Another 75% off the token supply is ultimately set aside for network participants over the coming years, but LINEA has fallen around 85% from its peak, recently changing hands around $0.0067 on December 15.
(Disclaimer: Linea is incubated by Consensys, one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt).
Honorable mentions
InfoFi platform Kaito granted 12%, or around 120 million KAITO tokens, to eligible Binance users and its early community as part of a February airdrop.
That led to a peak airdrop reward of more than $345 million based on an all-time high price of $2.88 per KAITO token in late February. Those tokens would be worth just $64 million as of December 15, as KAITO traded at $0.54—down 81% from its all-time high mark.
The highly anticipated launch of Monad’s layer-1 network and MON token came in November. The community airdrop provided 3.3 billion MON tokens, valued at more than $162 million at a peak price of $0.048. The network’s token was offered to Coinbase users as part of its first token sale, as well.
Last but not least, Solana liquidity protocol Meteora set aside 15% of its MET tokens as part of its token generation event and novel airdrop mechanism, which allowed users to earn tokens as part of its “LP Stimulus Plan.” At peak, those 150 million tokens were worth around $103 million.
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