Back in 2018, Stellar Development teamed up with Blockchain.com to execute one of the biggest airdrops of the time. The giveaway amounted to an astounding $125 million in XLM.
The criteria was simple. Create or own a wallet, go through the KYC, wait and watch.
However, things did not go in route. At the time, only 3-4% of the 30-40m wallets claimed the airdrop. Quick maths: 5% of 40m would be 2mil. That means less than 2m wallets from a vast 40m wallets actually claimed the "largest airdrop" of the time.
I could not find the exact amount of XLM claimed in the airdrop. The median was around 400m XLM. Out of which, ~300m was already moved from their wallets to exchanges.
This is something we are very used to, today - dumping. Free things do not, usually, carry much value. They are FREE. They take nothing to get, and get you something from nothing.
On the other hand, XRP. Arguably one of the stronger Alts in the market, until recently. Right after the airdrop on Dec 12, followed a steep 13% drop. Action and reaction kind of speed.
XRP is now on the brink of being concerned as the worst performing major alt. Could you blame the airdrop? Or was it an imminent catalyst to the ongoing downtrend that tagged along XRP?
Unless and until a stimuli, in the form of airdrop or other, XRP's tides don't tend to shift towards the bull.
Where does LeoFinance stand in all this?
Countless times we have witnessed airdrops take the worst turn. In this "warm up" post of 4000+ words, I first came across the airdrop and "holding company" announcement. In typical Leo style, the post tried to hold back from spitting too much information.
Most of the Leo posts feel like a balloon about to burst, but just hanging on. It makes them interesting and very suspenseful. Keeps you itching for more. Take the instance of Khal making announcement about announcements. Jeeee.
Leo intends to release a new project that potentially extends the branches of Leo's efforts. And to rocket launch the project, an airdrop would certainly attract the fuel to the jets. Although, the project is yet to be disclosed, Khal released a new post further discussing it.
The twitter announcement instantly blew up. The Leo post followed a similar trend.
I wanted to see how was it effecting the traffic.
Turns out, activity on LeoFinance.io has significantly increased following a growing trend.
This is what the activity looks like at Alexa Ranks.
$LEO has picked up the pace as more people are trying to cash in on the airdrop by buying up as much as possible. This takes out the cheap tokens and starts bringing in the green candles.
The last time LEO reached similar volumes against swap.hive was almost half a month ago.
Two days back scaredycat made an interesting analysis on WLEO. I would love to see the contrast the chart shows now.
Given, we look at airdrops differently than we did in 2018. Yes, XRP is in now way close to LEO and all of its branches in many ways.
I believe there is no objective predicament if airdrops work or not. They are very subjective and the correct answer would be "DEPENDS".
In the case of Leo, we have seen how much it has grown in the last few months. We have witnessed how much work is going into the entirety of the project to take it to new heights. Constant development screams potential. And who wouldn't want to be part of the "next big thing".
So far, there is little to no information about the project except the "it's a car and has 4 wheels" kind of vagueness to it.
I believe we will keep seeing the uptrend in the graphs, and soon after the airdrop a steep downfall.
Not for long, though. There are believer and short timers. While the short timers will profit off from the "free" aspect of the airdrop, the believers will be more than happy to pick up the cheap orders and execute the long-term plan.
