5 Airdrops to Watch for if You Missed Alt, Manta...

December 2023: Starknet announce their airdrop plan,

January 17, 2024: Manta launches the MANTA token and lists on Binance on January 18,

January 18, 2024: AltLayer announces the launch of the $ALT token and initiates an airdrop plan starting on January 25,

January 23, 2024: Zetachain's airdrop eligibility verification page goes live on ZetaHub.

Now is the time of harvest, and although the value of candies obtained varies for each individual, some may have reaped returns of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, while others may have only received less than a hundred dollars. Regardless of the amount, each transaction holds significant meaning.

The facts cannot be changed, but one can shift their focus to other potential airdrop projects:

Popular Infra Projects

Looking at the past value of airdrops, it can be observed that infrastructure has consistently been a track where wealth effects gather. Competition in this field is always fierce, with various parties engaging in intense battles driven by their interests. Despite the intense competition in the infrastructure track, we still need to actively participate:

zkSync

zkSync is a Layer-2 scaling solution that preserves the security properties of the underlying blockchain by leveraging the latest generation of succinct zero-knowledge proofs. All funds in zkSync are held in a smart contract on the mainchain, while computation and storage are performed off-chain. For each Rollup block, a state transition zero-knowledge proof (SNARK) is generated and verified by the mainchain contract. This SNARK includes the proof of the validity of every transaction in the Rollup block.

From 2019 to 2022, zkSync has completed a total of four financing rounds, with the most recent one occurring in November 2022, led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly, with participation from LightSpeed Venture Partners, Variant, and a16z, raising a total of $200 million.

Recently, there have been frequent rumors about zkSync snapshots, but the official website has not made any announcements. According to convention, snapshots are usually completed a few months before the token issuance, but the official statement is yet to be confirmed. It is advisable to stay engaged and interact more to increase account activity.

To explore the ecosystem, visit the official website and click on 'Explore’.

If the address on zkSync doesn't have any assets yet, you can use the cross-chain bridge:

Visit zksync lite, and choose your wallet connection. Here, I'm using MetaMask.

Input the amount of assets, click on 'Top Up' to transfer the assets from Ethereum to zkSync.

LayerZero

LayerZero is an Omnichain Interoperability Protocol designed for lightweight message passing across chains. It provides authentic and guaranteed message delivery with configurable trustlessness, implemented as a set of gas-efficient, non-upgradable smart contracts.

From 2021 to 2023, LayerZero has completed a total of three funding rounds. The latest round occurred in April 2023, securing $120 million in Series B financing, with a valuation of $3 billion. Investors included a16z, Sequoia Capital, IOBC Capital, BOND, Christie's, and Circle Ventures, among others.

The official statement indicates their goal to launch the token in the first half of 2024.

To participate, visit the official website, click on 'Ecosystem,' and then select the corresponding project for interaction. Detailed tutorials are available online, so I won't go into further details here. You can search for relevant keywords to find more information.

Scroll

Scroll is a zkEVM-based zkRollup on Ethereum that enables native compatibility for existing Ethereum applications and tools. It processes transactions off-chain and posts succinct proofs of correctness on-chain, resulting in higher throughput and lower costs compared to the Ethereum base layer.

As of now, Scroll has completed a total of three funding rounds, with the most recent one occurring in early 2023, securing $30 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Robot Ventures, Geometry DAO, and others.

To participate, visit the official website, click on 'Ecosystem,' and then select the corresponding project for interaction.

Other Potential Projects

Projects like the aforementioned three are currently highly regarded in the infrastructure track, attracting a large number of participants and enduring for an extended period. While they may be worth exploring, qualifying for participation at this stage might be challenging. Below, I will focus on some popular DApps within thriving ecosystems:

Orbiter Finance

Orbiter Finance is a decentralized cross-rollup bridge for transferring Ethereum native assets, providing the infrastructure for Layer 2.In Orbiter Finance, there are two roles they are Sender and Maker. When the Sender initiates a transfer, the Maker provides liquidity for it. The smart contract ensures the security of this process. If the Maker does bad behaviors and the transfer fails, the Sender can initiate an arbitration request to the contract with Maker’s margin and then get the excess compensation.

From 2022 to 2024, Orbiter has successfully completed 2 funding rounds, with the latest one occurring on January 11, 2024, for an undisclosed amount. This year, Orbiter Finance summarized its achievements in 2023 and outlined its outlook for 2024 on their social media accounts. They expressed gratitude to their loyal community and confirmed plans to launch their native token this year. They will gradually unveil the tokenomics and distribution plans to ensure a fair process.

Currently, they have introduced the Points system, and it is anticipated that Points will be a crucial metric for airdrop considerations. The tasks for earning Points are relatively straightforward at the moment:

Special attention should be given to the first part of the mentioned infrastructure, as Orbiter is Cross-chain dApp, supporting multiple chains. It is recommended to actively engage in various transactions across different chains to enhance participation.

Scallop

Scallop is the pioneering Next Generation Money Market for the Sui ecosystem. By emphasizing institutional-grade quality, enhanced composability, and robust security, we are dedicated to building a dynamic money market that offers high-interest lending, low-fee borrowing, AMM, and asset management tool on a unified platform and offering an SDK for professional traders.

Last week, Cetus secured investment, but the amount has not been disclosed. Recently, there has been a surge in the SUI ecosystem, particularly in the Total Value Locked (TVL) data, with Scallop's TVL ranking first within the entire SUI ecosystem.

The first phase of snapshots has been completed, aimed at supporting early supporters of Scallop, including Zealy participants and verified Sui Scalloper roles on Discord. It might be worth waiting for the second phase. Currently, Scallop has also launched activities on TaskOn. To experience Scallop's lending features, the amount needs to be greater than 5U.

Market hotspots are transient and scattered, especially in times when clear investment opportunities are lacking. What we can do is seize every opportunity worth exploring. Perhaps, by doing so, we might uncover the next valuable asset ahead of time. After all, taking action may not guarantee success, but inaction certainly guarantees nothing.