Delphi Digital: Traditional Airdrops Conclude as Token Distribution Shifts

Delphi Digital has analyzed that traditional airdrops have effectively ended. According to Foresight News, distributing tokens to users to build a holder base often led to sell-offs. In major airdrops, between 78% and 94% of tokens were sold within 90 days by recipients. While Hyperliquid and Jito are cited as successful examples, their success was not due to the airdrops themselves. Hyperliquid conducted buybacks with over $1 billion in revenue to absorb sell pressure, and Jito's small eligible user base prevented large-scale token dumping. Token economics are now demanding genuine protocol performance, with MegaETH locking 53% of its supply based on performance targets, and Pendle using approximately 80% of its revenue for buybacks of staked tokens. Token distribution is shifting from simple giveaways to performance-based models.