Ethereum layer-2 network Starknet has stunned members of the crypto community with its STRK airdrop, a giveaway that has proven quite lucrative for two airdrop hunters.
Airdrops are typically an avenue through which emerging crypto projects jumpstart their debut, leveraging the token freebies to form the initial liquidity that powers their operations.
In its bid to bolster its growing influence as an Ethereum scaling solution, Starknet allocated 700 million STRK for the airdrop campaign with more than 200 million claimed within hours.
Per data from crypto analytics platform Lookonchain, at least 2 hunters carted away with over 2.652 million STRK with a price tag of more than $5.4 million.
Exploiting the Airdrop Game
Per the Lookonchain data, a trader received a total of 1,432,800 STRK valued at approximately $3 million per the price of the token at the time of release. This airdrop hunter received the tokens through 1,361 wallets, underscoring the intentionality that was expended in the hunt.
Another hunter got about 1,220,000 STRK valued at $2.4 million. This particular airdrop was claimed using approximately 1,800 wallets.
One of the two lucky airdrop winners has started moving the STRK received. Per on-chain data, the 1,361 wallets that received the 1.432 million STRK have transferred the tokens to a wallet labeled “0x027c…9078” after claiming the airdrop.
Another airdrop hunter also received 1.22M $STRK($2.4M) via ~1.8K wallets.https://t.co/MCkUjWGFijhttps://t.co/LMR3FIDCGJ pic.twitter.com/Xzh80FF5lH
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 21, 2024
The goal of airdrops, at least in Starknet’s case, is to distribute the STRK token to as many community members as possible. With the massive allocation these traders got, it is evident that some exploited the system.
Historical Airdrop Trends
Besides Starknet, there has been a rich record of crypto projects airdropping their native tokens to reward participation in their respective ecosystems.
As previously reported by The Crypto Basic, projects like Solana’s Jupiter (JUP) have also conducted successful airdrops in the past. In the JUP airdrop, some users also made millions of dollars, solidifying the trend in the airdrop scene.
The liquidity created with the STRK airdrop has pushed the token’s market valuation to $1,323,016,786, albeit with a 23.87% drop in 24 hours a beneficiaries scamper to sell off.