The disappointing history of XRP airdrops
In hopes of attracting organic activity, airdrops were once a popular way to bootstrap adoption for new crypto networks. XRP was particularly attractive due to its ultra-low transaction fees.
When the SEC sued Ripple for conducting an unregistered securities sale in December 2020, several XRP-friendly airdrops were quickly launched.
Fearing that the US government might shut down the XRP Ledger, win a debilitating financial settlement against Ripple, or otherwise inhibit growth in the industry, many projects viewed early 2021 as the last opportunity to run a successful airdrop campaign to XRP token holders.
However, most social media accounts of airdrops from this time either no longer exist or have become inactive. Some accounts claimed to support a good cause; others used a celebrity’s image — possibly without permission — or used suspicious marketing tactics.
Flare (FLR) airdrop
The largest airdrop in XRP history was Flare. It took a snapshot of the XRP network on December 2020 — the same month that the SEC filed its lawsuit. It planned to reward XRP holders with its 1:1 FLR airdrop.
After a two-year wait, Flare finally conducted its airdrop in January 2023. Specifically, Flare airdropped 4.28 billion FLR, allocating 1 token for every 1 XRP held, as of its December 2020 snapshot.
Opening for trading north of $0.04, Flare initially seemed to be a $170 million market capitalization ‘gift’ to the XRP community. In reality, FLR immediately plummeted as airdrop recipients sold their gifts at any price.
The price of FLR has never recovered. Today, it trades 90% below its first day of trading.
Worse, Flare has steadily diluted the supply of FLR; original holders have been diluted from 4.28 billion to 18.9 billion circulating FLR tokens.
Initially, Flare had intended to build a DeFi app using XRP, but swiveled to a Layer 1 blockchain and oracle network. Google queries for XRP FLR peaked in January 2021 — shortly after Flare’s snapshot — and again in January 2023 during Flare’s airdrop. Nowadays, interest in this query is again languishing near lows.
Other airdrops to XRP holders
Most XRP airdrops are new projects looking for a little promotion. An XRPL validator called xpmarket launched in January 2022 and offered an XPcoin airdrop to anyone who signed into its website or scanned a code with the Xumm app.
That airdropped flopped and is now worth $0, according to its own website.
XRP Healthcare
XRP Healthcare’s planned roadmap promised to airdrop its token (XRPH) and independent XRPH wallets in Q4 2022. It joined Twitter in September 2022.
The earliest available price data indicates XRPH traded at a high of $0.228 and a low of $0.18 on February 10, 2023.
The token’s price history indicates an all-time high of nearly 30 cents on March 9, 2023.
As of July 3, 2023, it was hovering around $0.044 and had a fully diluted valuation of $4,454,002. XRP Healthcare capped XRPH’s supply at 100 million tokens.
Read more: Ripple network overloaded by airdrop spam, crypto wallets knocked offline
XNET
XNET promised to take a snapshot of the XRP network on January 12, 2024 and airdrop XNET tokens to XRP holders on March 20, 2024.
XNET’s all-time high price was $4; the same day it launched, on November 28, 2022.
Gecko Terminal places XNET’s current price at $0.035 with a fully diluted valuation of about $849 million. That’s a 99% decline.
CORE
Coreum planned a CORE airdrop for XRP holders. It scheduled its snapshot for March 24, 2023 with airdrops booked for April 1, June 1, August 1, and November 1, 2023. It also planned an XCORE token airdrop for May 15, 2023.
At Coreum Token’s launch on March 7, 2022, it reached a high of just over $0.69.
As of July 3, 2022, it has declined 82% to below $0.12, with a fully diluted valuation of $59 million.
Vagabond
Vagabond (VGB) took a snapshot of XRP holders. VGB token reached its all-time high over $75 when it launched in November 2021 with a market cap in the billions.
It has crashed 99%. At press time, VGB trades below $0.01 with a market cap under $1 million.
Additional examples of XRP airdrops follow a similar trend. Most open for trading near all-time highs and vanishingly few regain their highs achieved during their first week of trading.
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