Ethereum airdrops: how they work and what they cost

Who actually runs Ethereum airdrops

The first thing to unlearn is the idea of an “Ethereum airdrop”. There is no foundation programme that hands out ETH to active users. What exists are airdrops from applications and protocols that sit on Ethereum, or on rollups that settle to it. The rules, the dates and the risk all belong to the project, not to the network.

That is why this page is mostly about the shared plumbing: how an Ethereum address works, why a signature can be dangerous, what gas costs and how earlier distributions were structured. Chain-level features rarely change the outcome of a drop, but they decide whether you can lose money taking part.

Accounts and what a signature means

According to the ethereum.org accounts page, there are two kinds of account, and the difference matters when you sign a claim.

When you click “claim”, your EOA signs a request that a contract then executes. A legitimate claim contract only releases your allocation to you. A malicious one can ask your wallet to approve it to spend a token you hold. Both look like a normal wallet pop-up. The ethereum.org security page tells users not to allow unlimited spend limits and to set limits to only the amount needed. The practical habit is in our guide to revoking token approvals, and it is worth reading before your first claim rather than after your first loss.

Because creating an EOA costs nothing, it costs nothing to separate roles either. This is the logic behind the burner wallet approach: a fresh address does the risky clicking, and your savings stay elsewhere.

Wallets, explorers and bridges

Per the wallets page, a wallet is an app or device that lets you hold and send ETH and other tokens and sign in to apps, and wallet providers do not have custody of your funds. Centralised exchanges do, so you are trusting them if you leave tokens there. That is the distinction we expand on in custodial vs non-custodial. The same page links a wallet finder instead of naming a single winner, and so do we. For airdrops, what matters is that you control the keys of the address that is eligible, because an exchange will not necessarily receive a token on your behalf.

For explorers, ethereum.org lists many, including Etherscan and Blockscout, and says explorers generally show blocks, transactions, accounts, tokens and gas. Use one to read a contract’s interaction before approving it and to confirm a claim went to the right place afterwards.

Bridges deserve their own caution. The bridges page lists smart contract risk, technology risk, and, for trusted bridges, censorship and custodial risk, and cites the Wormhole hack in which about 325 million dollars was stolen. It points readers to independent risk analysis such as L2BEAT before choosing one. If a drop requires bridging to a rollup to qualify, treat the bridge as part of the cost of participation.

Documented distribution patterns

Two Ethereum-based distributions have first-party documentation we could open, and they illustrate two very different designs.

Uniswap: pay for past behaviour

In its UNI announcement, Uniswap said eligibility was based on a snapshot ending September 1, 2020, and that 150,000,000 UNI, 15% of genesis supply, was claimable from the announcement on September 16, 2020. Groups were: historical liquidity providers, paid pro-rata by liquidity over time (49,192 recipients); historical users, 251,534 addresses at 400 UNI each; and SOCKS holders, 220 recipients at 1,000 UNI each. The post notes that about 12,000 of the user addresses had only failed transactions, which shows how blunt a pure activity filter can be.

EigenLayer: pay for locked capital

The EigenLayer stakedrop used staking as the measure. Per the Eigen Foundation, Season 1 allocated 5% of initial EIGEN supply to restakers with a snapshot at Ethereum block 19437000 on March 15, 2024. Season 2 covered about 87 million EIGEN, roughly 5.2% of initial supply, for stakers and operators, with a snapshot on August 15, 2024 and a claim window from September 16, 2024 to March 16, 2025. Both seasons are finished.

Others tracked on this chain

Several projects tied to Ethereum or its rollups have their own verified pages: Blast phased out Points and Gold in favour of liquid BLAST incentives; Scroll ran a 90-day claim that closed on 20 January 2025; Eclipse closed its claim on 15 August 2025; Lighter, MegaETH and Paradex have each run points-based distributions with verified pages; and Abstract never announced one and says it is winding down. The ended airdrops page collects the full set.

Gas and what participation costs

The ethereum.org gas page gives the formula: total fee equals gas used times the sum of the base fee and the priority fee. The base fee is set by the protocol and burned; the tip goes to the validator. Gas is quoted in gwei, one-billionth of an ETH. A plain ETH transfer uses 21,000 gas.

A token claim runs contract code, so it uses more than 21,000 gas. The exact amount depends on the contract, and we do not publish a figure because no official page does. What you can do is read the estimate in your wallet before signing and compare it with a recent claim from the same contract on an explorer.

The page also notes that fees are paid whether a transaction succeeds or fails, though a transaction rejected during validation consumes none. For a first-time claimer the lesson is simple: check eligibility on the official checker before spending gas. Rollups change the maths, because they add a data cost; see our Base and Arbitrum pages for their documented fee structures.

Scam patterns on Ethereum

The ethereum.org security guide names several scams that apply directly to airdrop hunters. Our general write-up is in crypto airdrop scams.

A safer way to participate

This sequence is our own, built from the documented risks above. It assumes you already know the project and its rules.

1. 1

   Find the official claim route

   Start from the project’s own site, docs or verified social account. If our page for the project links its checker, compare the URL character by character.

2. 2

   Prepare a working address

   Use an address that holds only the ETH needed for gas. If your eligibility is tied to an older address, you cannot move it by switching, so decide first which address you can risk.

3. 3

   Check eligibility before spending gas

   Use the official checker, not a trial claim. A failed transaction still costs gas, according to ethereum.org.

4. 4

   Read the signature request

   A claim should not ask you to approve a token spend. If the wallet shows an approval for a token you hold, or an unlimited amount, reject it.

5. 5

   Verify the result on an explorer

   Confirm the transaction went to the expected contract and that the tokens arrived. Then review and revoke any approval you gave.

6. 6

   Plan for tax and selling later

   Record the date and value on receipt. Our guides on taxes and selling cover the next steps.

For the tax record, see crypto airdrop taxes; for exit options, where to sell airdrop tokens.

Is anything live right now?

We do not track a verified open claim on Ethereum itself. Given that Ethereum is a base layer, a live opportunity would come from an application. The closest item in our tracker is MetaMask Rewards, which pays points for swaps and perp trades with a Linea token payout; we found no first-party announcement of a MetaMask token or airdrop. The EigenLayer stakedrops are finished. The campaign list above is the quickest way to see whether that has changed, and potential airdrops keeps the unconfirmed ones separate from confirmed claims.

What we would check first

1. Is the project known to publish rules, a snapshot and a checker? If not, we treat the activity as a hobby, not a plan.
2. Which address is the one tied to eligibility, and is it one we can afford to expose?
3. What will the first signature request look like, and have we compared it with a legitimate claim?
4. What is the gas estimate on the day, and is it proportionate to the reward we expect?
5. Is the bridge or rollup we must use independently reviewed?

Our verification method explains how we decide a campaign’s status, and the disclaimer explains the limits of this guide.

Written by the airdrop.promo Editorial Team. See how we verify. Educational content only, not financial advice.