2024 reminded everyone that being an early, active user on the right project before the retroactive airdrop occurs is the fastest way to make legal cryptocurrency money, not trading. Arbitrum, zkSync, Blur, Celestia, and EigenL ayer turned regular wallets into seven-figure portfolios in a single day by simply “using the chain early.”

It looks to be even bigger in 2025–2026. TVL is skyrocketing, there are point leaderboards everywhere, and founders are publicly hinting at potential rewards. Your concise list of platforms that are screaming “retro coming soon” is provided below, along with the precise on-chain practices that have consistently distinguished $100K checks from $100 checks.

Understanding Retroactive Airdrops and Why They Still Matter

The basic idea behind a retroactive airdrop is that a project discreetly monitors each wallet’s activity for months or years before releasing millions of dollars’ worth of tokens into the wallets of early adopters. Just a simple thank you for helping to bootstrap the network, no announcements or farming grinds.

Teams love it because it rewards real usage over Sybil attacks. You love it because one good retro can 50–500× your initial gas spend. The pattern never changes, only the projects do.

Projects With Strong Indicators of Future Retro Rewards (2025–2026 Hot List)

  1. Berachain
    • Raised $142M, testnet live, “Proof-of-Liquidity” model
    • Publicly stated they’re tracking every wallet for future rewards
    • Current top signal, Providing liquidity on HoneySwap (testnet) and holding BGT tokens
  2. Monad
    • $225M raised, parallel EVM, 10k+ TPS testnet
    • Running public testnet with points leaderboards (exact same pattern as zkSync/Eigen)
    • Devs confirmed “early supporters will be taken care of”
  3. Movement Labs
    • MoveVM L2, $38M raised, testnet live
    • Points system already active, same team that helped design Aptos/Sui early incentives
  4. LayerZero V2 (potential second drop)
    • Already did $3B+ airdrop in 2024
    • New omnichain apps (Stargate V2, etc.) are tracking fresh activity → strong rumors of “Season 2” retro
  5. Hyperliquid
    • Fastest perpetuals DEX, $600M+ daily volume on own L1
    • Points program live, no token yet — classic retro setup
  6. MegaETH
    • “Real-time Ethereum,” $20M seed, testnet Q1 2025
    • Actively tracking testnet transactions for future rewards
  7. Initia
    • Cosmos-based modular rollup stack, $7.5M raised
    • Running intertwined L1+L2 points campaign — identical to Celestia/TIA playbook
  8. Eclipse
    • Solana VM on Ethereum L2, $65M raised
    • Testnet points + NFT mints being tracked

On-chain Behaviors That Historically Paid the Most

Every major retroactive airdrop rewarded the same handful of actions (just look at Arbitrum, zkSync, Blur, EigenLayer):

  • Repeatedly bridging native ETH or stablecoins into the ecosystem
  • Providing liquidity, even small amounts, on the main DEXs
  • Running your own node or RPC endpoint when possible
  • Holding the project’s testnet governance token or NFT
  • Showing up every single week (consistency beats one-time volume)
  • Early staking or restaking when the option appears

Wallets that did three or more of the above consistently ended up in the top 5–10% of every distribution.

Early Participation Strategy That Actually Works

Keep it stupidly simple:

  1. Spread $3K–$10K across 8–12 of the projects above (never all-in one).
  2. Do the same small actions every week — bridging, swapping, adding/removing liquidity.
  3. Hold whatever testnet NFT or governance token they give out.
  4. Use one dedicated “retro wallet” so everything is clean and easy to track.

That’s literally it. The people who made millions in previous cycles did exactly this.

Historical Examples and the One Lesson They All Share

Uniswap 2020 → Simple swapping was sufficient

Arbitrum 2023 → bridging + utilizing dApps = six figures

Blur 2023 → lending and bidding on NFT marketplace = seven figures

zkSync 2024 → early bridging + minting NFTs = $80K–$500K

EigenLayer 2024 → early restaking = $500K–$5M+ for top wallets

One lesson that all of them teach is that wallets that were active six to eighteen months prior to the token’s creation consistently received the largest rewards.

Final Play

2025–2026 will be the biggest retroactive airdrop season in history because the amount of unlaunched token value sitting in these ecosystems is higher than ever before.

Start bridging to Berachain, Monad, Hyperliquid, and the rest today. The snapshots are already running — you just can’t see them yet.

Which project are you farming the hardest right now? Drop it in the comments, Let’s compare notes before the tokens rain.

For daily airdrop updates and farming guides, check our Airdrop Section.

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See you on the next snapshot! 🚀