Many token launches crash to zero, and airdrops play a surprisingly central role in that story.

Think about how this was supposed to work: developers build something useful → real users actually adopt it → holders get rewarded for early support. It's elegant. It should work.

Here's the problem: airdrops evolved into something else entirely. What started as a genuine incentive mechanism became a farming tool. Users show up for the token, disappear after claiming, and the project collapses under the weight of sell pressure and zero organic adoption.

The gap between the original intent and how it actually played out tells you everything. Somewhere between "community building" and "maximize claimable tokens," the whole thing stopped being about building something real.

The projects that survive typically figured this out early: airdrops work best as part of a larger ecosystem strategy, not as the strategy itself. Token distribution matters, but it matters way less than actual utility and staying power.