Meta airdrops in 2025: my lessons and how I farm today It’s no secret anymore: recent airdrops disappoint much more often than they excite. The dream of hitting that one “life-changing” drop, the kind that @arbitrum disciples (myself included) used to talk about, is basically gone. I’ve been tracking my accounts for years and recently mapped out annual returns compared to my costs. The numbers are telling: in 2023 I made +890% annual ROI In 2024 it was +335 In 2025 so far — just +44% Yes, we’re still waiting for @LineaBuild, but even if it comes through, I’d still classify it as a 2023-era meta project. So what is +44% a year? Sounds decent on paper, but here’s the truth: you could skip the endless grind of farming, get a regular job, and probably earn way more with much less risk. Think about the exposure: every account can be hacked, every account can land on the wrong scam link, and even with a diversified balance the chance of getting wrecked is very real. The cost of one mistake at this yield can set you back 6 or 12 months of work. That hurts. And yet, I’m not unhappy with my results. Because markets are cyclical — and I believe the airdrop meta will eventually come back. But right now, the momentum has shifted. The game is no longer about pure transactional activity; it’s about social interaction with projects. That would be fine if not for the fact that when I look at DeFi yields for example, @Lighter_xyz offering ~80% APY on stablecoins or @almanak giving ~50% APY I will ask you: why take such outsized risks for ~44% ROI in farming? This leads me to my current approach. I still interact with projects, but only from a single main account. I don’t plan to stop exploring this crypto-space. it’s still the best way to stay early on narratives and infrastructure. But at the same time, I now keep half of my stack in stables, and I prefer to allocate them into something like @Lighter_xyz with 80% APY. Let’s look at Ethereum for a moment. It’s already been flirting with the $5,000 level. Considering I bought most of my ETH in the $1,300–$1,500 range, this is a fantastic outcome even if I sold everything right now. Still, many expect ETH to reach $8k or even $10k this year. Is this euphoria? Or is it simply the next leg of the cycle? For me, the answer is risk management. I’ll take profits on half of my ETH, convert into stables, and put them into yield at ~80%. That means 1 ETH at $5,000 effectively turns into ~$9,000 in a year. Even if I fail to time the absolute top, I’m still aligned with the market but with much less stress. In hindsight, after @zksync and @HyperliquidX , the rational play might’ve been to move straight into DeFi instead of chasing every new airdrop. And speaking of @Hyperliquid I recently discovered my old forgotten drop from them, which felt like a small miracle🙃 So these are my reflections. If you really start to count all the costs and hours spent on retrodrop farming, the current ROI is hard to justify compared to what DeFi can offer. But I’m not leaving the field entirely — I’m just rebalancing risk. What about you? What’s your current take on the retrodrop meta, and where are you putting your focus in 2025?
