Market movements come and go, naturally taking up a lot of crypto oxygen, but something far more remarkable has been happening beneath the surface in recent cycles. The past few years have generally been great for new tokens, and with their launches come significant opportunities for wealth creation, such as airdrops.

I recently sat down with Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu at Consensus Hong Kong. He mentioned a figure that instantly cured any market anxiety: $49 billion worth of airdrops were distributed directly to Web3 communities from 2021 to 2024. “I can’t think of a larger private wealth generation event than that,” Siu noted.

He’s entirely correct. Airdrops get users in at the ground floor and reward them for early support in ways traditional markets simply can’t or don’t. We can all share in one of the most significant wealth redistributions in recent history through this unique mechanism. 

While current sentiment might make some think twice, there’s still great user and network value building in the background. Bear markets are temporary, but airdrops — and the ownership and community models they enable in crypto — are forever.

Airdrops transform ownership 

Airdrops are much more than free tokens — they’re a relationship reimagining between platforms and users. The value they bring to protocols goes beyond inherent pricing.

In the traditional tech world, users have unfortunately gotten used to creating value and receiving nothing in return. 

This is the business model of many of today’s most prominent companies: feasting on information, extracting its value and selling to the highest bidder. When users don’t own their data, tech corporations weaponize it for revenue and influence.

Airdrops challenge this status quo. The model honors participation with ownership stakes and real-world value. If you use a project, airdrops posit that you should share in it. Passive users become active stakeholders who champion the ecosystem and bring it to new heights. 

The data and decision-making have-nots are in the driver’s seat for once. From layer 2s offering governance tokens to early users or projects rewarding backers, airdrops rewrite the ownership rulebook and create lasting protocol-user stickiness. This ownership unlocks engagement that often persists regardless of market conditions.

Airdrops create ecosystems

Community makes or breaks projects in Web3. As Siu pointed out, network effects are one of the most valuable assets in digital economies. Airdrops have become a crypto cornerstone precisely because they bootstrap these effects.

Airdrops seed those with skin in the game and fund thousands of microeconomies. Value flows between participants rather than being extracted by centralized entities, creating a flywheel of innovation that self-reinforces. Tokenholders become evangelists, developers, participants and builders — moving projects from speculation to sustainability in bull and bear markets.

Some people try to game airdrops, while others are only motivated by profit. Teams are working on both counts to weed out bad actors and give preference to genuine supporters. Nonetheless, it’s hard to see the virtuous cycles of airdrops as anything but transformative. And, like we saw with Axie Infinity in the Philippines, they successfully onboard new crypto audiences.

Airdrops deliver enduring value

Web3 wants active users who engage with protocols and actively benefit from them. If we grow, you grow. This ethos is what crypto is all about. It is also seen with node sales rewarding network decentralization and AI agents tracking data on the blockchain and paying users when used in training.

These functions unlock user and network value despite market ups and downs. Of course, there’s a financial upside, but governance rights, community belonging and genuine buy-in also exist. Then, if and when markets rebound, users are already strapped in for the ride and benefit from their loyalty.

What is the best advice in these rocky recent weeks? Forget about market movements and look at what airdrops deliver. $49 billion is nothing to sneeze at, nor are the very real and lasting connections and communities.