A Magical Christmas Drop
On Christmas Day, the DeFi community was treated to a gift that even Santa would envy. The decentralized exchange platform, 1inch, unveiled its governance and utility token, 1INCH. The token quickly gained traction, peaking at nearly $2.80 each shortly after its release. It felt like the DeFi equivalent of finding an extra present tucked away under the tree!
Airdrop Bonanza
Similar to last summer’s Uniswap token release, which many dubbed a “DeFi stimulus check,” 1INCH tokens were distributed through an exciting airdrop. Eligible wallets that had previously traded or provided liquidity on the platform bagged themselves a lovely digital stocking stuffer. On average, lucky users pocketed around 1,600 tokens, with one particularly fortunate trader raking in over $20 million.
The Downside of Overenthusiasm
But not all stories were of joyous celebration. Twitter user @timoharings conjured a plan to snag a cool $1.8 million by setting up 500 Metamask wallets. However, the holiday cheer turned sour when he discovered his meticulous trading strategy misfired due to strict distribution parameters. Despite making trades on each wallet, none qualified since they fell short of the necessary transaction thresholds.
“So my ~500 metamask wallets, that all did trades on 1inch in preparation after the Uni airdrop, didn’t receive any airdrop in the end cause it was $17 per trade, $3 below threshold. Would’ve totaled a $1.8 million profit.” — Тимо (@timoharings)
The Grueling Process
Harings, a 23-year-old who has been riding the trading wave since 2018, shared that planning this airdrop strategy was an uphill battle. Pouring over 1inch’s articles, he hatched a plan that required him to seed each wallet with $30 worth of crypto to initiate trades.
“As a non-programmer, I was looking for simple ways to script it but ended up doing it manually,” he said. The struggle was real; he found himself carrying out trades across multiple computers as MetaMask struggled to handle more than 100 wallets simultaneously. This Herculean effort came at a price, with Harings burning through $8,000 in gas fees while living on the hope of a minimum $250,000 return.
Lessons Learned
Though the airdrop whimsy didn’t work out for Harings, he did leave the table with some small victories. He proudly tweeted that he had won at Catan with his family that same day, proving that sometimes, it’s not about the money, but about wholesome family game nights.
