December’s Top Crypto Airdrops You Don’t Want to Miss

December presents an exciting opportunity for small investors to explore promising crypto projects despite the ongoing market uncertainty. Several noteworthy airdrops are set to take place before the year-end, offering a chance to gain exposure to innovative ventures.

Following extensive research, here is a curated list of the top 10 crypto airdrops this month, including the projects behind them and essential details for participation.

Portal to Bitcoin: Shaping BTC’s DeFi Era

Portal aims to revolutionize Bitcoin’s role in DeFi by enabling custodyless cross-chain infrastructure. Backed by $42.05 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures and OKX Ventures, the project’s public testnet is live. Participants can earn LiteNode credits through swaps and quests, positioning themselves for rewards. LiteNodes will validate transactions and claim 5% of emissions.

According to a popular user on X, Miggy, the Portal airdrop could blow up just as much as what happened in Magic Eden (ME) and Movement (MOVE).

“Let me put you onto something that might just blow up like ME and MOVE airdrops. If you missed those, don’t let this one pass. Portal is on the verge of redefining Bitcoin DeFi. A game-changer has just hit public testnet,” Miggy said .

Portal aims to simplify P2P cross-chain transactions, enabling developers to build scalable applications without the security concerns of bridges and wrapped assets.

Yellow Network: Priority Access Awaits

Yellow Network is a decentralized clearing network for digital assets, aiming to address the inefficiencies of traditional crypto trading systems. With $10 million in funding led by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, Yellow Network introduces a decentralized clearing system.

Its airdrop is confirmed, with participation involving completing specified tasks to qualify for potential airdrops and rewards. Follow step-by-step instructions and track task updates and statuses to become one of the potential recipients of the Yellow Whitelist.

Recently, Yellow announced a new product, allowing participants to be among the first to access it by filling out the Waitlist form. Based on the timer, only eight days remain. The announcement states that this is the “chance to stay ahead,” so filling out the form will likely give participants an advantage over other users. 

“Get ready to be part of something revolutionary. Join the Yellow Network Waitlist now and claim your spot at the forefront of decentralized finance. Why sign up? – Gain priority access to groundbreaking developments. – Be part of a community shaping the future of finance. – Stay ahead in the ever-evolving blockchain landscape,” Yellow said.

The airdrop, tied to its task-based Waitlist, offers early access to groundbreaking developments. Community manager Gaudenzio.eth teased further updates, urging users to act fast with only eight days left to join.

Open Layer: Rewarding Data Contribution

OpenLayer combines AI and blockchain to create a privacy-focused data layer. Participants earn points by completing tasks like minting NFTs and sharing invite codes. The project, backed by $5 million from a16z CSX and others, is running a Holiday Fest campaign with exclusive rewards.

Meanwhile, the status of the airdrop is confirmed, with task types ranging from minting NFT and completing other tasks like inviting friends and tracking your progress on the leaderboard to earn points.

“You can earn points in three simple ways: Tap the egg daily to collect points. You can feed it up to 4 times per day. Connect your Coinbase and Twitter accounts to complete your registration and get more points. Every day, the extension gives you fresh invite codes. Share these codes with friends or in our Discord server to earn extra points and boost your progress. It’s a win-win for everyone,” Open Layer said.

Open Layer is an AI-powered data layer where users can contribute and validate data through a Chrome extension, earning points in return. Developers, with user consent, can access this data for AI training, user targeting, and feature enhancements, ensuring privacy is maintained.

SwayLend: Earn SwayPoints for Activity

A decentralized lending platform on Fuel Network, SwayLend rewards users with SwayPoints to supply liquidity or borrowing assets. These points unlock benefits, including Fuel Points, enhancing user engagement and rewards.

The project recently launched the SwayPoints system, designed to reward engagement. The SwayPoints Program incentivizes users for their activities on SwayLend, rewarding them based on their participation. These points reflect the value of their contributions and give them access to extra benefits like Fuel Points. Participants earn points by supplying, lending, or borrowing assets.  

“Points are assigned every 24-hour cycle. You can earn points from multiple activities at once,” SwayLend said.

Meteora: Optimizing Solana’s Yield

Meteora introduces a dynamic yield infrastructure to optimize returns across lending platforms. Its confirmed airdrop rewards liquidity providers with M3M3 tokens. This project seeks to revive confidence in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.

The airdrop for the MET token is confirmed, with Meteora rewarding liquidity providers through its dynamic yield optimizer. Built on Solana, it dynamically reallocates capital to maximize returns, providing unique value for decentralized finance users.

“Meteora’s vision for MET is to be a community token to revive confidence in Solana DeFi. MET will be the key economic driver for Meteora’s dynamic yield layer. Backed by the Meteora platform, the token will grow and gain value as the platform grows to become the capital allocation layer for Solana,” the network said.

Its comprehensive system, including vaults and yield optimization, underpins its vision to revive Solana DeFi. Meteora is creating a community-driven token to instill confidence in decentralized finance.

Pond: On-Chain Search Rewards

Pond, which raised $7.5 million with Coinbase Ventures among its backers, is developing a blockchain-powered search engine. Users can earn points by completing tasks, and the leaderboard currently hosts just 9,000 participants—an enticing opportunity for early adopters.

The airdrop stands confirmed, with farmers asked to complete tasks to qualify for potential airdrops and rewards. The Pond has a tab on the website with tasks for which participants can get points.

Fiamma: Revolutionizing Bitcoin with ZKPs

Fiamma is a verification network specializing in zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to secure and integrate blockchain ecosystems. It leverages Bitcoin’s cryptoeconomic strength through Babylon and BitVM2, enabling decentralized ZK-proof capabilities for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. This network aims to enhance blockchain security, efficiency, and scalability, offering a powerful solution for universal blockchain integration.

With $4 million raised in a recent round, they prepared the first activity, testnet, in honor of this raise. The testnet started on December 7, allowing participants to contribute to blockchain innovation and secure a potential airdrop.

“Fiamma is excited to announce our $4 million Seed Round, led by Faction and L2 Iterative Ventures to transform Bitcoin into a dynamic asset in a trust-minimized way and build a decentralized internet and financial system on Bitcoin,” the project shared.

Only Layer: Preparing for 2025 Airdrops

Only Layer’s blockchain platform leverages optimistic and zero-knowledge rollups for efficient dApp transactions. The project has also confirmed its airdrop and prepared the first activity, testnet. Completing a few actions on the test network qualifies participants for a potential airdrop that will be in Q1 2025.

“While the testnet V1 is ongoing, the Only Layer ecosystem is making significant strides in preparing the network for the V2 testnet and the mainnet launch,” Only Layer said in a Medium post.

Perennial: Trading Rewards on Arbitrum

A DeFi-native derivatives platform, Perennial offers capital-efficient trading solutions. Perennial raised $12.60 million in a fundraiser co-led by Polychain Capital and Variant. Coinbase and Archetype Ventures also participated.  Arbitrum Foundation also participated, contributing $600,000.

The status of the airdrop is confirmed. Perennial has been running a petals program since December 3. Meanwhile, Perennial has launched The Petals program, where we can earn petals (points) for trading on the platform. The Petals Program, launched on December 3, rewards users for trading on Arbitrum. Early adoption could yield significant returns.

“Introducing Perennial Intents & the Petals Program A step forward in solving DeFi’s liquidity fragmentation. Bringing deeper markets, optimal prices, and seamless execution for perpetuals. Intent-powered perps are now on Arbitrum,” Perennial said.

GAIB: Tokenizing GPUs for AI Era

GAIB transforms enterprise-grade GPUs into a commodity asset class backed by real AI cash flows. It financializes and tokenizes them, creating an interactive economy around it. In so doing, GAIB addresses the growing demand for high-performance computing resources in the AI space by transforming how high-end GPUs are financed, traded, and utilized.

The project’s airdrop includes Discord roles and campaign activities, and it has received $5 million in funding from Hashed Fund and Animoca Brands.

“Thrilled to announce that GAIB has raised a $5M pre-seed round, led by Hack VC, Faction, and Hashed, and 30+ incredible supporters, to build the first economic layer for AI compute,” GAIM shared on X (Twitter).

With these diverse crypto airdrops, crypto enthusiasts have a chance to engage with novel projects shaping the future of blockchain technology. From Bitcoin’s growing DeFi market to AI-powered innovations, December promises to be a rewarding month for proactive participants.