Pyth Network

The airdrop was announced on 1 November 2023, and more than 90,000 wallets were eligible based on on-chain activity on 27 blockchains and more than 200 decentralised applications. Groups included DeFi users, community members and the dApps that use Pyth data. After a 15 November snapshot revision for greater inclusivity, about 55 million PYTH was added, bringing the total to approximately 255 million. The Block's earlier coverage said phase one had targeted over 75,000 wallets before the revision.

Pyth's own post says claims opened on Monday 20 November and stayed open until 20 February 2024 at 6 p.m. UTC, while Decrypt reported 18 February. Market capitalisation figures at debut vary between sources: CoinDesk reported $468 million, and a newsletter cited $765 million settling to about $457 million, so we treat them as unreliable without checking price history.

The second phase went to the dApps themselves. The Block reported that Pyth unveiled a second phase of the airdrop for over 160 dApps, which is an unusual step: rewarding the projects that integrated the oracle, not only the people who used them.

Rewarding builders as well as users makes sense for infrastructure, because an oracle's value comes from the applications that depend on it. It also shows that airdrops can be a tool for building partnerships and not only for giving to users.

A data-oracle token differs from a consumer app token, since its value depends on publishers, integrations and the usage fees paid by protocols that read its prices. The airdrop rewarded people who had interacted with the network and its partner chains, not only traders. Many recipients were surprised by their allocation, so checking the official checker instead of third-party calculators matters, and holders should understand the governance and staking terms attached to the token.