Token farming crypto projects involves interacting with tokenless dApps in various ways, hoping to receive an airdrop of the protocols’ tokens after they have a token generation event (TGE), which is when the protocol creates and distributes its native token.
There are multiple ways to interact with a protocol to receive an airdrop – you can stake the parent chain’s token, buy and sell NFTs, lend, borrow, supply liquidity, place limit and spot orders, and make leveraged trades. It all depends on the purpose and functionality of the protocol.
It’s usually best to farm projects with established reward systems that give users points for actions on the dApp that will convert to tokens at the TGE. The next best option is to farm projects that mention they have a rewards system coming soon. Another option is to farm dApps on test nets, but this is more of a gamble because it’s less of a guarantee that the protocol will have an airdrop.
The first step is to send some $SOL into a Phantom wallet. This can be done from most centralized and decentralized exchanges. But keep in mind that some Solana dApps might require a VPN depending on your location.
Now that you have some $SOL in your wallet, let’s take a look at three protocols on Solana that have a great chance of airdrops for token farmers.
MarginFi
MarginFi is a DeFi app with lending, borrowing, staking, swapping, bridging, and even an AI-enabled assistant. This airdrop is well-known and has a high chance of receiving an airdrop because they have a well-established points system.
A simple and low-risk strategy to farm MarginFi is to lend a stablecoin and borrow against it. For example, you lend USDC and then borrow USDT against the USDC. To unwind the position, you would repay the USDT and then withdraw the USDC.
There is a Medium article that breaks down the point system as follows:
Lending points
Any user with current deposits on Marginfi has been earning points in the background. Every dollar lent earns 1 point per day. The more you lend, the more points you earn. The longer you lend, the more points you earn.
The users who have deposited the most for the longest currently have the most points and will continue to unless someone deposits more.
Borrowing points
Borrows are the main driver of a lending protocol’s success and help to grow the overall DeFi eco. As such, borrowers receive more points than lenders. $1 borrowed will earn 4 points per day.
The collateral lent to open a borrow will count for lending points as well, meaning borrowers earn not only the boosted points from borrowing but also points from lending.
Referrals
Users can also earn points through referrals. A referring user will get 10% of the points the users they refer earn. These are not reduced from the referred users’ balance, they can still earn points at the same rate outlined above. Additionally, referring users will earn 10% of the 10% any user they refer earns from referring other users. This continues down the tree as more users refer others.
Kamino Finance
This is another well-known project on Solana. It’s a DeFi app that offers Lending, Borrowing, Liquidity Providing, Boosted $SOL yields, and perpetual trading.
In my opinion, one of the best features is their automated LP pools. Similar to Trader Joe V2 pools on Avalanche, these pools auto-rebalance and auto-compound fees earned back into your position. With the auto-pools, the only thing you need to worry about is impermanent loss, which is a concern with volatile assets, but there is no manual rebalancing which can be a major headache in LP’ing.
If you don’t want to LP, you can simply follow the same stablecoin strategy as you did with MarginFi.
Kamino Finance has a points button on their dApp that says “coming soon,” and the good news is they recently posted on X with a points update (although the exact formula is still unclear):
https://x.com/Kamino_Finance/status/1737247263292862816?s=20
Meteora
Meteora is another DeFi app that offers a wide range of LP options. They have everything from manual LP pools to dynamic pools earning trading fees plus lending yield. They have something for everyone and they’ve been making some big partnerships lately, including with Kamino Finance which should be huge. There is no straightforward lending/borrowing strategy, so you will have to dip your toes into LP’ing. If you like manual rebalancing, I’d try their new DLMM (Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker) pools, which are currently in beta. Additionally, the DLMM pools might be tied into their newly announced Massive Meteora Stimulus Package, which you can read about here.
The MMSP is composed of three tiers: the new DLMM pools, the creation of an expert DAO, and a 10% stimulus package (likely airdrop) of their upcoming token $MET for liquidity providers. It’s not clear whether or not the 10% stimulus package is only for DLMM LPers, but that’s where I deposited my money since it’s directly mentioned in the announcement. If you do the same, just remember that the DLMM pools require active management daily to continually earn fees.
Cheers!
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