Uniswap

Status

ended

Outcome

Distributed — verifiable on-chain

Window

September 16, 2020 – September 16, 2021

Last checked

August 2, 2026

Our assessment

Worth it — opinion, see below

Uniswap distributed 400 UNI to every address that had interacted with the protocol before 1 September 2020, alongside larger allocations for liquidity providers. The claim window ran for one year; unclaimed tokens returned to the treasury.

This is the entry every later airdrop was measured against, and it is worth recording precisely because it is the outlier rather than the norm — a retroactive reward for use, with no tasks, no points programme, and no requirement to keep funds at risk.

What actually happened

Eligibility was set by a snapshot taken before the announcement, so nothing could be farmed after the fact. Anyone who had used the protocol at all, including addresses whose only interaction was a failed transaction, qualified for the flat 400.

The distribution is verifiable on-chain, which is the standard this tracker holds later entries to: an announcement is not a distribution, and only the second one is a fact.

Our assessment

Worth it, in the narrow sense that participants received a liquid asset for activity they had already undertaken and had not been asked to perform. No capital was locked in advance, no tasks were completed in the hope of a reward, and nobody farmed for months on an expectation.

That combination has been rare since. Most programmes now ask for sustained activity before announcing terms, which inverts the risk: the participant commits first and learns the payout later, if there is one.