Completing the first phase of its airdrop, Sonic, a layer 1 blockchain, distributed more than 80 million Sonic tokens to its users on July 18.
Not everyone is happy.
In the aftermath of the drop, users flooded the project with complaints they were deemed ineligible despite earning points and participating in the prescribed tasks.
“The Sonic airdrop has to be the worst I’ve ever seen. Thousands deposited into pools, dApps, etc. for months just for this crap,” said Poyo, a pseudonymous Avalanche ambassador on X.
Point systems
Airdrop farming, the practice of reaping free tokens, became popular after protocols started adopting points systems.
Protocols distribute points to users for completing various tasks and using the platform to garner windfalls from future airdrops.
Deposits surged as blockchains such as Manta and Blast adopted the model. After these point programmes end, users tend to exit fast. That’s especially the case when users are disappointed with the results.
With community sentiment around Sonic’s season one airdrop being overwhelmingly negative, the project may experience a similar exodus from the blockchain.
Even though more airdrop seasons are planned in the future, the disappointment of season one’s airdrop may dissuade users from interacting with the Sonic blockchain.
“Got $0 of Sonic for months of using their protocols and a decent amount of points too. Guess where this chain is heading?” commented a user under Sonic’s airdrop announcement on X. “Ask Scroll, Stark, ZkSync, Taiko, Blast, etc if you have any questions.”
Fantom origins
Sonic, originally called Fantom, launched its blockchain in 2019. Fantom became a hub for innovative DeFi protocols, reaching over $7.5 billion in deposits in 2022. As crypto fell in a bear market, deposits dropped more than 85% within three months of hitting its peak.
Fantom failed to gain much traction in 2024 as deposits hovered at $100 million.
To revitalise the ecosystem, the team changed the project’s name to Sonic Labs and announced the upcoming launch of the Sonic blockchain along with a future airdrop of 190.5 million tokens in multiple “seasons.”
Throughout 2024 and 2025, the team released more details on the criteria for earning the airdrop. Sonic deployed multiple campaigns and utilised various point systems to attract users, helping bring its deposits to over $1.1 billion in May 2025.
The first campaign was called the Sonic Arcade, in which users could interact with the Sonic testnet for free and play mini games to accumulate airdrop points.
Later in 2024, Sonic partnered with Galxe to launch an NFT programme where users collect “Sonic Shards” by completing various tasks on the Fantom network.
Sonic mainnet launched in December, and the team released more details about the points system and the future airdrop. Users can earn both points and gems that will eventually convert into Sonic tokens.
Points are earned by holding whitelisted assets or depositing them into DeFi protocols.
A fixed amount of gems are distributed to various applications based on performance metrics, which are independently responsible for distributing them to their users. These gems can eventually be redeemed for Sonic tokens.
In total, 190.5 million Sonic tokens will be distributed in multiple seasons. The recently executed season one distributed about 80 million tokens to users.
But only 25% is claimable immediately and the remainder will vest over 270 days as an NFT.
Users can choose to claim the tokens from the NFT earlier than the vesting time, but a percentage of that will be burned depending on how long the user held the NFT.
Sonic was already trending lower in deposits after hitting its peak in May, dropping 49% to about $580 million on July 18. After the airdrop announcement, deposits dropped another $85 million.
Users said they received nothing from participating in the arcade or from collecting the shard NFTs.
The airdrop document also states that activity on Fantom would be counted towards the Sonic airdrop, but many users said that this wasn’t the case.
Agent Chud, a pseudonymous crypto influencer who participated heavily in Fantom, stated on X that he received zero allocation despite him holding whitelisted assets, shard NFTs, and interacting extensively with multiple protocols on both Fantom and Sonic.
Multiple users claimed to have earned “millions of points” but received no tokens as a result.
The Sonic team did not formally address any of these concerns or give transparency into the distribution of tokens, leaving many in the community upset and confused about why they didn’t receive an airdrop.
Instead, the team carried on as usual and announced season two of the airdrop campaign.
Since the conclusion of season one, the Sonic token has dropped 17%.
