Airdrop points programs: how points turn into tokens

An airdrop points program is a running score a crypto project keeps before its token exists: it awards points for holding a balance, using partner apps or inviting friends, then uses those points, usually alongside other criteria it chooses, to decide each wallet's share of a later airdrop. Points are not tokens, the project decides how they convert around the time its token launches, and the rules can change while people are still earning.

What a points program is

A points program turns activity into a number on the project's own dashboard. Blast's documentation describes the simplest version: "Your wallet will earn Points automatically every block based on your ETH/WETH/USDB balance", shown in real time on the Blast.io dashboard. Apps that hold your funds earn points on them too and, in Blast's words, "should distribute the Points they earn back to you". Blast's Phase 2 post for users put a figure on the rate: 0.06504987 points per block per ETH, with one block every 2 seconds.

Most programs add layers on top of the basic score:

• Multipliers. Blast's docs say a 2x Multiplier doubles both the points you already have and the rate you earn them, and that Multipliers came from using highlighted apps.
• Referrals. On Hyperliquid, "Affiliates earned 1 point for every 4 points their referred users earned".
• A second score. Blast split its rewards between Points, earned on balances, and Gold, which "is distributed manually" to apps by an incentives committee for the apps to pass on to their users.
• Fixed weekly budgets. Hyperliquid's program began on 1 November 2023 and handed out 1,000,000 points a week for 6 months, ending on 1 May 2024. A second phase gave out 700,000 a week from 29 May 2024 until November 2024.

Some points are recorded on a blockchain but cannot move. Linea, an Ethereum layer 2, issued Voyage XP (LXP) as "non-transferrable soulbound tokens", and its FAQ of 7 December 2023 says plainly: "Voyage XP do not have any monetary value."

How points and activity turned into tokens: four examples

In each case below, the project decided how scores became tokens, and in none of the points pages we read for Blast, Hyperliquid and Linea was there a fixed number of tokens per point.

1. Blast. For Phase 1, Blast's tokenomics page gives users who earned Points 7% of the total BLAST supply and those who earned Gold another 7%. The top 0.1% of users, about 1,000 wallets, had part of their airdrop vest over 6 months, subject to a monthly Points threshold.
2. Linea. Linea's tokenomics post of 29 July 2025 set aside 9% of the LINEA supply for an early-user airdrop and said eligibility would be "determined using a range of activity-based metrics, including LXP and onchain metrics", revealed through an eligibility checker before the token generation event. LXP was one input, not the whole formula.
3. EigenLayer. The Eigen Foundation's Season 1 "stakedrop" gave 5% of the initial EIGEN supply to restakers, based on a snapshot taken on 15 March 2024 at Ethereum block 19437000. Its criteria included amount, duration, earliness and loyalty. Because a strictly linear split left "many restakers" without "a meaningful amount of EIGEN", it spent about 1% of the season's allocation on a floor of 10 EIGEN per restaker, and said future seasons would have no such minimum.
4. Arbitrum. The ARB airdrop of March 2023 scored wallets after the fact. The Arbitrum Foundation's specification gave at most one point per qualifying action before the 6 February 2023 snapshot, capped at 15. Fewer than 3 points meant no airdrop; 3 points meant 1,250 ARB and 12 or more meant 10,250 ARB, and points scored after the Nitro upgrade counted for half. That is a retroactive airdrop with a published table, not a points program people could watch while it ran.

The rules can change while you are earning

The project keeps the score, so the project can change it. Three of the programs above show how.

• Timelines move. Blast's Phase 2 "was originally scheduled to end in June 2025, running for 12 months with an allocation of 10 billion BLAST". With the release of Blast Mobile, it was set to "conclude in January 2025 with a prorated allocation of 5 billion BLAST": five months earlier, with half the tokens.
• Criteria are rewritten. Hyperliquid says its "Points criteria was updated on a recurring basis" and that it "reserves the right to modify previous point distributions under its sole discretion."
• Trading future claims is punished. Blast warns that any attempt "to create a liquid proxy for Points (ie an ERC20 or ERC721 backed by Points)" will have the associated points "zero'd out". The Eigen Foundation told users that trading derivatives of its non-transferable token "will impact your eligibility for future stakedrop seasons."
• Filters arrive at the end. Linea required a Proof of Humanity check before LXP could be claimed, and described a sybil attack as "the misuse of automated bots (Sybils) to unjustly accumulate XP". Its FAQ asked users to collect XP in one main account. Airdrop eligibility explains how these filters work.

What points cost you

Joining a points program may cost nothing, but many of them reward money you leave deposited. Blast's docs say "To increase your Points, you can bridge more to Blast", and apps earn points on the funds you move into them. Money moved into an app to earn its points is held by that app's smart contracts for as long as you farm, so the app's risks become yours. Blast's Multiplier note is the exception it states itself: "you don't need to risk any capital to earn them", as long as you submit a transaction that interacts with a highlighted app.

The other cost is exposure to fakes. Because many points cannot be transferred, an offer to sell you points, or a site asking you to "claim" points by entering a seed phrase, does not describe how these programs work. Linea's FAQ pairs its no-value statement with a warning: "Be cautious of scams: Voyage XP are non-transferable and not bridgeable to other networks. You cannot buy, sell, or swap them." A legitimate airdrop never asks for a seed phrase or private key. How to claim a crypto airdrop safely and airdrop scams cover the checks.

Before you join a points program

1. Read the rules where the project publishes them, on its own docs or blog, and note the date they were written.
2. Look for a conversion rate. If the docs give none, as in the Blast, Hyperliquid and Linea pages we read, treat the points as a score and nothing more.
3. See what the points reward: balances kept deposited, transactions, referrals or tasks. Deposits carry the most risk.
4. Check the anti-bot rules: proof of humanity, sybil filters, and whether using several wallets is allowed.
5. Note the end date and expect it to move. Blast's Phase 2 end moved five months earlier.
6. Plan for vesting and a claim window after the token launches. What is a TGE explains the sequence.

On AirdropStop, Orange Finance was a points program on Arbitrum; its page shows the status we last checked.

Key takeaways

• A points program records activity before a token exists; the points are an input to a later airdrop, not a token.
• The project decides the conversion at the end: Blast set pool sizes, Linea combined LXP with on-chain metrics, and Arbitrum published a points table when ARB launched.
• Rules can change mid-program: Blast's Phase 2 went from 12 months and 10 billion BLAST to a January 2025 end and 5 billion.
• Wrapping or trading points can get them zeroed, and bots and multi-wallet farming get filtered out.
• No legitimate points program asks for your seed phrase.