On-chain Player Analysis: Are You an Airdrop Hunter or a Meme Dreamer?

From Airdrop to stablecoin: Unlocking four player identities in Web3.

Written by: SuperEx

Compiled by: Plain Language Blockchain

On-chain users can generally be divided into four categories: airdrop players, DeFi players, meme players, and stablecoin players.

Airdrop Players

Basic Knowledge Requirements

Airdrop players do not need deep financial or technical expertise, but should be familiar with basic blockchain operations such as creating wallets, on-chain interactions, and setting Gas fees. They should have cross-chain knowledge and understand EVM-compatible chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, Base, and Blast, as well as grasp the evolution of “airdrop logic,” such as which behaviors are tracked or marked as “witch attacks.”

Technical skill requirements: intermediate

Proficiency in multiple wallet tools, RPC switching, bulk registration, contract interaction ( testing DApp) and automation scripts are required. Advanced players may use automated interaction scripts, simulators, or on-chain behavior simulation tools to circumvent censorship.

Time commitment: medium to high

The airdrop strategy emphasizes “continuity” and “layout density”. Top players spend a lot of time every day tracking airdrop information, interacting, checking transactions, monitoring official announcements, and testnet upgrades. Once you receive an airdrop, you need to quickly withdraw, redeem, or manage your funds in bulk.

Community Participation Requirements: Medium to Low

Although some projects require “community activity” to verify real users, the airdrop focuses more on on-chain interaction. Community engagement is mostly instrumental, such as tweeting, retweeting, or participating in AMAs, rather than in-depth discussions.

Expected Return: Medium to High

Airdrop returns vary widely, with Optimism and Arbitrum bringing thousands of dollars in earnings, while some test projects have no returns. Top players maximize profits through “multi-chain layout, high hit rate, and batch accounts”, and successful airdrops can get 10 times or even 100 times the return.

Risk Preference: Medium to High

Airdrops may seem “cost-free”, but creating multiple wallets, interacting with funds, and testing DApps can lead to risks such as private key leaks, phishing links, or cross-chain bridge hacks. Players managing multiple accounts may face “total account wipe” due to on-chain behavior exposure, and the risk of projects being marked as “witch attacks” increases, potentially rendering the airdrop invalid.

DeFi players

Basic Knowledge Requirements

DeFi players need to have a solid foundation in finance and blockchain, understand AMM mechanisms, liquidity pools, annualized returns (APR/APY), borrowing principles, liquidation lines, leverage, perpetual contracts, yield aggregators, etc. They also need to analyze smart contract risks and token economic models to avoid falling into “high yield traps.”

Technical ability requirements: Medium to high

DeFi operations involve wallets, cross-chain bridges, providing liquidity, LPToken, staking platforms, and decentralized oracles ( like Chainlink) and yield platforms such as Yearn, Beefy, etc. Players often build combination strategies, such as “staking + borrowing leverage” or “dual liquidity mining,” and use tools like Dune, DeFiLlama, Zapper, etc. to track data and manage yields.

Time commitment: Medium

Intermediate players need to regularly check profit changes, rebalance positions, participate in governance voting, monitor price fluctuations, and watch the liquidation line. The activity frequency is lower than that of airdrop players, but weekly participation is essential. Long-term players focus on stable return portfolios, with less daily management pressure.

Community participation requirements: Medium to high

Many DeFi projects have governance tokens, and players often vote as DAO governors or liquidity mining voters. Advanced users participate in community forums like Curve, Maker, and Aave to discuss governance proposals. Early feedback is crucial for improving new project protocols.

Expected return: medium to high

DeFi returns are more stable than airdrops, with annualized returns ranging from 5% to 60%, depending on the strategy and risk level. Top players can obtain returns far exceeding those of traditional finance through a combination of cross-pool liquidity, borrowing leverage, and stablecoin rotation.

Risk Preference: Medium

DeFi risks come from smart contract vulnerabilities, project failures, on-chain black swan events ( such as the Luna crash ) and collateral liquidations due to market volatility. Top players reduce risk through asset diversification, stop-loss mechanisms, and insurance agreements.

Meme players

Basic knowledge requirement: low

Meme players are insensitive to complex blockchain or DeFi concepts, primarily relying on trending topics, social media, and sentiment-driven decisions. They may not understand TVL or be accustomed to reading white papers, but closely follow Twitter, Telegram groups, and trend analysis, similar to “fast-paced speculators” in the crypto world.

Technical ability requirements: medium to low

You need to master the basic use of wallets and be familiar with trading on quick launch platforms like Uniswap, Pump.fun, Birdeye, DEXTools, etc., as well as identifying “honey pots” or pump and dump contracts. Experienced players may deploy sniping bots, set Gas priority, etc.

Time Investment: High

Meme speculation is highly time-sensitive and requires real-time monitoring of new project launches, social platform discussion indices, and Token price fluctuations. Top players may spend over 10 hours online each day, capturing potential “hundredfold coins” or new projects that haven’t been exposed yet.

Community Engagement Requirements: High

Meme players are highly reliant on community-driven dissemination and momentum. Successful Meme projects are often propelled by spontaneous community spread. Meme culture revolves around self-deprecation, rebellion, and humor, with players frequently engaging in Meme creation, dissemination, and topic hype, forming the core of the culture.

Expected Return: Extremely High

The goal of meme players is to “100 times overnight”, with a small investment in exchange for huge returns. Success stories such as DOGE, SHIBA, PEPE, WIF and others have made many players realize a huge change in their fortunes, but the meme market is volatile and short-lived.

Risk Preference: Extremely High

The meme market often lacks fundamental support and relies on sentiment and manipulation by large holders. Pumping, dumping, and “zeroing out” are common. Many players buy at high positions or miss the peak due to greed, requiring strong psychological endurance and risk awareness.

stablecoin Players

Basic knowledge requirements: Intermediate

Stablecoin players do not focus on speculation or technical details, but possess basic financial knowledge and asset allocation thinking. They understand the pegging mechanism of stablecoins ( such as USDT, USDC, DAI, FDUSD), and pay attention to stability risks, regulatory trends, and on-chain interest rate changes, viewing blockchain as a “yield-enhanced storage” tool.

Technical ability requirement: low

Just get to grips with mainstream wallets, stablecoin transactions, on-chain deposits and withdrawals, and cross-chain bridges. Some users allocate funds in combination with centralized platforms and on-chain operations, and are not sensitive to gas fees, and often prefer low-fee chains such as BSC, Tron, and Base.

Time Investment: Low

Stablecoin players adopt long-term allocations and periodic portfolio adjustments, relying on low-frequency operations. Common strategies include dollar-cost averaging into USDT or DAI, investing in on-chain yield pools like Aave, Compound, Pendle, or centralized custodial platforms.

Community Engagement Requirements: Low

Stablecoin players focus on asset security and liquidity rather than deep community engagement. They monitor market trends, regulatory changes, and platform stability, behaving rationally, tending to “wait and see,” and are not enthusiastic about project “culture” or community atmosphere.

Expected return: medium to low, stable

Stablecoin strategies offer annualized returns of 4% to 12%, supplementing traditional savings or bond yields. Some advanced players can achieve slightly higher returns through “dual stablecoin investment” or “yield aggregator”.

Risk Preference: Low

Stablecoin players prefer low volatility and high stability to avoid significant losses caused by violent market fluctuations. The primary goal is value preservation, with growth as a secondary goal, and is suitable for retirees, large funds, and conservative investors.

Conclusion

The on-chain world is rich and diverse, with different strategies suitable for different users. You might be a short-term hunter focused on Airdrop arbitrage, a seasoned pro building a long-term yield portfolio, a risk-taking Meme dreamer, or a crypto “saver” seeking stable returns.

Understanding your capabilities, time, preferences, and risk tolerance is a crucial step into the Web3 world. So, what kind of on-chain player are you?