Every crypto enthusiast dreams of free money, and retrodrops are exactly what this fantasy promises. But let's figure out what it really is.

A retrodrop is when a project simply distributes its tokens to people who have already done something in their ecosystem. For free. Without investments. Sounds like a fairy tale, but it actually works.

It all started with Uniswap. Remember when they released UNI and distributed it to all users who had ever traded on their DEX? In 2021, the price of UNI soared above $40, and people who just used the exchange suddenly received thousands of dollars. Since then, it has become a real hunt for drops.

Now all projects want to do the same. Crypto users create 10 wallets each, trade on every DEX, mint NFTs, basically do everything just to get on the retrodrop list. And you know, it often works! Although MetaMask still hasn't distributed tokens, despite a bunch of rumors.

For the projects themselves, a retrodrop is a great way to generate activity and show investors that they have a live ecosystem. At the same time, they don't really spend anything — tokens are just numbers in their contracts. Some don't give anything at all afterward, just announce a drop and forget.

But there's a catch. First, a retrodrop isn't always free — gas fees on Ethereum can cost more than the token itself. Second, no one announces in advance whether there will be a drop at all and what the conditions will be. One project distributes about $200 conditionally to each, while another gives 25 cents. It all depends on how much they decided to spend on PR.