OKX Friends Episode 8 | In Conversation with Fengmi: The Philosophy and Tactics of Airdrops
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OKX Friends Episode 8 | In Conversation with Fengmi: The Philosophy and Tactics of Airdrops
Fengmi believes the core secret to farming airdrops lies in "losing gas."
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsTransitioning from investment banking to Web3? Entered the space in 2017, discovered the airdrop scene by accident during "DeFi Summer" in 2020? Achieved multiple multi-million dollar outcomes through farming over four years?
How did Feng Mi, known as the “Airdrop Master” @KuiGas, do it? If you're also an airdrop farmer, this "Sunflower Manual" is a must-read—
Feng Mi believes the core secret to successful airdrop farming lies in “losing gas,” meaning: where is your gas being spent? Breaking it down into two points: 1) Does the gas expenditure increase your weight or score? 2) Does it enhance your on-chain profile?
This is part of the "Friends of OKX" series, which aims to share stories, insights, and lessons from influential figures with diverse backgrounds to help newcomers learn and grow. This episode features an interview with Mercy Messi @Mercy_okx. Follow us for more!
Article Overview:
Chapter One: Entry Journey – How I Got Into Airdrop Farming and Became an Expert
Chapter Two: Core Farming Strategy – How to Screen High-Quality Airdrop Projects
Chapter Three: The Future of Airdrops
Chapter Four: Advice for Beginners – How to Start Airdrop Farming from Scratch
Chapter Five: Suggestions for OKX
Chapter One: Entry Journey – How I Got Into Airdrop Farming and Became an Expert
1. What brought you into crypto? Why is “farming” like a “gold mine”?
I have a finance background, specializing in securities investment and management. I worked in traditional finance doing hedge trading and investment banking before entering the cryptocurrency space in 2017. I stumbled upon airdrop farming during the “DeFi Summer” of 2020.
I first heard about BTC back in 2009. It was nearly worthless at the time—I even mined it briefly on my laptop—but I didn’t understand the technology or recognize its value due to limited knowledge. I missed that early opportunity. I only started participating seriously during the 2017 bull run, drawn in by the explosive price increases. My initial motivation was simple: to make big money. Over time, I gradually got exposed to DeFi protocols between 2018 and 2019, such as MakerDAO, Compound, and Uniswap.
During the 2020 “DeFi Summer,” I realized yield farming and airdrop farming could be combined, and the compounding effect was very strong!
The moment I truly recognized airdrop farming as a viable strategy was when Uniswap and SushiSwap launched their tokens. That’s when I began actively identifying promising protocols, including ENS and Paraswap. I started using multiple accounts and heavily allocated funds across them. When ENS and Paraswap eventually distributed airdrops, individual accounts received over 100,000 RMB from ENS and at least $10,000 in PSP tokens. This was my first major win in the space—a clear validation that airdrop farming could be profitable, like striking gold.
2. Why did you co-found 33DAO? What was your original intention? How has it impacted you since its founding?
33DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on co-creation, collaboration, and shared benefits. I am one of its founding members. It's been running for four years now, with around 35 members globally. We hold mandatory weekly meetings—over the past four years, we’ve likely held over 200 of them.
Our original intention was simple: to bring together capable, forward-thinking individuals who could exchange ideas, engage in deep discussions, challenge each other’s perspectives, and build a community that genuinely adds value. We also consistently produce public content—tutorials, market analyses, Spaces discussions—to help others get started and better understand Web3.
As for how it has impacted me personally, there are three key aspects. First, I’ve met an incredible group of people, many of whom have achieved significant results. The mutual encouragement and influence within the group have helped elevate our collective understanding and ultimately translate knowledge into financial gains—an extremely rewarding process.
For example, during the recent Lunar New Year, a meme token related to Trump emerged. Within minutes of launch, one member shared the contract address (CA). Initially, many thought it was a scam, but through collaborative data analysis, we confirmed its legitimacy and quickly took positions. I remember the price was around $0.5–1 at the time. It surged roughly 100x within two days, leading many members to achieve massive returns. Unfortunately, I was overseas and bought too little—missed out big time! This experience reinforced how crucial small, trusted circles are, and how important it is to interact with the right people.
Second, 33DAO pushes me to constantly produce content. This means continuous research and sharing of insights. Many of my understandings weren’t innate—they evolved through sustained learning, deep thinking, and discussions with community members. This mechanism of self-driven growth has had a profound impact. For instance, during bear markets, we supported each other through exchanges on projects like ARB and Strk, ultimately achieving solid results.
Third, resource and network accumulation. 33DAO has given us direct access to top-tier international projects, many of which were first discovered through our community efforts. These interactions provide broader perspectives, strengthen internal bonds through project collaborations, and allow ordinary individuals to truly integrate into the Web3 ecosystem.
Chapter Two: Core Farming Strategy – How to Screen High-Quality Airdrop Projects
1. How do you identify high-quality airdrop projects? Which metrics do you prioritize? (e.g., team background, tokenomics, community activity)
Key metrics I evaluate include: sector/narrative, funding history, ecosystem positioning, team background, on-chain data, technical innovation, as well as marketing ability, event organizing skills, and networking strength. Project screening involves assessing odds, potential returns, and costs. Personally, I see this as a highly complex process built on years of practical methodology.
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Categorize sectors and focus on mainstream narratives:There are only so many major categories; after seeing enough, patterns emerge. I start by reviewing dominant narratives—L1/L2, ZK, DeFi, LSD, Restaking, BTCFi, Move language—and form a foundational understanding. I typically rank projects within each ecosystem and analyze their risk-reward profiles individually.
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Identify standout features and protocol innovations:After initial review, I ask: what is the project’s core advantage? How does it differ from competitors? Reading whitepapers and official docs helps, but beginners should first develop sector awareness—being able to quickly identify a project’s purpose before diving deeper. One example that stood out to me was Maverick on zkSync, offering high APRs and revealing huge opportunities.
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Monitor institutions and investors—multi-dimensional perspective:Backing from reputable institutions increases credibility. Star VC-backed projects rarely rug pull, are more likely to list on major exchanges, and have higher ceilings. Institutional involvement acts as a filter, helping eliminate low-quality projects and increasing success rates. I tend to track VCs I trust, such as Hack VC.
Core approach: First assess the narrative, then determine positioning, followed by evaluating unique strengths, and finally checking institutional backing. Seek alpha, analyze the project’s marketing strategy, and always adopt the project team’s perspective. Explore from multiple angles.
I treat this process like evaluating someone during a real-life blind date: What do you do? What does your family do? Do you own property or a car? Are you employed? etc. Ultimately, I need a crystal-clear reason why I should farm this project.
2. Project teams often use technical methods to detect Sybil attacks. How do you effectively use multi-account strategies without being flagged as a Sybil attacker?
Great question. Let me cover this comprehensively despite time constraints.
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First, define Sybil attack: It refers to an individual or group creating numerous fake accounts to manipulate network resources or reward distribution—typically involving bulk, automated, bot-driven operations.
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Project teams' intentions: They want genuine users participating in their networks and aim to reward authentic contributors. To detect fraud, they employ on-chain analytics, address clustering, behavioral pattern detection—Nansen’s AI clustering is a prime example.
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Nature of Sybil attacks: Using multiple accounts isn’t inherently problematic. The issue arises when those accounts are mass-generated, non-contributing spam created solely to exploit airdrop rules. The core goal of anti-Sybil measures is to eliminate scripted and batch operations.
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Answering your question: How to reasonably use multi-account strategies? My view is to build “premium accounts.” Premium means each account is independent and authentic. Recent examples like PengU and earlier ones like TIA show single addresses earning $500–$2,000. A premium account exhibits genuine on-chain history, unique behavior, and logical asset distribution. Multi-account usage aligns with risk diversification. Multiple accounts ≠ Sybil. Using multiple accounts simply follows probability theory—broad coverage increases expected return compared to stacking rewards on a single account.
Practical execution:
Account creation phase – Basic principles:
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Ensure rational fund flow and differentiation from the beginning—including varied funding sources.
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Avoid centralized deposits or withdrawals.
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Randomize interaction timing and transaction amounts to avoid mechanical patterns.
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Multi-chain presence makes accounts appear more natural and authentic.
Account nurturing phase:
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Avoid batch operations—each account should exhibit independent behavior.
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Randomize transaction amounts, sequences, and mix interactions across various protocols to avoid assembly-line behavior.
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Diversify across chains to create more natural-looking footprints with independent interaction paths.
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Build high-quality user profiles and behaviors—hold diverse assets to increase account weight.
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Participate in real activities to boost account weight: DAO voting, NFT minting, DeFi staking.
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Use composite and embedded interactions, integrate DeFi strategies, and spend gas strategically where it matters most.
3. What do you mean by “premium accounts”?
Premium accounts refer to high-quality wallets exhibiting authentic on-chain records, independent behaviors, and reasonable asset distributions. While definitions vary, project teams generally aim to reward real, high-value users. Some may distribute to holders of project-specific NFTs, while others focus on on-chain interaction patterns. Key evaluation factors often include capital, activity level, diversity, on-chain identity, loyalty, mainnet data (gas usage, timestamps, transaction count, active duration), and NFT holdings. Authenticity is paramount.
Summary of key focus areas: wallet history, interaction behavior, fund flows, asset holdings (tokens & NFTs), balance retention, cross-chain activity, and partial social media binding...
4. How do you control farming costs? Any optimization tips for interacting on high-Gas chains like Ethereum?
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I don’t use tools like IP proxies or ADS browsers commonly mentioned by others—I’m not familiar with them. Instead, I focus entirely on building on-chain profiles through strategic gas spending.
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My personal farming cost includes capital and gas fees.
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Thus, my core concern is where gas is spent—ideally to either increase account weight or enrich on-chain identity. These two goals directly align with how project teams evaluate potential recipients.
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Specific strategies involve maximizing utility through DeFi, arbitrage, trading, minting, or completing weighted transactions. Aim to recoup spent gas while simultaneously improving your account profile. There’s strong reflexivity here—you must first learn how to “lose” money and gas wisely.
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Regarding high-Gas chains like Ethereum: gas prices fluctuate. In recent years, only the first year saw consistently high fees; afterward, gas became cheap. For example, current gas fees (~1 Gwei) are negligible—perfect timing to build new accounts. Use specific projects to naturally generate mainnet interaction data.
5. Different projects have varying interaction requirements. How do you adjust your strategy accordingly?
Different projects set different airdrop criteria. Blindly following generic tutorials is no longer effective. Everyone now seeks precise interactions with minimal cost and maximum return—a rare combination requiring long-term practice and tracking. This uncertainty and reflexivity represent the biggest challenges in this field.
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My strategy always revolves around premium accounts + weighted interactions + high ROI calculations + risk control. I combine quality accounts with high-potential protocols. Since each project has unique airdrop logic, blanket approaches fail. Targeted deployment is essential. Farming isn't just about volume—it’s about identifying the correct interactions expected by the project and choosing those aligned with your personality and capabilities.
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Example: For L1/L2 ecosystems, prioritize TVL, authenticity, native DApps, and diversified participation—play from a genuine user perspective.
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For DeFi protocols, teams favor power users—those who provide long-term liquidity and trade frequently. Metrics like deposit duration, amount, and LP positions matter. Analyze based on individual protocol on-chain data.
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For cross-chain bridges and staking protocols, consider the project’s context—TGE timing, security, market position, and ROI ratio.
Additionally, meaningful interactions improve account quality and weight. I could explain my logic behind participating in Wormhole ($W), which yielded over $10,000 per account, but I’ll skip details due to time.
For community-driven projects: contribute actively, especially if NFTs are involved. Focus on holding ecosystem-related or OG rights-bearing NFTs.
“Farming smart” beats “farming hard.” With growing emphasis on authentic users, precision interactions, rational capital allocation, and long-term account nurturing are now critical. Today’s airdrop game isn’t about wallet count—it’s about project research, rule comprehension, and execution capability!
6. After many projects launch airdrops, people often dump their tokens. How do you decide when to sell?
I’m not good at this—I’m sitting on a mountain of altcoins. I embody the classic “great at farming, terrible at selling” type. There are many reasons: market dynamics have shifted. In the last cycle, holding meant getting rich; this cycle, holding often means losing badly. I held OP and ARB for over a year. Some projects I staked in later crashed 90%, turning major wins into minor ones. There are still tokens I haven’t sold, like EigenLayer. For severely underperforming projects, I go dormant until they hit zero, treating listing price as cost basis and writing off losses. I’ve always prioritized relative performance over absolute gains.
After repeated mistakes, my current approach is to sell ~1/3 immediately post-airdrop, then assess further based on project and market conditions. Most airdropped tokens are VC coins. I mainly watch final valuation rounds, listing market cap, unlock schedules, and overall market sentiment. Honestly, emotional attachment skews judgment—we farmers often grow attached and hesitate to sell!
Chapter Three: The Future of Airdrops
1. What do you think about platforms like Pump.fun launching meme coins? How will this affect airdrop farming?
Platforms like Pump.fun have drastically lowered the barrier to token issuance. Anyone can deploy a token in seconds with one click and automatically create liquidity pools. This represents an evolution toward extreme decentralization and freedom in asset creation. Its emergence marks a shift—from ICOs and IEOs to airdrops, and now to self-issuance models. It changes both the mechanics and psychology of Web3 participation, especially for farmers.
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Impact on token distribution: This open model removes technical and fundraising barriers. One-click token creation and automatic LP generation allow direct market entry without intermediaries. This affects not only meme coins but also forces traditional Web3 projects to rethink distribution—many now prefer launching directly on DEXs instead of relying on centralized exchanges or private funding. Market forces alone determine token value.
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Impact on farmers (“lao si”):
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Impact 1 – Mindset: Farming cycles have drastically shortened, testing human psychology. Speculative tendencies intensify. Previously, farmers accepted 3–24 month engagement periods before TGE. Now, meme coins can pump 100x in minutes—or crash to zero just as fast. Compared to uncertain, time-consuming farming yields, memes offer instant thrills.
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Impact 2 – Incentives: Farmers’ “belief system” collapses. Meme speculation dominates. Traditional farming valued deep interaction, on-chain contribution, technical merit, and long-term vision. Under the meme model, drivers are emotion, narrative, and FOMO. Many farmers abandon airdrops for memes, ignoring fundamentals in favor of short-term volatility—which feels faster, more exciting, and wealthier. Everyone wants to be the “chosen one” of the cycle.
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Impact 3 – Gamblification: Farmer mentality becomes increasingly FOMO-driven and gambling-oriented. While traditional farming emphasized steady progress, the meme ecosystem fosters extreme speculation, amplifying risk-taking behavior.
2. Evolution of farming: Is there still opportunity in multi-account gas burning?
Yes, but limited. Without multiple accounts, you’ll never get rich or achieve outsized returns. However, balance is key—personal funds and inter-account fund flows must be managed carefully. Burning gas across accounts is acceptable, but avoid mindless gas burning. The distinction matters. The future of farming lies in “premium accounts”—authentic interactions, natural fund flows, and long-term activity are optimal. Farming is no longer about sheer volume but tests “strategy + execution + information edge.” Those with strong execution can still scale up—building more premium accounts.
3. For projects requiring both gas spending and social tasks (e.g., Twitter, Discord, Galxe), how should one respond?
Some projects implement dual-filter mechanisms—on-chain interactions (burning gas) plus social tasks. This raises the bar for participants. Poor management leads to excessive time and cost with mismatched returns—often resulting in complaints. My advice:
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First, assess whether the project justifies both gas and social effort. Apply your own logic and ensure alignment with your personal style. Develop differentiated interaction strategies.
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Differentiate between studios and individuals—their strategies differ. As a solo operator, I maintain a set of three social accounts (“three-piece suite”), all registered early via overseas phones and nurtured over time. I manage them across separate devices. Quality depends on consistent, slightly varied activity. These accounts are checked for linkages and activity levels. Time prevents full explanation, but having this infrastructure is essential—though quantity isn’t the goal.
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Pair one premium wallet with a complete set of three social accounts. Scale according to your capacity—say, 100 total setups.
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Focus primarily on building strong on-chain profiles and high-value transactions. Abandon large volumes of meaningless Web3 task completions. Evaluating project-designed activities critically is key.
4. Are TX counts still useful? What role does trading volume play in farming? Is it still effective?
As project filtering and anti-Sybil systems evolve, simplistic metrics like raw TX counts are no longer optimal. Modern farming emphasizes “interaction quality + transaction authenticity.” Still, TX and volume matter when tied to “depth of engagement.” To stretch an analogy: visiting a bank often used to get you noticed—even the manager might buy you coffee. Today, just making deposits isn’t enough—you need to be a VIP client buying wealth management and insurance products regularly.
5. What innovative airdrop designs could benefit communities, projects, and the entire ecosystem?
This is a broad topic. Designing effective airdrops is an art when done right, a scam when mishandled. Briefly:
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Airdrops have proven vital for early-stage Web3 growth and user acquisition. Yet traditional models suffer flaws—projects burn vast token supplies without attracting loyal users, resulting in excessive low-quality participants and damaged token economies.
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Good airdrops attract new users, reward early supporters, and retain long-term contributors—all while fueling the project’s economic flywheel. More innovative, fair, and sustainable designs should enable “triple-win” outcomes for projects, communities, and ecosystems.
Future airdrop models must embody these core principles:
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Long-term incentives (discourage dumping, encourage ongoing interaction and contribution)
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Combine on-chain data with off-chain community contributions to identify real, valuable users
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Align interests of all three parties (user growth = ecosystem growth)
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Transparency (clearly explain every rule and rationale)—no insider allocations
Approaches vary. Example: “gradual release” mechanisms like OP’s airdrop—multi-round distributions that continuously reward long-term contributors. Building on this, additional layers can refine strategy. No perfect solution exists, but designs should strive to serve retail users and genuine contributors.
Chapter Four: Advice for Beginners
1. How should someone start farming from scratch? Beginners may only have a few hundred dollars—how should they begin?
Farming is a low-cost path into Web3 that can generate returns, but it’s not free money. It requires a blend of knowledge, strategy, and execution. Strategies vary by experience level and technical skill. For non-technical newcomers, my advice:
1. Philosophical level (“Dao”) – Correct mindset:
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Learn: Understand common ways to earn in the industry, study airdrop models, explore ecosystems and protocols. Identify suitable projects early on.
Principle: Develop your own project evaluation framework. Not every project deserves farming. Define criteria upfront. At its core, farming is “low-cost investing”—your time, gas fees, and opportunity cost are all inputs. Avoid FOMO. -
Direction: Choose the right sector. Direction matters more than effort. Target narratives with strong future potential, large funding pools, and long-term incentive structures.
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Research: Build a project database. Learn to evaluate and track projects, calculate ROI, assess risks, odds, and weighting factors.
2. Tactical level (“Shu”) – Practical methods:
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Master proper interaction techniques: swapping, bridging funds, finding tokens, completing project tasks using your “three-piece suite.” Core goal: improve interaction skills.
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Boost account weight: Perform deep interactions to become an active, authentic, high-quality user within ecosystem protocols.
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Control costs: Farming involves more than burning gas. Consider staking, or participate in high-quality testnet programs.
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Engage from multiple angles: As a user deeply involved in ecosystems, or as a creator producing content for projects.
Summary: Go slow to move fast. Win big with small moves.
2. Common pitfalls?
Feng Mi: Mistakes are blessings. Some holes you must fall into yourself. Only personal experience and reflection lead to real learning. You can’t teach people everything—experience teaches instantly.
3. How should beginners find reliable information sources? Any recommended channels or tools?
Start by following credible KOLs on Twitter, YouTube, etc. Use RootData @RootDataCrypto to discover projects, find team X accounts, and check funding details.
For learning, OKX’s Web3 Wallet @OKXWeb3_CN offers beginner-friendly tasks to practice with.
Chapter Five: Suggestions for OKX
1. What role and influence has OKX played in various ecosystem developments?
OKX Wallet supports a vast number of ecosystems and chains—I believe it currently supports 127 chains. Personally, I use OKX Wallet frequently and often share seed phrases between MetaMask and OKX.
Highlights: secure, responsive, smooth—too many positives to list. The Movement ecosystem especially benefited from OKX Web3 Wallet support. Initially, users had to download another wallet, which wasn’t user-friendly. After I reported this issue to Haiteng @Haiteng_okx, he quickly connected me with relevant teammates, and support was added swiftly—making asset transfers much easier.
2. Going forward, which ecosystems would you like to see OKX partner with? In what forms? What kind of collaborations does the community want to see?
Ecosystem coverage is already extensive. From what I know, OKX’s wallet team is excellent, BD is strong, integrations are fast, and bugs are fixed promptly. One area for improvement could be deeper integration in airdrop farming. OKX @okxchinese has breadth but lacks depth. With millions of users, OKX could build a valuable growth system around user wallet behavior—partnering with ecosystems to drive mutual traffic, or offering data-based bonuses and rewards to OKX wallet users.
Tooling is already strong—for example, real-time charts and one-click token trading on X. For airdrops, OKX could introduce an “airdrop detector” feature—allowing users to instantly check unclaimed airdrops directly from their wallet interface.
Conclusion
Feng Mi: These five years have strengthened my belief: true value isn’t in what you know, but in who you connect with and what you execute.
In this ever-changing market, the strongest competitive edge lies in continuously evolving cognition, forward-looking positioning, and relentless, damn-near obsessive execution. Time is tight—please correct me if I said anything wrong!
Mercy: I first heard of Teacher Feng Mi as a legendary figure—some even joked he spends 365 days a year meditating in a temple farming airdrops... But meeting him revealed a genuinely humble, sincere person with admirable dedication and professionalism—qualities I deeply respect and aspire to emulate.
From this "Friends of OKX" conversation on the “Dao and Shu” of airdrops, I distilled three key takeaways:
1. Exceptional judgment—“farming smart” beats “farming hard”;
2. Strong sense of responsibility—take every deal seriously;
3. Outstanding execution—essential for both newcomers and veterans.
I hope everyone finds value here. Finally, special thanks to Feng Mi @KuiGas for sharing. Stay tuned for more episodes of the "Friends of OKX" series.
Risk Warning and Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect OKX’s position. This article does not constitute (i) investment advice or recommendation; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information provided. Holding digital assets—including stablecoins and NFTs—involves high risk and may result in significant price volatility. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professionals regarding your specific circumstances. You are solely responsible for understanding and complying with applicable local laws and regulations.
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