Airdrop
Plain definition. An airdrop is a campaign in which a company or person launching a token gives away a certain amount of it to a select group of people to gain popularity.
Technical definition. A public service announcement dated June 3, 2025 and published at ic3.gov defines an airdrop as a campaign that some companies or people do when launching a token, giving away a certain amount of that token to a select group of people to gain popularity. To receive a token in their wallet through the airdrop process, a user must hold the specific token offered, belong to the community, or simply own a non-custodial wallet. The recipient then finds unsolicited or promotional cryptocurrency tokens and rewards in that wallet.
On this site
On this site, Airdrop comes up in How are XRP yield, lending income, AMM fees and airdrops taxed?, What is a trust line, and how do I check that a token on the XRP Ledger is genuine? and Why are there strange tokens, airdrops or messages in my XRP wallet, and should I claim them?.
Source
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Cyber Criminals Defraud Hedera Hashgraph Network Non-Custodial Wallet Users Thro (ic3.gov), read October 1, 2026.