A Big Crypto Giveaway: What's the Deal with Lighter's $675M Airdrop?

Lighter, a decentralized exchange (DEX) for perpetual futures trading, made headlines this week with a massive token giveaway. They sent out $675 million worth of Lighter Infrastructure Tokens (LIT) to early users. This ranks as the 10th largest airdrop in crypto history, according to CoinGecko. The airdrop surpassed 1inch Network's $671 million giveaway but fell short of LooksRare's $712 million from 2022. However, it's still a drop in the bucket compared to Uniswap's record-breaking $6. 43 billion airdrop in 2020.Most recipients, about 75%, held onto their tokens, while 7% bought more, showing some confidence in LIT. But not everyone is convinced. Critics question the token's distribution, with 50% reserved for the ecosystem and the other half going to the team and investors. Some community members argue that the team's 50% share is too high for a DeFi project. Others point out that the tokenomics resemble those of a main rival, Hyperliquid. As of now, LIT has a market cap of $678 million, trading above $2. 71. However, some investors warn that buying at current prices might only be a short-term play. They believe long-term gains would need more trading volume and user retention.