Gitcoin Airdrop Timeline
About Gitcoin
Gitcoin funds open source work in crypto, most visibly through quadratic funding rounds where many small donations to a project unlock a disproportionately large match from a central pool.
The GTC airdrop in May 2021 covered both sides of that marketplace. People who had donated to grants qualified, and so did the maintainers who had run them, along with users of the bounties product. Roughly 15% of supply went out in the initial distribution.
Because eligibility tracked genuine participation in funding rounds over several years, it was among the harder distributions of its era to fake after the fact.
Airdrop Stats
Gitcoin's 100-million GTC supply is DAO-weighted: 50% to GitcoinDAO's Community Treasury for grants, governance, and public-goods funding. The retroactive airdrop was 15% (15M GTC), distributed in May 2021 to early community members who contributed to the ecosystem before the token launched. The remaining 35% went to existing stakeholders (team, investors, and prior GTC allocations), on cliff vesting that concluded by 2023. GTC is a governance token holders act as "Gitcoin Stewards," voting on treasury and grant decisions. Gitcoin has run public-goods funding (via quadratic funding grants) on Ethereum since 2017.
How it worked to get the Gitcoin airdrop
Donate to Gitcoin Grants
Contributions to any quadratic funding round from 2019 onward counted, with small donations carrying real weight by design.
Or run a funded grant
Maintainers who raised through the platform qualified alongside the people who funded them.
Use the bounties product
Completing or posting bounties added to a wallet's standing in the snapshot.
Claim GTC and join the DAO
The distribution opened on 25 May 2021 and came with governance over where future grant funding goes.
Was the Gitcoin airdrop worth it?
- Eligibility could not be manufactured after the fact. Allocations tracked participation in quadratic funding rounds stretching back to 2019. Donating to grants and running them both counted, and neither could be backfilled once the snapshot was known.
- It paid the funders, not just the builders. Most airdrops reward people who used a product. This one rewarded people who had given money away to public goods, which is close to unique among distributions of its size.
- Governance was the point. GTC came with a DAO that has directed real funding since, so holding it meant a say in where grant money went rather than a purely financial position.
Gitcoin Official Links
Official channels, documentation and community for this airdrop:
This airdrop has concluded. It is kept for research rather than participation.
