In Brief (TL;DR): Think of these programs as a pre-TGE passport—your on-chain activity earns points that unlock or allocate a token drop before a project goes live. The more you engage in governance, staking, or trading activity, the bigger your potential share when the token finally drops. This reframing shifts airdrops from wallet size to repeatable behavior, and it’s already appearing in several high-profile initiatives. (binance.com)
1. Macro Context & On-Chain Metrics
Across the last year, major ecosystems have tethered airdrop eligibility to a formal, transparent points economy rather than raw balance or a single blockchain action. Binance’s Alpha program explicitly ties TGE participation to a rolling points balance that snapshots daily over a 15-day window, with a two-phase distribution that can restrict or grant access as thresholds are met. The framework also defines “Balance Points” and “Volume Points,” which combine into a composite score used to gate pre-TGE rewards. The innovation: explicit, rule-based thresholds that can be adjusted, rather than opaque eligibility. As of May 2025, the mechanism was formally in effect, with Phase 1 thresholds and Phase 2 adjustments described in the guidance. (binance.com)Examples from other programs underscore the same shift. MEMO’s Season 1 event—designed to fairly distribute future MEMO token airdrops through a points-based system—explicitly treats points as the credential for claiming Mainnet rewards, including a real-time leaderboard and post-event allocations. The program rewarded early participants via a DID-based onboarding path and referrals, translating activity into scalable point tallies. Although MEMO’s epoch runs across different timescales than Binance, the core model—points as eligibility rather than upfront wallet power—remains the same. (blog.memolabs.org)
Beyond single-project cases, Arbitrum’s 2023-era airdrop popularized points as the centerpiece of eligibility. Following an extensive on-chain activity scoring approach, Arbitrum distributed ARB tokens according to a multi-criterion points system, with anti-sybil safeguards to limit opportunistic wallet farming. The result was a widely cited example of how “points” can mirror usage depth and loyalty, rather than mere address count. Major outlets highlighted the scoring-into-allocation design as a core driver of early network adoption. (forbes.com)
Anti-sybil mechanics have become a throughline in these programs. Wormhole, for instance, has published analyses of eligibility tied to anti-sybil detection, detailing how scoring and clustering can identify coordinated or fraudulent behavior across wallets and chains. The deep-dive explains how prioritized, vetted activity—rather than sheer address quantity—shapes who receives airdrop allocations. The emphasis on robust detection speaks to a broader industry concern: how to preserve fairness as points migrate from a conceptual idea to formal, on-chain rules. (wormhole.com)
Other US-facing projects have embraced points to decide pre-TGE allocations as well. Gate Alpha Points, as discussed in project disclosures, are specifically designed to evaluate activity within the Alpha ecosystem, including daily point accrual tied to user actions and consumption rules around TGE eligibility. The launcher narrative emphasizes a live, configurable point-driven gate for token access, reinforcing the trend toward ex-ante qualification. (Note: project pages vary by region and timing, but the underlying concept—points governing access to TGEs—has become a recognizable pattern.) (gate.ac)