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  • Can DAOs Sustain Growth After Airdrops Fade?

    Abdil Hamid

    Abdil Hamid

    @ForensicBlockSmith
    Updated: Nov 11, 2025
    Views: 86

    Our DAO hit 25K members after a massive token airdrop campaign three months ago. Engagement has dropped since—Discord activity is down 60%, governance participation barely 3%. We’re considering loyalty NFTs and referral quests to revive growth, but I’m skeptical about gamified incentives.

    Has anyone here managed to sustain growth beyond the initial airdrop hype? What practical frameworks or community metrics worked for you to measure true retention, not just wallet activity?

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    Replies
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Replies

  • Merrythetechie

    @Merrythetechie • 1mo

    We had a similar issue post-airdrop at a DeFi protocol I worked with. After the hype faded, we realized our “retention” was mostly farming wallets. We ran a Nansen cohort analysis to track overlap between airdrop recipients and actual voters on Snapshot. Only 12% overlap! The fix was introducing a contributor leaderboard tied to DAO proposals, not tokens. People stayed because contribution earned reputation points—measurable and non-tradable.

  • Web3WandererAva

    @Web3Wanderer • 1mo

    I’m advising a DAO right now that replaced token airdrops with milestone NFTs verified via Galxe. We saw 35% recurring engagement because users earned proof-based identity, not financial reward.

    One underrated trick: hold bi-weekly “proof circles”—ask members to share how they contributed. It sounds small but creates belonging.

  • Andria Shines

    @ChainSage • 4w

    I would suggest go metrics-wise and try using Metabase dashboards integrating Discord roles and on-chain actions. We once tracked: 1) proposal voting, 2) treasury participation, 3) off-chain dev contributions. Once you blend this, you get a clearer “community health” view.

    Our “post-airdrop decay” stabilized after we shifted comms from hype to transparency about treasury use. Real conversations > incentives.

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