Guide: Which Type of On-Chain Player Are You?
On-chain users can generally be divided into four categories: Airdrop Players, DeFi Players, Meme Players, and Stablecoin Players.
Airdrop Players: These users focus on participating in airdrop events of Web3 projects, acquiring token rewards at low or even zero cost. Their goal is typically short-term profits, and they are often referred to as “free-riders.”
DeFi Players: These users are passionate about DeFi and earn profits by providing liquidity, staking, lending, arbitraging, and other methods, aiming for more stable long-term returns.
Meme Players: This category doesn’t specifically refer to meme coin enthusiasts but includes all players who engage in speculative activities, hoping to strike it rich overnight. They seek high-risk, high-reward opportunities.
Stablecoin Players: These users are more akin to traditional finance investors, often engaging in long-term or dollar-cost-averaging strategies. The projects they participate in are usually stablecoins, with a focus on steady, long-term returns.
Now, based on these four user profiles, let’s explore which category you belong to.
- Airdrop Players
Basic Knowledge Requirements
Airdrop players don’t require deep financial or technical expertise, but they need a clear understanding of basic blockchain operations, such as wallet creation, on-chain interactions, gas fee settings, etc. They should also have some cross-chain knowledge and be familiar with multiple EVM-compatible chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, Base, Blast, etc. Additionally, understanding the evolution of “airdrop logic” is key — such as which behaviors are tracked and what actions may be flagged as “Sybil attacks.”
Technical Ability Requirements: Medium
Airdrop players need to master using multiple wallet tools, RPC switching, bulk registration, contract interactions (DApp testing), and automation scripts. Some advanced airdrop players even use automated scripts for interactions, simulators, or on-chain behavior simulation tools to bypass scrutiny.
Time Commitment: Medium to High
Airdrop strategies focus on “consistency” and “layout density.” Top airdrop players usually spend a lot of time daily tracking airdrop information, interacting, reviewing transactions, and monitoring official announcements, testnet upgrades, etc. Once the airdrop is received, they need to quickly withdraw, swap, or manage funds in bulk.
Community Participation Requirements: Medium to Low
Although some projects require “community activity” to verify real users, most airdrop activities are more focused on on-chain interactions. Therefore, community participation is more instrumental, such as posting a tweet, forwarding, or attending AMAs, rather than engaging deeply in discussions.
Expected Returns: Medium to High
Airdrop returns vary greatly, with projects like Optimism and Arbitrum offering thousands of dollars in airdrops, while some test projects yield nothing. Top players often aim for “multi-chain layouts, high hit rates, and bulk accounts” to maximize profits. A successful airdrop can bring returns far exceeding the initial investment, reaching tenfold or even hundredfold returns.
Risk Appetite: Medium to High
Although airdrops appear “zero-cost,” there are still risks such as private key leakage, phishing links, and bridge hacks due to the numerous wallet creations, fund interactions, and DApp testing involved. Especially for players managing multiple accounts, there’s a risk of exposure through on-chain behavior leading to “all accounts being cleared.” Additionally, the increasing risk of a project flagging users as “Sybil attacks” may lead to invalid airdrops. - DeFi Players
Basic Knowledge Requirements
DeFi players require strong financial and blockchain fundamentals, including an understanding of AMM mechanisms, liquidity pools, annualized returns (APR/APY), lending principles, liquidation lines, leverage, perpetual contracts, yield aggregators, and more. They should also have analytical abilities to assess smart contract risks and project tokenomics, to avoid falling victim to “high-yield traps.”
Technical Ability Requirements: Medium to High
DeFi operations involve wallets, cross-chain bridges, liquidity provision, LP tokens, staking platforms, decentralized oracles (e.g., Chainlink), and yield platforms like Yearn or Beefy. These players often have the ability to construct combination strategies, such as “staking + borrowing leverage” or “dual liquidity mining.” They also use tools like Dune, DeFiLlama, and Zapper for data tracking and yield management.
Time Commitment: Medium
Intermediate DeFi players need to regularly check project yield changes, rebalance positions, participate in governance votes, and monitor price fluctuations and liquidation lines. While their activities may not be as frequent as airdrop players, regular weekly participation is essential. Long-term DeFi players focus on building stable return portfolios, and their daily management is relatively low pressure.
Community Participation Requirements: Medium to High
Many DeFi projects have governance tokens, so DeFi players are often DAO governors or liquidity mining voters. Advanced DeFi users participate in community forums, such as those for Curve, Maker, and Aave, to discuss governance proposals. Early feedback from participants is critical to improving protocols for some new projects.
Expected Returns: Medium to High
DeFi returns are slightly more stable than airdrops, with annualized returns ranging from 5% to 60%, depending on the strategy and risk level. Top DeFi strategy players can earn returns far higher than traditional finance through combination arbitrage (e.g., cross-pool liquidity, borrowing leverage, stablecoin rotation).
Risk Appetite: Medium
The inherent risks in DeFi come from smart contract vulnerabilities, project failures, black swan events on-chain (such as the Luna crash), and extreme market fluctuations leading to collateral liquidation. Top players know how to mitigate risk by diversifying assets, using stop-loss mechanisms, and employing insurance protocols. - Meme Players
Basic Knowledge Requirements：Low
Meme players are not sensitive to complex blockchain or DeFi concepts and mainly rely on trending topics, social media, and sentiment-driven decisions. They may not understand TVL or habitually read whitepapers, but they closely monitor Twitter, Telegram groups, and trend analysis. A typical Meme user is more like a “fast-paced speculator” in the crypto world.
Technical Ability Requirements: Medium to Low
Meme players need to know basic wallet usage, how to trade on fast-listing platforms like Uniswap, Pump.fun, Birdeye, DEXTools, etc., and how to identify projects with “honeypot” or pump-and-dump contracts. Experienced Meme players may also deploy front-running bots, set gas priority, etc.
Time Commitment: High
Meme speculation is extremely time-sensitive, requiring real-time monitoring of new project launches, social platform hype indexes, and token price movements. Top players may spend over 10 hours online daily to catch potential “100x tokens” or newly launched projects yet to be exposed.
Community Participation Requirements: High
Meme players heavily rely on community-driven propagation and momentum. A successful meme project is often driven by community organic spread. Meme culture is built around self-mockery, rebellion, and humor, and players are often an integral part of this culture, regularly contributing to meme creation, dissemination, and topic hype.
Expected Returns: Extremely High
The typical goal of Meme players is to achieve “100x overnight” with a very small investment for massive returns. Success stories like DOGE, SHIBA, PEPE, WIF, etc., have allowed many players to experience significant wealth transformation. However, the volatility and short-term cycles associated with Meme markets are extreme.
Risk Appetite: Extremely High
Meme markets are often devoid of fundamental support, relying heavily on sentiment and manipulation by whales. Pumping, dumping, and “zeroing out” are common occurrences. Many players experience the “buying at the top” scenario, while others miss the peak out of greed. Meme players must have strong psychological endurance and risk awareness. - Stablecoin Players
Basic Knowledge Requirements: Medium
Stablecoin players are not focused on speculation or technicalities, but typically possess basic financial knowledge and asset allocation thinking. They understand the stablecoin peg mechanisms (e.g., USDT, USDC, DAI, FDUSD) and monitor stability risks, regulatory trends, and on-chain interest rate changes, viewing blockchain as a “yield-enhancing storage” tool.
Technical Ability Requirements: Low
They only need to master mainstream wallets, stablecoin trading, on-chain deposits/withdrawals, and cross-chain bridges. Some users combine centralized platforms with on-chain actions to allocate funds, and are less concerned with gas costs, typically preferring low-fee chains like BSC, Tron, or Base.
Time Commitment: Low
Stablecoin players usually adopt long-term configurations and periodic portfolio adjustments, relying on low-frequency operations. Common strategies include dollar-cost-averaging into USDT or DAI and investing in on-chain yield pools (e.g., Aave, Compound, Pendle) or centralized custodians.
Community Participation Requirements: Low
Stablecoin players focus on asset security and liquidity rather than deep community involvement. They monitor market trends, regulatory shifts, and platform stability, with rational and “wait-and-see” behavior, rather than engaging with project “culture” or community atmosphere.
Expected Returns: Medium to Low, Stable
Stablecoin strategies usually offer returns between 4% to 12% annually, which supplements traditional savings or bond yields. Some advanced players use “dual stablecoin investments” or “yield aggregators” to achieve slightly higher returns.
Risk Appetite: Low
Stablecoin players favor low volatility and high stability in their asset strategies, avoiding significant losses from extreme market fluctuations. Their primary goal is preserving capital, with growth as a secondary concern — making this strategy ideal for retirees, large funds, and conservative investors.
Conclusion
The on-chain world is diverse, with different strategies suited for different users. You may be a short-term hunter focused on airdrop arbitrage, a steady veteran building a long-term yield portfolio, a Meme dreamer willing to take a risk, or a crypto “savings person” seeking stable returns.
Understanding your capabilities, time availability, preferences, and risk tolerance is the most important step toward entering the Web3 world. So, the question is: Which type of on-chain player are you?
