The evolution of the airdrop has reached its next stage.

In the early days, crypto airdrops were a surprise gift of tokens to early adopters, who would each receive as much as tens of thousands of dollars. Yet over time, the awareness that projects may launch tokens through airdrops gave rise to an ongoing battle between projects trying to distribute tokens to their real users and people trying to farm the airdrops.

The latest twist and turn in this saga is that projects are distributing a portion of their airdrops to popular communities, in particular ones built around NFT projects. But why? Well, there may be a couple of reasons.

A big one is engagement. NFT projects that typically make the list include Mad Lads, Milady’s and Pudgy Penguins — all communities known for being very …