How to airdrop tokens on Base
Updated
An airdrop puts your token in the wallets of people you want to reward: early users, community members or holders of another token. Done well, it builds a real base of holders. Done badly, it hands tokens to bots who sell them in minutes. This guide covers the plan, the list, the cost and the sending, plus the safety steps that protect your community.
- 1Collect addresses
- 2Check the list
- 3Approve the total
- 4Send batches
- 5Tell holders there is nothing to claim
1. Decide why you are airdropping
Write down the goal in one sentence before you build a list. Common goals are rewarding people who used your product, thanking a community that helped early, or putting the token in many wallets before trading starts. The goal decides who qualifies and how much each person gets.
2. Choose who qualifies
Pick rules that anyone can check, and publish them:
- Users: wallets that used your app or contract before a set date.
- Community: people who finished tasks in your community or quest tools.
- Holders: wallets that held another token at a fixed moment (a snapshot).
Set the cut-off date before you announce anything, so nobody can farm the rules after the fact.
3. Filter out bots and farmers
Airdrops attract wallets made only to collect free tokens. Simple filters help: a minimum amount of activity, an account age, one reward per person in your community tool, and a manual look at clusters of wallets funded from the same source. No filter is perfect, so keep the rules simple and the amounts modest.
4. Decide the amounts
| Method | How it works | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Equal | Everyone who qualifies gets the same amount | Community thank-yous |
| Tiered | Two or three levels, for example by activity | Rewarding the most active people |
| Proportional | Amount follows a number, such as tokens held | Snapshots of holders |
Add up the total and check it against your allocation table. If the airdrop comes from a community allocation that is vested, claim what has unlocked first; you can only send what is in your wallet.
5. Build the list
The list is a plain text or CSV file with one line per wallet: address,amount. Amounts are in tokens, not base units, and decimals like 250.5 are fine. Before you send, remove:
- Duplicate addresses, unless you mean to send twice.
- Your own wallets, the pool, the vesting vault and the lock contract.
- Exchange deposit addresses, which may not credit the tokens to anyone.
The Kobolt tool checks every address, flags duplicates and shows the total before you sign.
6. Send it
- Open your token in the Kobolt builder and choose Airdrop.
- Paste the list or upload the CSV.
- Check the number of recipients, the total and the fee.
- Approve the total once, then send. Up to 500 wallets go in one transaction, and larger lists are split into batches automatically.
In each batch, either every transfer succeeds or none does, so a batch never stops halfway. Tokens land directly in the wallets; nobody has to claim. More detail is on the token airdrop tool page.
What it costs
| Recipients | Transactions | Kobolt fee at 0.004 ETH per batch |
|---|---|---|
| 300 | 1 | 0.004 ETH |
| 1,200 | 3 | 0.012 ETH |
| 5,000 | 10 | 0.04 ETH |
Base gas comes on top and grows with the number of recipients; your wallet shows it before you confirm. The current fees are on what a launch costs.
7. Stay safe
Fake airdrop sites are among the most common scams in crypto. They ask people to "claim" tokens by connecting a wallet and signing, then drain the wallet. Because a Kobolt airdrop sends tokens directly, you can tell your community clearly: there is nothing to claim and no site to connect to. Post the announcement only on your official X and Telegram, and pin the real token address next to it.
Timing and the pool
If people receive tokens before a pool exists, any of them could create a pool at their own price. Either send the airdrop after your official pool is live and locked, or tell recipients exactly when and where trading will start. See How to add liquidity on Uniswap.
Legal and tax
Free tokens can still have tax or legal consequences for you and for recipients, depending on the country. In the EU, MiCA has rules for offering crypto-assets to the public. Get advice before a large airdrop. This guide is not legal or tax advice.
Checklist
- Goal and rules written down and published
- Cut-off date set before the announcement
- List filtered for duplicates, bots and your own addresses
- Total checked against the allocation table
- Pool live and locked, or trading start announced
- Announcement says there is nothing to claim
FAQ
How many wallets can I airdrop to at once on Base?
With Kobolt, up to 500 per transaction. Larger lists are split into batches automatically.
Do recipients need to claim the airdrop?
No. The tokens arrive in their wallets directly, so there is no claim site.
How much does a token airdrop cost?
One Kobolt fee per batch of up to 500 wallets, plus Base gas.
Can I airdrop ETH?
No. The tool sends ERC-20 tokens from your wallet, not ETH.
Can I undo an airdrop?
No. Transfers are final, so check the list before you send.
Ready to launch?
Create your token on Base from your own wallet. You see every setting and the exact fee before you sign.
Create your token