Solana's DEX ecosystem has delivered some genuinely impressive airdrops over the years. Orca's token distribution was substantial, Atlas Dex came through with solid rewards, and Jupiter's multiple airdrop rounds proved they understood how to treat early supporters. I personally scored five figures from each of these, which honestly validates the approach these teams took.

Here's what's catching attention now: emerging DEX protocols on Solana that are building real user incentives. The play here isn't complicated—participate authentically, rack up badges and activity metrics, climb those leaderboards. Projects that reward genuine users tend to have the strongest communities.

The pattern? Back builders who actually deliver products and don't just hype tokens. That's where the real upside sits.