Clique: Airdrop Design and Token Distribution That Holds Users

Clique builds distribution tooling for crypto projects. Charles from Clique joined Frontier GTM to talk about airdrops, token launches and what makes a distribution work. Clique runs two products. The first is white label airdrop infrastructure. Charles says it has handled over 70% of outsourced airdrop development since 2024. The second is token operations software for internal distribution, such as vesting schedules for investors, advisors and teams.

Charles gave several blunt views on the market. Most teams do not need a token, he said, except layer 1 networks where a token is part of the design. Airdrop playbooks have lost impact because everyone runs the same one. Many founders rely too much on crypto Twitter for discovery and pay large listing fees to exchanges, which he reads as a lack of confidence in their own user base. He also argues there are no truly fair launches anymore, because valuations are high and retail upside is limited. In his words, the pre-TGE audience is often not the post-TGE audience, so success for a project often means building the community metrics exchanges look for.

On process, Clique starts with a deep audit of what the team has done and who its stakeholders are, then shows what other clients tried before proposing a configuration. Charles explains why registration portals became common: they build momentum, bind a social account to one claim address, and filter out inactive users. He prefers tailored solutions with alignment over one shot handouts.

Two examples show the approach. For Somnia, Clique built contingent dynamic unlocks. About 5% of supply went out through the airdrop, 20% was liquid on day one and 80% unlocked at roughly 10% a week only if the user met an activity threshold, with a grace window and forfeiture afterward. Charles says unclaimed rewards were worth close to $10 million at peak valuation. For an upcoming DeFi protocol, Clique is building retractable vesting for large depositors: users can choose faster vesting, but lose the remainder if they pull their TVL early. The aim is to tie rewards to the behavior a protocol needs, such as keeping liquidity in place after launch.