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Dragonfly Report: US Crypto Users May Miss Over $5 billion Airdrop Gains Due to Geographic Restrictions

On March 12th, according to Dragonfly's latest Airdrop Status Report 2025, US users have missed out on huge cryptocurrency airdrop gains due to geographical restrictions. The report analyzes data from 12 airdrop projects (11 geographically restricted projects and 1 unrestricted control project) between 2019 and 2023, and estimates that 920,000 to 5.20 million active US users (5-10% of US cryptocurrency holders) are affected by geographical restrictions. The study found that approximately 22-24% of active crypto addresses worldwide in 2024 were U.S. residents. The 11 projects in the sample collectively created approximately $7.16 billion in value, and approximately 1.86 million customer engagement globally, with an average median claim amount of approximately $4,800 per eligible address. The report estimates that U.S. users lost between $1.84 billion and $2.64 billion in potential revenue between 2020 and 2024 due to geographic restrictions. More broadly, based on a sample of 21 geographically restricted airdrops analyzed by CoinGecko, US users may have lost between $3.49 billion and $5.02 billion. This resulted in US federal tax losses of about $418 million to $1.10 billion, state tax losses of about $107 million to $284 million, and total tax losses of $525 million to $1.38 billion. The report also notes that the relocation of crypto businesses overseas has also caused a significant reduction in US tax revenue. In the case of Tether, the company reported a profit of $6.20 billion in 2024. If it fully accepts US taxes, it can contribute about $1.30 billion in federal corporate taxes and $316 million in state taxes.