What happens after a testnet ends

This page is mechanics and a warning, not a promise. It describes how a token distribution typically works if a project chooses to run one, how to check whether you are eligible without putting yourself at risk, and in detail, how the most common scam targeting people in exactly this situation actually works. It contains no prediction that any specific testnet will distribute anything, no financial advice, and no tax advice — see the two sections at the bottom for why, stated plainly rather than left implicit.

How a distribution typically works, mechanically

Not every testnet leads to a token, and this site never claims to know in advance which ones will — see What is node and airdrop farming? for why. When a project does decide to distribute tokens to early participants, the mechanism is usually some version of the following, described here generically rather than as a prediction about any particular project:

1. A snapshot. The project records on-chain activity as of some date or block height — who ran a node, who interacted with the testnet, and so on, depending on what the project decided to reward. This already happened by the time you hear about it; nothing you do after a snapshot date changes who was included in it.
2. An eligibility list. The project publishes, or lets you query, whether an address was included and what it is entitled to. This is normally announced through the project's own official website and social accounts — which is exactly what a phishing attempt impersonates, covered below.
3. A claim window. Eligible addresses can claim, usually by interacting with a smart contract, within some time period. Some projects give an open window; others set a deadline, sometimes with unclaimed tokens forfeited or redirected.
4. Sometimes, vesting. Rather than the full amount unlocking immediately, some distributions release over time on a schedule the project sets.

None of this is a claim about what any specific testnet on this site will do. Whether a project runs a distribution at all, who it includes, and on what terms are decisions only that project makes and announces — this site states only what a project has actually said, with a source, and nothing else.

Checking a claim without putting yourself at risk

If you hear that a project you participated in has a distribution live, check it this way, in this order:

1. Start from the project's own official channel — its own website (typed directly or from a bookmark, not a search ad or a link in a DM), its own verified social account, or its own documentation. Not a link someone sent you, not a comment under a video, not a "reminder" DM.
2. Look your own address up on a block explorer, read-only, before connecting anything. A block explorer lets you see what is associated with a public address — including, on many claim contracts, whether it shows an allocation — without signing a single transaction or granting any permission to anything.
3. Only connect a wallet once you have independently confirmed the site is the project's real one, through the official channel in step 1, and you are actually ready to claim — not "to check." Checking should not require connecting anything, and a page that insists it does is the single biggest warning sign covered next.

How claim-phishing works

"Connect your wallet to check eligibility" is the most common way people lose funds in crypto, and it works because the phrase itself is a lie about what connecting and signing actually does. Understanding the mechanism is the most useful thing this page can give you.

A wallet connection alone cannot steal anything. Connecting a wallet to a site just shares your public address — the same information visible to anyone looking at the blockchain already. The theft happens at the next step, when the site asks you to sign something.

A malicious "claim" asks for a signature that authorizes far more than a claim. Two exploit shapes cover most of what happens in practice:

• A disguised approve (or permit) signature. On many token standards, an approve transaction grants a spender contract permission to move a specific token on your behalf — a mechanism that exists for legitimate reasons (letting an exchange contract move tokens you deposit, for instance). A fake claim page dresses this up as "Claim your tokens" or "Verify eligibility," but the signature you approve actually grants a contract the attacker controls permission to move tokens out of your wallet — sometimes an unlimited amount, sometimes every asset the approval covers, not just the one being "claimed."
• A permit or generic message signature drained off-chain. Some exploits do not even need you to submit a transaction — a signed message handed back to the attacker's own backend can be replayed to authorize a transfer later, invisibly, whenever they choose.

The pressure tactics are consistent across fake claim sites, because they work: a countdown timer claiming the window closes soon, a headline claiming only a limited number of claims remain, a warning that eligibility "expires" if you do not act now. Real distributions almost always give a real window measured in days or weeks, not minutes — urgency is the tell, not the exception.

The site itself is usually a convincing copy. Common vectors: a domain one character off from the real one, a paid search ad above the genuine result, a spoofed social media account (sometimes a compromised real account, sometimes a fresh look-alike) posting the link, or a browser extension claiming to help with wallet management that is itself the malicious component. None of these require you to be careless in any obvious way — they are built to pass a casual glance.

This site does not give financial advice

Nothing on this page, or anywhere on this site, is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or wait on anything. We do not state price expectations, we do not describe what past airdrops have been "worth" as a pattern to expect from a future one, and we do not frame anything here as part of a portfolio strategy. What to do with anything you receive is your decision, informed by your own research and, if you want it, a licensed financial advisor — not by a node-guide site, which is not licensed to give that advice and would not give it even if it were.

Tax treatment varies — talk to a professional

Whether and how a token distribution is taxed depends on your country and your own circumstances, and it changes over time as tax authorities catch up with the asset class. We are not going to state a rule here, because a generic rule would very likely be wrong for your specific situation and wrong guidance can cost real money. If you receive something with real value, talk to a tax professional licensed in your own jurisdiction before you do anything with it. That is the whole of what this site has to say on tax.

Related reading

• What is node and airdrop farming? — the definitional page this one continues from.
• Wallets and exchanges for node runners — the keys and custody mechanics this page assumes: whose wallet you should be checking a claim from in the first place.
• Linux basics for node runners — Step 0 for actually running the node behind whatever this page eventually applies to.
• VPS vs. home hardware for airdrop farming — where that node runs.
• Reviews — VPS and hardware roundups, unrelated to anything on this page.