IOST airdrop explained: who gets paid and when

The short answer

When people talk about the IOST airdrop, they usually mean the IOST 3.0 airdrop. It gives 1.7056 billion new IOST to people who held at least 1,000 IOST at the snapshot on 15 March 2025 at 09:00 Japan time. Half goes to holders who kept IOST in their own mainnet wallets, and half goes to exchange users through their exchange. Either way, the tokens arrive in installments spread over 48 months.

If you held IOST on Coincheck, BitTrade, Upbit, Bitkub or another participating exchange, you do not have to do anything. The exchange credits each round on its own timetable. If you held IOST in a mainnet wallet such as iWallet Pro, you claim it yourself on the official page at iost.io/airdrop. If you bought after the snapshot, you are not eligible, and no site can change that.

Below we cover how the allocation works, what each major exchange has paid so far, a confusing deadline in the official docs, the older DON airdrops that still drive searches in Japan, and how fake airdrop scams operate.

The IOST 3.0 airdrop

IOST 3.0 launched on 8 March 2025 with a new Layer 2 on BNB Chain and a new issuance of about 21.32 billion IOST, approved by a community vote in January 2025. Of that issuance, 20% is reserved for airdrops and StakeDrops over 48 months. The airdrop takes 1.7056 billion of it; the StakeDrop, covered on our IOST staking page, takes another 1.4924 billion. Our IOST 3.0 guide explains the wider upgrade and the tokenomics page shows the full split.

The airdrop is divided into two equal pools of 852.8 million IOST. The first is for mainnet (L1) holders who kept at least 1,000 IOST in their own accounts. Their share is pro rata to holdings, boosted by a holding-time multiplier capped at 1.5×, plus extra coefficients for past participation such as voting, running a node or using the bridge. It vests linearly over 48 months, released monthly on the 9th, and is claimed as BEP-20 IOST to a BNB Chain wallet.

The second pool is for exchange users. It is allocated to each exchange in proportion to the IOST it held for customers at the snapshot, with a minimum of 1,000 IOST per user. Each exchange then picks its own rhythm, monthly, quarterly or every six months, across the same 48 months. That is why your friend on Upbit gets something every month while you on Coincheck wait half a year between payments.

The snapshot time, 00:00 UTC on 15 March 2025, equals 09:00 in Japan and Korea. Press reports at launch named Binance, Upbit, Coincheck and Bitkub among participating exchanges, and later reports added OKJ, Bithumb, CoinTrade and BITPOINT. At the same time, Upbit, Bithumb and Coinone issued investor caution notices about the change in supply; our IOST in South Korea page explains what that caution did and did not mean.

How much IOST you receive

There is no fixed amount per person. Upbit published the clearest formula: 852.8 million × the exchange’s share of all exchange-held IOST × your share of that exchange’s IOST. Other exchanges work the same way in principle. The result is then split across the exchange’s installments.

Here is a hypothetical example to make the formula concrete. Suppose your exchange held 5% of all exchange-held IOST at the snapshot, and you held 1% of that exchange’s IOST. Your total would be 852.8 million × 0.05 × 0.01 = 426,400 IOST. On a monthly 48-round schedule that is about 8,880 IOST per round; on an eight-round schedule it is 53,300 IOST every six months. Real shares are not published, so you cannot calculate your own figure in advance; the exchange shows it when it pays.

Two practical notes. First, the airdrop is paid in IOST, so its value moves with the market; the live IOST price page shows where it stands. Second, in Japan airdropped crypto is generally treated as taxable miscellaneous income when you receive it. That is a general point, not tax advice; our IOST in Japan page covers the tax background.

Exchange payout schedules

All exchanges used the same 15 March 2025 snapshot, but their schedules differ. The table lists what each one has published; dates are payout dates.

Coincheck pays every six months in eight rounds. The first round was planned for 30 September 2025 and slipped to 30 October 2025, which is why so many Japanese searches ask about the September 30 date. Rounds two and three followed on 9 April and 15 October 2026. Coincheck counted IOST in your main account, in its lending account or a pending lending application, and in Coincheck つみたて. It excluded IOST that was actually lent out at the snapshot, as well as accounts being opened, closed or frozen. Our Coincheck review covers the exchange itself.

BitTrade also pays about every six months, in eight rounds from September 2025 to March 2029, with a 1,000 IOST minimum. OKJ confirmed the snapshot and said staked IOST counted toward the minimum, but we could not confirm its later payout notices. Upbit pays monthly in 48 rounds, starting 10 April 2025, and paid its 19th round on 21 October 2026; see our Upbit review. Bitkub made a first payout covering four months and then moved to monthly rounds, according to trade-press coverage of its notices, which is summarized in our Bitkub review.

If your exchange is not listed, check its notice page for “IOST airdrop”. Participation by Binance, Bithumb, BITPOINT and CoinTrade was reported, but we could not confirm their schedules. Remember too that BITPOINT and CoinTrade stopped handling IOST in 2026, so holders there should read their exchange’s instructions on any remaining rounds.

Missed the snapshot? Build your stack the honest way

No airdrop is coming for new buyers. If you want IOST, a common route is to buy crypto with a card on a long-running exchange such as CEX.IO, move it to an exchange that lists IOST, and buy there. CEX.IO does not list IOST and does not serve Japan.

Grab crypto, then IOST

Claiming from a mainnet (L1) wallet

If your IOST sat in your own mainnet account at the snapshot, you claim through the official portal at iost.io/airdrop. You connect your L1 wallet, normally iWallet Pro, view your allocation and the amount vested so far, and claim the vested amount as BEP-20 IOST to a BNB Chain wallet such as MetaMask. You therefore need both wallets set up; our IOST wallet guide shows how to add BEP-20 IOST.

Because the pool vests monthly on the 9th, you can claim repeatedly as more becomes available. The claimed tokens are BEP-20 IOST, not mainnet IOST. Before you deposit them anywhere, check that the receiving exchange supports IOST on BNB Smart Chain; many Japanese and Korean exchanges accept only the mainnet network. The sending guide explains the network and memo rules.

Vesting, not a lump sum

Both airdrop pools release tokens gradually over 48 months. A large allocation still arrives in small pieces, so a single payout tells you little about the total.

The “June 8, 2025” deadline, explained

The official airdrop documentation contains a sentence saying that all recipients must claim within three months, with a final claim deadline of June 8, 2025. Read alone, it suggests the airdrop ended in mid-2025. That is clearly not what happened. Exchanges have kept paying installments through 2026 under schedules that run to 2029, and the docs themselves describe 48-month vesting for both pools.

We could not find an official clarification. The most plausible reading is that the line is a leftover from an earlier version of the plan, or that it applies to a narrower step than the whole airdrop, but that is our interpretation, not something IOST has confirmed. What we can say firmly is that it did not end exchange distributions. If you hold an L1 allocation and are unsure whether you can still claim, check the live status on iost.io/airdrop rather than trusting any third-party site, and never follow a “deadline extension” link that arrives by message.

Past IOST airdrops

IOST 3.0 is not the first time holders received tokens. In 2019, EMOGI Network ran monthly airdrops of its LOL token to IOST holders, distributed through exchanges such as KuCoin. In 2021 came the best-remembered episode in Japan: the DON airdrops from Donnie Finance, a Korea-based DeFi project built on IOST that offered yield farming and planned a DEX and lending.

1. 2019EMOGI Network (LOL) airdropsMonthly LOL drops to IOST holders, distributed through KuCoin among others.
2. Feb 2021DON round 1Donnie Finance planned 10% of DON supply for IOST holders; the first event used 5%. Snapshot 25 Feb 2021, paid via exchanges.
3. Sep 2021DON summer airdropSnapshot 30 Sep 2021, 17:00 JST, 500k DON pool. Coincheck declined; OKCoin Japan supported it.
4. 2021–2026Exchange campaignsOKJ, BITPOINT and BitTrade ran IOST giveaways and special rates. Promotions, not protocol airdrops.
5. 15 Mar 2025IOST 3.0 snapshot09:00 JST. Holders of 1,000+ IOST qualify for a 1.7056B IOST airdrop paid over 48 months.
6. Apr 2025 →Installments beginUpbit pays its first monthly round on 10 Apr 2025; Japanese exchanges follow from Sep–Oct 2025.

The first DON round in February 2021 drew on a plan to give 10% of DON’s supply to IOST holders over several events, starting with 5%. The snapshot on 25 February 2021 ran at different local times on Huobi, KuCoin, Bithumb and Bitkub, and exchanges handled the payout. The September 2021 “summer airdrop” had a snapshot on 30 September 2021 at 17:00 Japan time and a pool of 500,000 DON.

The Japanese split on that second round still comes up. Coincheck declined to support it, citing unconfirmed liquidity and technical safety for DON. OKCoin Japan supported it, becoming the first licensed Japanese exchange to do so. In hindsight Coincheck’s caution looks reasonable: DON was later delisted on Upbit and is withdrawal-only there. The lesson is that an exchange can refuse an airdrop, and that is a risk of holding on an exchange.

Some other claims need care. A HUSD giveaway tied to HUSD’s IOST integration was reported in January 2021, but we found no evidence of a HUSD airdrop to all IOST holders. Japanese exchange promotions, such as OKJ’s IOST giveaways or special staking and lending rates, were marketing campaigns, not protocol airdrops. An IOST executive also said in October 2025 that an incubated RWA team planned an airdrop to IOST holders, but we have not seen it delivered. For DeFi projects like Donnie in context, see our IOST DApps and DeFi page.

Fake airdrop scams

Real airdrops never need your key!

Fake IOST airdrops follow a handful of patterns. The most common is a look-alike claim site with a name like “iost-airdrop” or “iost3-claim” that asks you to connect a wallet and approve a token, or to type in your private key or seed phrase. Close behind are “migration to IOST 3.0” pages that say your old IOST must be swapped. There is no mandatory swap: the mainnet still runs, and the bridge to BNB Chain is optional.

Others are quieter. Fake BEP-20 tokens named IOST appear in wallets or on DEXs; only contract 0xAf48B7e315a52518CfBF7d96C455D9dFAD94cB48 is official. Impersonators on Telegram and X send direct messages offering “support” with your claim. Giveaway videos promise to double any IOST you send. Phishing “Ledger Live” sites and resale pitches for Signet ring “nodes” round out the list.

The official channels are listed on the IOST security page: iost.io, iostscan.com, iostbridge.com, l2-bridge.iost.io and l2-scan.iost.io, plus the official X, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Medium accounts. The page itself warns that a link from an official site does not make a third-party system official. For a broader look at risks around the token, read our page on whether IOST is safe.