MTLX Airdrop by Mettalex: How the 2021 Token Distribution Worked and Who Got Paid

Back in 2021, Mettalex launched one of the most targeted airdrops in DeFi - not just throwing tokens at random users, but rewarding those already deep in the Fetch.ai ecosystem. If you held FET on Binance during that window, you got MTLX. No sign-up forms. No complicated claims. Just automatic rewards based on your average balance. This wasn’t a flashy social media contest. It was a strategic move to onboard serious players into a new kind of decentralized commodities market.

What Was Mettalex?

Mettalex wasn’t another DeFi protocol trying to replicate Uniswap. It was built to bring the $2.5 trillion commodities market on-chain. Think oil, wheat, copper - real-world assets that traders and producers need to hedge against price swings. Traditional markets make this hard: you need brokers, contracts, and months of paperwork. Mettalex turned all of that into simple tokenized positions you could trade 24/7, without a middleman.

The platform used Fetch.ai’s machine learning network to automate market-making and price discovery. Instead of buying a futures contract, you bought a position token - a digital representation of exposure to a commodity’s price. Want to hedge against rising wheat prices? Buy a wheat position token. Want to go long on copper? Do the same. All settled in stablecoins like USDC. No margin calls. No counterparty risk. Just on-chain, non-custodial trading.

MTLX was the engine behind it all. It wasn’t just a governance token - it gave holders voting rights on new commodities, fee discounts, and staking rewards. To make it work, they needed early adopters. That’s where the airdrops came in.

The Binance FET Holder Airdrop

The biggest MTLX airdrop ran from April 13 to June 1, 2021. It wasn’t open to everyone. Only people who held FET - the native token of Fetch.ai - on Binance were eligible. And not just any amount. You had to maintain an average balance of at least 10,000 FET across eight weekly snapshots.

Here’s how it worked: every Monday at 11:59 PM UTC, Binance took a snapshot of your FET balance. They averaged those eight snapshots. If you hit 10,000 FET on average, you got 1 MTLX for every 10,000 FET you held. So if you averaged 50,000 FET, you got 5 MTLX. No extra steps. No claiming. The tokens landed automatically in your Binance account after June 1.

This wasn’t a giveaway. It was a filter. Holding 10,000 FET in early 2021 meant you had invested thousands of dollars. These weren’t casual users. They were investors who already believed in Fetch.ai’s vision. Mettalex knew they’d be the most likely to use a commodities trading platform. This airdrop wasn’t about growing a user base - it was about growing a trading base.

The CoinMarketCap Community Airdrop

While the Binance airdrop targeted whales, the CoinMarketCap campaign went after the crowd. Between April and June 2021, Mettalex ran a separate airdrop through CoinMarketCap, handing out 700 MTLX tokens to 300 winners. Each winner got around 2.33 MTLX - not life-changing, but enough to get people engaged.

To qualify, you had to:

• Follow @mettale on Twitter
• Join the official Telegram group: t.me/mettalex_official
• Join the news channel: t.me/mettalex_official_news
• Retweet a specific post and tag three friends
• Add MTLX to your CoinMarketCap watchlist

That’s it. No money needed. Just time and social effort. The goal? Build awareness. Get people talking. Create a community before the platform even went live. The winners were announced via Mettalex’s Twitter account. No blockchain magic - just manual selection from verified participants.

The ,000 anyMTLX Airdrop

Even after the two major campaigns, Mettalex didn’t stop. In late June 2021, they ran a third, smaller airdrop: $3,000 worth of MTLX tokens distributed to 300 users. The catch? You had to be an active member of their community - someone who had already engaged with the platform or its social channels.

This wasn’t about attracting new users. It was about keeping the early ones excited. By July 7, 2021, Mettalex called it a "historic date" - the moment they’d successfully distributed tokens to hundreds of users across multiple channels. The message was clear: we’re not just launching a platform. We’re building a movement.

Why These Airdrops Mattered

Most airdrops in 2021 were noise. Projects gave away tokens to anyone who followed them on Twitter. Mettalex did something smarter. They ran three different campaigns, each targeting a different audience:

• Binance FET holders: Deep-pocketed investors who already trusted Fetch.ai.
• CoinMarketCap participants: Community builders who spread the word.
• Active Telegram/Twitter users: Early adopters who would test the platform.

This multi-layered approach gave them credibility, liquidity, and users - all before the platform went live. The Binance airdrop alone likely distributed tens of thousands of MTLX tokens. While the exact number wasn’t public, the fact that it was tied to 10,000 FET meant only serious holders qualified. That gave MTLX instant market depth.

By July 2021, MTLX was already trading on decentralized exchanges. The airdrops had done their job: they turned a theoretical platform into a living, breathing market.

Can You Still Get MTLX Tokens?

No. All official airdrops ended in July 2021. The Binance campaign was a one-time snapshot. The CoinMarketCap rewards were claimed. The $3,000 distribution is long over.

If you’re looking for MTLX now, you’ll have to buy it on a DEX like Uniswap or SushiSwap - assuming it’s still listed. The platform itself still exists, but the initial distribution phase is history. The token’s value now depends on ongoing trading volume and whether Mettalex’s commodities market has grown beyond its early adopters.

What Happened After the Airdrops?

The airdrops were just the beginning. After July 2021, Mettalex shifted focus to platform development: adding new commodity pairs, improving liquidity pools, and rolling out governance votes. The MTLX token became the backbone of decision-making - holders voted on which commodities to list next, how fees were structured, and whether to integrate new blockchains.

But growth slowed. The 2021 bull market cooled. DeFi lost momentum. And while the idea of tokenized commodities is powerful, real-world adoption is slow. Today, Mettalex still operates, but it’s a niche player. The airdrops were a brilliant start - but building a market for real-world assets is harder than distributing tokens.

Lessons from the MTLX Airdrop

If you’re running a token launch today, here’s what you can learn from Mettalex:

• Target the right people. Don’t throw tokens at everyone. Find users who already believe in your tech stack.
• Use existing infrastructure. Binance didn’t just host the airdrop - it verified balances automatically. That saved time, cost, and fraud risk.
• Layer your campaigns. One airdrop for whales, one for social users, one for loyalists. Each serves a different purpose.
• Don’t overpromise. Mettalex didn’t say "get rich." They said: "Here’s a tool to hedge real-world risk." That’s more sustainable than hype.

The MTLX airdrop wasn’t about giving away free money. It was about seeding a market. And in DeFi, that’s often more valuable than any token price.