The Standards Committee does not, as a matter of policy, encourage the pursuit of airdrops. Neither does it discourage them. Airdrops fall into a category of events that the Committee has come to refer to as "occurrences of weather": they happen, they happen to people we know, and the considered response is to acknowledge them without making them the subject of dinner conversation.
That said, the dinner conversation happens. It happens at every gathering. And so, having now observed it across approximately forty Club functions, the Liquidity Brief is pleased to present, for the benefit of associates who may themselves recently have received an airdrop, the five stages.
Stage One: Disbelief
The associate refreshes the wallet. The associate refreshes the wallet again. The associate, in some cases, refreshes the wallet a third time, on a different device. This stage typically lasts between four and seven minutes, and is best conducted in private.
Stage Two: Disclosure
The associate informs exactly one other person. The selection of this person is a matter of considerable internal debate, conducted silently. It is rarely the spouse. It is sometimes the financial advisor. It is, with surprising frequency, a college roommate the associate has not spoken to in nine years.
Stage Three: Research
The associate spends between two hours and three days reading about the protocol that has issued the airdrop. The associate reads the whitepaper. The associate reads the documentation. The associate reads the founders' Twitter accounts, which the associate has, in many cases, never previously visited.
Stage Four: The Decision
The associate must decide what to do with the airdrop. This is, in the Committee's experience, the stage at which most associates would benefit from the company of one or two other associates over a long lunch. The associate will, at some point during the lunch, use the phrase "I just want to be smart about this," which is the Club's most reliable indicator that the associate is approaching a sound decision.
Stage Five: Equilibrium
Some weeks later, the airdrop has either been acted upon or is being held with patience (see our earlier note on the matter). The associate has stopped checking the wallet hourly. The associate has stopped mentioning the airdrop at gatherings. The associate has, in many cases, forgotten the exact figure. The episode has been folded into the larger pattern of the associate's financial life, which is, after all, where it belongs.
We wish our recently airdropped associates well, and we remind them, with affection, that the Club's events do not require disclosures.
