Draconian Crypto Regulation that prevented US citizens from taking advantage of AirDrops – a way of rewarding users by distributing free tokens – has cost Americans as much as $ 2.6 billion in potential revenue and the government as much as $ 1.4 billion in lost tax income in the last four years, according to venture capital firm Dragonfly.

In a report published on Tuesday, the digital asset-focused company presented a number of figures, based on a sample of 11 major air drops generating over $ 7.16 billion since 2020. The average median requirement per Qualified address involved in these AirDrops turned out to be $ 4,562.

“We realized that there is a real need for data that can actually show the effect of regulation by enforcement and how these policies affect individuals, overall economy and the US government,” Dragonfly said associated general lawyer Jessica Furr in an interview. “So we decided to focus on AirDrops as a discreet case from Crypto to see how current policies may have created some negative externalities.”

The report estimates that between $ 1.84 billion and $ 2.64 billion in potential revenue lost us users from 2020-2024 due to geo -blocking, a technique for fencing from US IP addresses, so crypto projects could avoid incurring anger from regulators such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The numbers can be even higher. With the help of a larger sample of 21 geoblocked air drops analyzed by CoingeCko, Dragonfly found that the total potential income lost to US residents could have been between $ 3.49 billion and $ 5.02 billion from 2020–2024.

Years of legislative uncertainty in the United States have had a cooling effect on cryptoinnovation, scary startups off-shore, while larger companies have been served with subpoena and have been engaged in lawsuits with regulators.

In addition to blockchain bars, venture capital companies that Union Square Ventures and Andressessen Horowitz were also targeted by SEC to invest in platforms like Uniswap, which the Dragonfly -Report quotes, as the last big air drop should not be geobloked in the United States

Dragonfly is not the only VC company that highlights us Geoblocking: New York City-based Variant Fund also produced a report that looks at how crypto companies have no choice, but the blunt tool to simply exclude all Americans for fear of being targeted by regulators.

“If the rules are not clear about what projects can do, it will be better to just geoblock to avoid getting into trouble,” Furr said. “Being drawn into a expensive litigation where you have to defend yourself can close projects because they can’t feed that bill.”

Almost a quarter of all active crypto addresses around the world are controlled by US residents, and the number of users in America, which has been geo -blocked since 2020, amounted to approx. 5.2 million, the report says. The figure excludes those who return to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to beat geofencing measures.

Dragonfly also arrived at an estimated tax revenue lost due to geo -blocked air income between 2020 and 2024, as it knocks to between $ 525 million to $ 1.38 billion in personal and corporate taxes.

Update (March 11, 16:00 UTC): Adds larger data from air drop size size from Coingeko in the fifth paragraph.