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Airdrop frenzy drives $2.5 billion in Zircuit filings. Here are five more projects to keep an eye on – DL News
- Airdrop aspirants continue to cultivate tokenless projects.
- Crypto farming activity is driving investor deposits.
- Airdrop farmers are not affected by project teams’ attempts to deny the possibility of token distributions.
April was a important month for air launches as several major crypto protocols have launched their native tokens and rewarded early adopters.
The buzzy stablecoin protocol Ethena kicked things off with a $500 million airdrop distributed among 90,000 eligible users. Others, including crypto bridge Wormhole and Solana Parcl-based real estate futures market, have followed suit.
As April ends, launch hunters are moving on to other targets ― DeFi protocols without native tokens.
While tokenless projects like the LayerZero interoperability protocol have assured users of future airdrops, others, like Ethereum giant EigenLayer, have been coy about committing to possible token distribution events.
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However, airdrop hunters can watch points programs launched by some of these projects as possible indicators, especially as projects including Parcl and liquid restaging protocol Ether.fi have converted their points into airdrops.
This expectation often leads to an influx of liquidity into platforms as users position themselves for airdrops. Here are some of the projects drawing hopes despite the current market slowdown that halted price increases in crypto tokens earlier this year.
Circuit
Zircuit is an Ethereum rollup that uses zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic technique used to validate transactions without revealing all the data they contain.
Zircuit has not launched its mainnet. This should happen in the summer, but it has not stopped would-be airdrops accumulate in the protocol’s test network with almost $2.5 billion in Zircuit staking deposits this month.
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Early adopters who deposit funds into Zircuit receive points for doing so. As usual, there is an expectation that these points will be converted into Zircuit’s native token in the future, but the project team has not yet announced such plans.
In addition to Zircuit points, depositors also receive points from project partners, including Renzo, EigenLayer and eOracle – the latter two are still tokenless.
Users Bet $2.5 Billion in Crypto on Zircuit Hoping to Secure Airdrop
Autostratus
EigenLayer is the second largest DeFi protocol in terms of investor deposits as it holds $15.4 billion.
The protocol is at the center of the re-staking hype: a vibrant new meta crypto that involves staking already staked Ether.
These deposits are fueled by the widespread assumption that EigenLayer will launch its token to early adopters.
In recent months, Eigen Labs, developers of the protocol, have refused to say whether an airdrop is imminent, simply telling users on Discord: “there is no token.”
However, this denial could be a tactic on the part of the developers avoid scrutiny by US regulators.
Karak
Karak is another player in the restaging industry. The budding protocol is by no means a major competitor to EigenLayer – at least not yet, but it is valued at $1 billion. He managed to attract $400 million in investor filings since its private launch in early April.
Unlike EigenLayer, which runs exclusively on Ethereum, Karak supports restaging on Arbitrum and its native Karak Network blockchain. The protocol also allows the buyback of assets other than Ether, including stablecoins and various forms of liquidly staked ETH
Karak also has a points program: a campaign where users are rewarded with XP for depositing funds and referring others. XP is similar to points, and the expectation is that it will culminate in a token launch for early adopters.
The protocol has not announced plans to convert XP to an airdrop.
Karak agricultural catapult launch point deposits reach $400 million just a week after private launch.
friend.tech
The Socialfi friend.tech platform has experimented a rebirth of sorts this month with the launch of its second version, called V2, and the possibility of an airdrop.
Earlier this month, the platform recorded $7.4 million in user deposits in one day, the largest single-day volume since it is its heyday at the end of October.
A lively market has emerged for friends.tech dots amid reports that the project will eliminate 100% of its total token supply.
This is an outlier for cryptocurrency airdrops as the tokens provided for free usually represent only a small percentage of the project’s total offering.
LayerZero and zkSync
LayerZero and zkSync are two of the most anticipated cryptocurrency airdrops.
Both attracted significant agricultural activity in the last two years. Farming means recording the activity on a protocol or blockchain to qualify for a possible airdrop.
The developers behind both projects have confirmed the airdrops of their planned native tokens. LayerZero is expected by the end of the first half of the year, but little is known about the timing of zkSync token distribution.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our DeFi correspondent based in Nigeria. He covers DeFi and technology. To share story tips or information, contact him at osato@dlnews.com.