ZKsync Announces Second Airdrop - FDV Plummets by 40%
ZKsync's second airdrop announcement has failed to halt the current decline of ZK, the Layer-2 project on Ethereum that recently launched its token mid-June.
ZKsync Announces Second Airdrop - FDV Plummets by 40%. Image: Tariz
ZKsync Announces Second Airdrop
Last night, ZK Nation - the DAO governing body of ZKsync - announced its second airdrop comprising 1.91% of the total ZK token supply.
The beneficiaries of this round of airdrop are primarily developers within this Layer-2 ecosystem, including members of the Protocol Guild, contributors to an external project, or those nominated by a project within the ZKsync ecosystem. The deadline to claim the airdrop is January 3, 2025.
The second wave of ZK token claims is live!
— ZK Nation (@TheZKNation) June 24, 2024
You can check your eligibility to claim now if you're a member of Protocol Guild, a contributor to an external project, or were nominated by a ZKsync native ecosystem project.
This claim wave represents 1.91% of the total airdrop…
Recipients of ZKsync's Second Airdrop
Is this a post-airdrop fallout for ZKsync?
On June 17, the highly anticipated ZKsync token was officially launched with a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion. Concurrently, the project distributed 3.6 billion ZK tokens to over 695,000 qualifying wallets.
Post-airdrop has been a tumultuous period for ZKsync. Public opinion has sparked considerable controversy, with criticisms mainly pointing to ZKsync's favoritism towards insiders and ecosystem projects, rather than genuine user engagement. These dynamics have deeply impacted network operations to date.
In its initial hours, the ZK token saw slight gains but has since experienced persistent declines in subsequent days, largely due to selling pressure from airdrop recipient wallets and broader market influences.
2-hour chart of ZK/USDT pair on Binance at 10:15 AM on June 25, 2024
ZK's market capitalization currently stands at $623 million, corresponding to a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $3.56 billion at the time of writing, marking a 40% decrease from its launch.
In the week leading up to the token issuance, ZKsync Era averaged approximately 7,000 active wallets daily. This figure surged to double, reaching 18,000 addresses on June 17. The initial spike could be attributed to "airdrop farmers" reactivating their wallets to receive tokens upon issuance.
Active wallets on ZKsync Era. Source: The Block
According to network data, the 7-day average of addresses active on ZKsync sharply declined from over 455,000 in late February to 218,000 by June 10. Similarly, the 7-day average transactions on the network dropped from 1.8 million on February 29 to just 51,000 on June 10.
LayerZero shares a similar fate
Launching concurrently with ZKsync, LayerZero has also faced challenges. Daily activities on LayerZero began to decline following the project's snapshot announcement. This is most evident in the dramatically reduced interaction messages with the protocol, from nearly 350,000 in early May to below 48,000 at the time of writing, marking a nearly sevenfold decrease.
The peak of discontent arose when the project required users to "donate" funds to the Protocol Guild fund to support Ethereum developers before being eligible to claim an airdrop.
The stagnation in activities on LayerZero and ZKsync vividly reflects the current reality of "airdrop farming" projects. The diminished influence of Sybil bot transaction spamming significantly declined following project snapshot announcements. This partly reflects the genuine user demand for these protocols. Could it be that "ZKsync is the endgame"?
