Author: Osato Avan-Nomayo, DLNews; Translated by: Wuzhu, Jinse Finance
Airdrop hopefuls continue to develop tokenless projects.
Cryptocurrencies are driving investor deposits.
Airdrop recipients were not swayed by the possibility that the project team would attempt to deny the token distribution.
April has been a big month for airdrops as several major crypto protocols have launched their native tokens and rewarded early adopters.
Buzzy stablecoin protocol Ethena issued a $500 million airdrop to 90,000 eligible users. Others including crypto bridge Wormhole and Solana-based real estate futures market Parcl followed suit.
As April comes to an end, airdrop chasers are turning to other targets — DeFi protocols without native tokens.
While tokenless projects such as interoperability protocol LayerZero have promised users future airdrops, others, such as Ethereum recapture giant EigenLayer, have been reluctant to commit to possible token distribution events.
Still, airdrop chasers could look to the points programs launched by some of these projects as possible indicators, especially since projects including Parcl and liquidity re-staking protocol Ether.fi have converted their points into airdrops.
When users prepare for an airdrop, the anticipation often leads to an influx of liquidity into the platform. While the current market slowdown has hampered the price gains of crypto tokens earlier this year, here are some projects that are attracting hope.
Zircuit
Zircuit is an Ethereum Rollup that uses zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic technique for verifying transactions without revealing all the data they contain.
Zircuit has yet to launch its mainnet. That’s expected to happen in the summer, but that hasn’t stopped airdroppers from flocking to the protocol’s testnet, with nearly $2.5 billion in deposits committed to Zircuit staking this month.
Early adopters who deposit funds in Zircuit will receive points for doing so. As always, it is expected that these points will be converted into Zircuit’s native token in the future, but the project team has not announced such plans yet.
In addition to Zircuit points, depositors can also earn points from the project’s partners, including Renzo, EigenLayer and eOracle — the latter two of which remain tokenless.
EigenLayer
EigenLayer is the second-largest protocol in DeFi in terms of investor deposits, holding $15.4 billion.
The protocol is at the heart of the restaking hype — a buzzy new crypto currency that involves staking already staked Ethereum.
The growth in these deposits was driven by the widespread belief that EigenLayer would airdrop its tokens to early adopters.
In recent months, the protocol’s developer, Eigen Labs, has declined to say whether an airdrop was imminent, simply telling users on Discord that “no tokens” were forthcoming.
Still, the denial could be a tactic by the developer to evade scrutiny from U.S. regulators.
Karak
Karak is another player in the restaking space. This emerging protocol is by no means a major competitor to EigenLayer — at least not yet — but it is valued at $1 billion. It has managed to attract $400 million in investor deposits since its private launch in early April.
Unlike EigenLayer, which runs only on Ethereum, Karak supports re-staking on Arbitrum and its native blockchain, the Karak Network. The protocol also allows for re-staking of assets other than Ethereum, including stablecoins and various forms of liquidity-staking Ethereum.
Karak also has a points program — users are rewarded with XP for depositing funds and referring others. XP is similar to points, with the expectation that there will eventually be a token airdrop for early adopters.
The protocol has not announced plans to convert XP into airdrops.
friend.tech
Social networking platform friend.tech experienced a renaissance this month with the launch of its second version, dubbed V2, and the possibility of an airdrop.
Earlier this month, the platform saw $7.4 million in user deposits in a single day, the largest daily volume since its peak in late October.
Amid reports that the project will airdrop 100% of its total token supply, a lively market has emerged for friend.tech points.
This is an outlier among cryptocurrency airdrops, as the tokens given away for free are usually a small fraction of a project’s total supply.
LayerZero, zkSync
LayerZero and zkSync are two of the most anticipated cryptocurrency airdrops.
Both have seen a significant amount of activity over the past two years. Meaning registering activity on a protocol or blockchain to qualify for possible airdrops.
The developers behind both projects have confirmed their planned airdrops of their native tokens. LayerZero is expected to launch before the end of the first half of this year, but little is known about the timing of the zkSync token distribution.
