Users of layer 2 blockchain network zkSync have claimed more than 2.62 billion ZK tokens worth about $630 million in roughly the first ten hours of zkSync’s long-awaited airdrop that went live Monday morning, data from a Dune Analytics dashboard shows.
This means 1.05 billion tokens, valued at nearly $253 million, are left to be claimed. Of the top 10,000 addresses that received a ZK airdrop allocation, 29.6% sold some of their allocations, while 37% sold their entire holdings such as 0x663 and 0xb78, the fifth- and sixth-largest claimers who offloaded collectively more than 4.9 million tokens worth almost $1.18 million, according to blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
The remaining 33.4% of the top 10,000 addresses, including two of the top three claimers who each received over 5.6 million tokens’ worth ($1.4 million), still hold their entire ZK airdrop allocation.
After opening around 30 cents, ZK has since dropped 27% to trade at 22.8 cents, giving it a $868 million market cap and a fully diluted valuation of $4.9 billion, ahead of frog-inspired memecoin PEPE but behind rival L2s, such as Mantle, Starknet, and Optimism.
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Early Success Despite Congestion
“Based on the current behavior of the top wallets claiming ZK, at the time of this quote, the airdrop has been a success as a significant percentage of top holders have yet to move or sell their tokens,” wrote Nansen’s Edward Wilson, adding that the actions of ZK whales “may change in the future.”
One crypto trader with the X handle @Dissensio_Owl, who received an airdrop allocation by holding a Milady non-fungible token, said the zkSync airdrop was “one of the better ones since ARB,” citing how only one-third of the entire ZK supply was earmarked for the team and investors, while the other two-thirds was reserved for community. Snapshot date didn’t occur too far in advance, and while some were upset about zkSync’s eligibility criteria, “nothing [was] out of the ordinary,”@Dissensio_Owl added in a message to Unchained over Telegram.
Seventeen and a half percent of the entire ZK token supply was specifically allotted to the airdrop, making it “one of the largest airdrops in history,” according to Vest CEO, Justin Ma, in a Telegram message to Unchained. “While it’s easy to view $ZK as a speculative tool right now, I encourage everyone to view its ownership as joining the mission to create a more fair and equitable world.”
Even though some are dubbing zkSync’s airdrop an early success, the highly anticipated token generation event drove activity that congested the layer 2 blockchain network. One crypto user on X said that it took over 20 minutes to successfully receive their ZK allocation.
Moreover, Binance users faced delays in their ZK deposits due to issues with Binance’s node operator, while the exchange itself suspended ZK withdrawals as a result of the “network being congested,” per a tweet from @BinanceHelpDesk at 7:25 a.m. EST.
Projects That Received ZK Airdrop
Contributors and treasuries of projects natively building on zkSync, such restaking protocol EtherFi and perpetual futures exchange Vest, were also airdropped tokens – more than 215 million in total.
“We like free money,” wrote EtherFi CEO Mike Silgadaze to Unchained in a Telegram message. When asked how EtherFi intends to use its ZK airdrop allocation, Silgadaze said, “The plan was to use it for incentives on zkSync,” with EtherFi’s chief growth officer, Rok Kopp, noting that the ZK airdrop allocation is “all for DeFi integrations on zkSync.”
On X, the Vest team announced that it received around 2.5 million ZK tokens and plans to give out 100% of its allocation to the Vest and zkSync community as “0% will be given to the development team.”
