The newly launched ZK token is trading at a market cap of over $900 million in total value locked (TVL) despite experiencing a 20% drawdown.
ZkSync Airdrop Sparks High Activity
ZkSync’s recent airdrop has generated significant excitement since its launch on June 17. ZkSync Era, a prominent Layer 2 network by TVL, reported degraded network performance due to the overwhelming response from users claiming their ZK tokens. The intense activity caused some RPC services to slow down, but efforts are underway to enhance capacity.
Within just two hours of the airdrop, 45% of the tokens had already been claimed by over 225,000 addresses. ZkSync’s ZK Nation Z account humorously noted the rapid claims, saying, “It’s a Monday, don’t you have work?”
Anticipation and Background
The airdrop was highly anticipated, especially since Matter Labs, the team behind ZkSync, was the first to launch a zk-EVM in March 2023. This zero-knowledge proof-based Layer 2 network offers Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, which has bolstered its popularity.
The launch came right after Arbitrum, the leading L2 by TVL, released its token, further fueling airdrop speculation. This excitement has driven ZkSync Era to rank ninth among Layer 2 networks with $776.4 million in TVL and an impressive 6.9 transactions per second (TPS) over the past 24 hours.
ZkSync Lite and Airdrop Eligibility
Matter Labs also launched ZkSync Lite in June 2020, focusing on fast and affordable token transfers. Although Lite has seen a decrease in TVL to $86 million from its peak of $177 million in April 2022, it remains a significant player in the L2 space.
Eligibility for the ZK token drop required users to transfer assets to ZkSync Era and meet additional criteria such as trading on Era-based DEXes, interacting with smart contracts, holding specific NFTs, being active on Lite for three months before Era’s launch, or donating to Gitcoin funding rounds hosted on ZkSync Lite.
ZkSync announced that 17.5% of the token supply would be airdropped to about 695,000 wallets, with each receiving at least 450 tokens and up to 100,000 tokens. Any allocations below 450 tokens were recycled back into the pool.
Market Performance
Currently, the ZK token boasts a market cap of $927 million, despite a 20% decline since its launch. According to CoinGecko, its fully diluted valuation stands at nearly $5.3 billion.