EigenLayer will raise around 28 million EIGEN in response to the outrage surrounding their airdrop
EigenLayer is responding to criticism about its initial airdrop by adding 100 EIGEN to the rewards for 280,000 eligible wallet addresses.
EigenLayer, an Ethereum restaking protocol, is giving away about 28 million more of its own EIGEN tokens to more than 280,000 wallets. This comes just a few days after it announced its first airdrop.
While EigenLayer did declare on Monday that it will be donating 15% of its overall supply to the community, several users found the airdrop program’s restrictions to be too restrictive.
For users that engaged with the protocol prior to April 29, including the first airdrop claimants, the Eigen Foundation announced in a May 2 post on X that it would be airdropping extra EIGEN tokens to their wallets.
The restaking protocol announced in a subsequent blog post that claims from Season 1 would get a minimum of 110 EIGEN, while claimants from Season 2 (those who engaged with the procedure from March 15 to April 29) will receive a minimum of 100 EIGEN.
In a subsequent blog post, the restaking protocol revealed that, in addition to the airdrop, claimants from Season 1 would get a minimum of 110 EIGEN, and claimants from Season 2 (those who engaged with the protocol between March 15 and April 29) will receive a minimum of 100 EIGEN.
There has been no official release of the token yet, but according to Aevo data, EIGEN perpetual futures contracts are trading for $10 on the derivatives market. This means that the next airdrop might be valued roughly $280 million.
Before the formal distribution event on May 10, the price of EIGEN might alter dramatically. After the restaking protocol revealed its “stakedrop” programmed on April 30, users who felt left out of the first airdrop angry and criticized the system.
Many people were unhappy with EIGEN because of its nontransferable token structure, its smaller-than-expected 15% community allocation, and its “aggressive” geo-blocking and anti-VPN measures, which prevented users from 30 countries, including Russia, China, and the US, from claiming EIGEN tokens.
EigenLayer said that it would try to reach out to additional people who used their testnet but weren’t able to participate in the airdrop.
Season 1’s Phase 2 will include an upgrade to the testnet user allocations that were unsuccessful. Users could collect their tokens from May 10, but they couldn’t transfer or sell them until an undetermined date, according to the Eigen Foundation’s initial airdrop statement.
Key elements, such as reducing parameters and fees, were “well established” before EIGEN became transferrable across users, according to EigenLayer, who explained the rationale behind this restriction.
The most current blog post from EigenLayer further on EIGEN’s non-transferability, but the company still hasn’t said when customers would be allowed to transfer their tokens.
After the token became transferrable to the community, it stated that private investors and team members would be subject to a complete one-year lock-up.
Then, after three years of transferability, they will unlock completely, at a rate of four percent every month. As a result, protocol users will have transfer capabilities long before any core contributors do.
