Bessie Liu

Celestia, a modular consensus and data network, said on Tuesday that it will allocate 6% of its native token, TIA, to ecosystem participants and developers in a token airdrop.&nbsp;



Celestia is a blockchain network aiming to create a scalable <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/data-availability-ethereum">data availability</a> layer. Data availability refers to the ability of network nodes to download data from a block, store it, and ensure it is accessible and retrievable by network participants.



On <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a>, for example, nodes will download all the available data on the block and store it for a period of time — a process that reduces throughput and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eclipse-blockchain-scalability-trilemma-bell-curve">hinders scalability</a>.



Celestia hopes to find an efficient solution to this problem. Through data availability sampling, the network nodes verify a small number of random chunks of data from each block.



“Data availability sampling is a mechanism for light nodes to verify data availability without having to download all data for a block. This allows Celestia&#8217;s blockspace to scale with the number of users,” Ekram Ahmed, a Celestia Labs spokesperson, told Blockworks.



Ahmed notes that data availability is critical to the security of any blockchain as it ensures that anyone can inspect the ledger of transactions and verify it.&nbsp;



The Celestia network will launch prior to the end of 2023, the company noted in a <a href="https://blog.celestia.org/genesis-drop/">blog post</a>. It is currently on track to be the first modular data availability network to launch with data availability sampling, ahead of its competitors <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eigenlayer-dissolve-into-ethereum">EigenLayer</a> and Avail.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Genesis Drop</h2>



The Genesis Drop will mark the beginning of Celestia’s data availability network and its native asset, TIA.



A total of 7,579 developers and almost 600,000 Ethereum rollup, Cosmos Hub and Osmosis addresses will be eligible to receive TIA starting Sept. 26 and running until Oct. 17, the company noted in a <a href="https://blog.celestia.org/genesis-drop/">blog post</a> announcing the airdrop. 



“Celestia’s Genesis Drop invites a wide range of eligible developers and on-chain addresses to build and contribute to Celestia’s modular ecosystem from inception,” Ahmed said.&nbsp;



Sixty million TIA, roughly 6% of the token’s total circulating supply, will be handed over to eligible recipients. Of the 60 million, 20 million will be split between public goods researchers and contributors, another 20 million will be allocated to early adopters of Ethereum rollups, and the remaining will be given to stakers and IBC relayers of Cosmos Hub and Osmosis.&nbsp;



Celestia has specifically noted that US persons are not allowed to receive the airdrop. VPNs or tools that can bypass geoblocking services are also restricted, and any users who choose to violate these terms will be permanently disqualified.



Members of the Celestia Labs teams and any advisers will also be excluded from the airdrop.



Updated Sept. 26, 2023 at 3:35 pm ET: Updates body and headline to correct the launch and end date of the Celestia airdrops claims process, as well as the number of eligible chain addresses.



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Celestia opens airdrop for planned modular data availability network

Andrew Thurman

The latest buzzy layer-one network to launch has run into turbulence in its first few days amid widespread complaints that its airdrops to early users and testers were overly stingy.&nbsp;



Sei Network, a trading-focused layer-1, announced the launch of its “mainnet beta” stage on Tuesday. The latest base layer to jockey for attention possesses significant backing, having raised $120 million from investors such as Coinbase, Multicoin and GSR. In a recent press <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2023-04-12/foresight-ventures-brings-sei-ecosystem-fund-to-120-million-catalyzing-web3-growth-and-innovation">release</a>, the team boasted former executives from Goldman Sachs, Robinhood, Google and Nvidia.



Despite the prestige, the network has so far faced a rocky start fueled in part by disgruntled airdrop farmers.&nbsp;



Airdrops are a common method for new networks to distribute governance tokens to key stakeholders who perform certain useful actions, such as bridging funds to a network, testing dapps, or participating in a testnet. Airdrop farmers, in turn, refer to users who perform those actions aggressively or with multiple wallets in order to reap a disproportionate reward. 



Many of those users are now taking to social media to express <a href="https://twitter.com/Auri_0x/status/1692143804957052934">dissatisfaction</a> with the terms of the airdrop. 



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sei-mainnet-beta-trading">Optimized for trading, Sei launches mainnet beta</a>



The trouble began shortly after the launch of the network. In a blog <a href="https://blog.sei.io/the-sei-airdrop/">post</a> on Tuesday, company representatives implied that airdrop claims would be open at the launch of the network. However, in a follow-up Tweet from an official account, it was revealed that tokens would be claimable after an indeterminate “<a href="https://twitter.com/SeiNetwork/status/1691428585054044161">warmup</a>” period, leading to widespread <a href="https://twitter.com/rektfencer/status/1691431123308453888">complaints</a>.&nbsp;



Once claims did go live on Thursday, users began to complain about the paltry sums distributed, enough so that the hashtag “SeiScam” was trending for certain <a href="https://twitter.com/DrNickA/status/1692054730464170455">users</a>.&nbsp;



According to airdrop expert <a href="https://twitter.com/CC2Ventures">CC2</a>, the core of the complaints centered on which parties the Sei Foundation chose to focus on for rewards.&nbsp;



“Testnet users that diligently filled out their &#8216;incentivized testnet&#8217; forms on a daily basis for weeks got rewarded with $5 worth of SEI and referrals haven&#8217;t been honored,” they wrote in an interview with Blockworks. “Instead, you can bridge $10k in and apparently get over 5k SEI tokens, once again rewarding whale behavior.”



While some early testnet participants reported scant rewards, Sei continues to incentivize users to deposit funds via bridges to the network on an ongoing basis. Today, the Sei Foundation said that it raised the cap for this ongoing program from a half million <a href="https://twitter.com/Sei_FND/status/1692070808783368592">wallets</a> to 1.5 million due to “fervent demand.”



The popularity of this farming strategy is such that research firm ASXN noticed a price spike for assets that easily bridge over Cosmos, on which Sei is built:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Assets bridgeable to the <a href="https://twitter.com/SeiNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SeiNetwork</a> are jumping higher as participants try to capture the $1k in SEI airdrop for bridging in &gt; $10k of assets. <a href="https://t.co/YNmlJYgLMa">pic.twitter.com/YNmlJYgLMa</a>&mdash; ASXN (@asxn_r) <a href="https://twitter.com/asxn_r/status/1692170157593100583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



However, many users report being unable to bridge funds back off the chain after having claimed their airdrop. The Sei Foundation reported earlier today that the Wormhole bridge had <a href="https://twitter.com/Sei_FND/status/1692064191773802763">reached</a> its “daily limit.”



Sei is down 6.8% on the day to $0.179.



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Farmers complain of barren fields after Sei airdrop

Sebastian Sinclair

Since last quarter, Ethereum layer-2s have witnessed vastly more activity than Ethereum mainnet, marking a significant increase compared to last year.



The average total transactions per second (TPS) of those chains seeking to scale Ethereum stood at roughly 45.3 — four times greater than Ethereum’s 11.91 TPS, <a href="https://l2beat.com/scaling/activity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> shows.



Now that multiple layer-2 <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rollups</a> have come online, activity is 287% busier than a year ago. There are now more than 20 separate L-2 networks built atop Ethereum, all aiming to improve scalability and efficiency, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/exorbitant-eth-gas-fees-vmpx">reducing the cost per transaction</a>.



The amount of computational resources, known as &#8220;gas,&#8221; used on the Ethereum network every month to validate and settle transactions taking place on L-2s also remains <a href="https://dune.com/funnyking/L2-Gas-Consumption" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">elevated this year</a>.



L-2 growth appears to be concentrated around airdrop farming transactions Sam Holman, derivatives analyst at Australian trading firm Zerocap, told Blockworks. Airdrop farming is a process where users perform certain actions to be eligible to receive free tokens.



“If you look into the specific chains the volumes have increased on, you&#8217;ll see [<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/zksync" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">zkSync</a>] Era and also <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/polygon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a> [zkEVM] having an elevated contribution, as well as Optimism.”



A notable uptick in L-2 volume was also observed following <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/users-claiming-arbitrum-airdrop">Arbitrum’s airdrop</a> in March, as airdrop hunters migrated from there to zkSync speculating on the eventual debut of a native token to reward early adopters.



Users transacting on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/optimism">Optimism</a> are primarily doing so via platforms like Uniswap V3 and Stargate, DappRadar daily volume <a href="https://dappradar.com/rankings/defi/chain/optimism?range=30d&amp;sort=totalVolumeInFiat&amp;order=desc">data</a> shows.



As it stands, Stargate, a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/LayerZero" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LayerZero</a> bridge and airdrop candidate, has about seven times more active users though only around half of the volume of Uniswap. Holman pointed to users cycling through different addresses, repeating the same transactions, to inflate their chances of getting a higher airdrop allocation.



&#8220;I would put down the consistent volume through Stargate to farmers trying to be eligible for the LayerZero token,&#8221; Holman said. “It&#8217;s the cheapest chain to bridge funds on and a lot of the market seems to think the number of transactions will be a primary criterion for a <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/issue/31992668" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LayerZero airdrop</a>.”



LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stick-to-core-competencies-layerzero">recently told Blockworks’ 0xResearch</a> podcast that, in his view, airdrop hunting was not a dominant factor, but perhaps accounts for around 54% of the volume.



“I don’t spend too much time thinking about it — ultimately it’s something that’s outside of my control,” Pellegrino said. “Right now, if 98% of the volume was [airdrop farmers] it would still be the most used bridge in the world by a factor of like 4.”



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Airdrop farming propelling growth in Ethereum layer-2 activity

Michael Bodley

Months of market teases ended when blockchain analytics platform Arkham released its long-awaited ARKM token today.&nbsp;



Arkham airdropped tokens in varying amounts to early entrants and beta testers of the new bounty platform. The token was also made available via Binance.&nbsp;&nbsp;



As expected, the airdrop proved to be enormously popular, with over 47,000 addresses having claimed 23.7 million tokens worth over $15 million at press time. Both the token contract <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x6e2a43be0b1d33b726f0ca3b8de60b3482b8b050">address</a>, as well as the claims <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x08c7676680f187a31241e83e6d44c03a98adab05">contract</a>, have been among the largest gas guzzlers on the Ethereum chain for the day, per Nansen data.&nbsp;



While the new asset has exceeded its initial exchange offering (IEO) price of $.50 and its fully diluted valuation ran as high as $800 million in the opening hours of trading, it has since retreated in the face of significant sell pressure from airdrop recipients.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arkham-intelligence">Arkham</a>’s token launch represents a bet on the development of a marketplace focused on the&nbsp; purchase and sale of crypto intelligence. Its formation —&nbsp;perhaps controversial to those opposed to payments for personal data, for example — has resulted in a bounty system through which analysts are paid for uncovering valuable data and information.&nbsp;



In the hours since launch, ARKM has seen more than $150 million in trade volume, only $8.2 million of which comes from on-chain liquidity. Uniswap v3’s ARKM/WETH pool is by far the most popular.&nbsp;



Binance floated ARKM with a token purchase hard cap of $15,000. Indications were that before the launch, would-be buyers staked significant amounts of <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bnb">BNB</a>, Binance’s native token, in a bid to hit that maximum.&nbsp;



ARKM, an ERC-20 token, grants its holders some say in Arkham Intelligence Exchange’s governance. It also provides discounts for using the core functions of the marketplace — including setting and fulfilling bounties, as well as exchanging corresponding data.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The launch drew criticism from some crypto quarters, however.&nbsp;



Andrew Smith, the founder of VRRB Labs, told Blockworks Arkham definitely has the “right to roll out a service that unmasks owners of digital wallets, as it’s public information.”



But Smith said “providing financial incentive to users to unveil the identities behind wallet addresses is an unsavory practice, and a bad look.”



Though Arkham has said it will monitor submissions and vet incoming information, industry participants suggest there is little limitation in terms of what is for sale. The Arkham Foundation is overseeing the process.&nbsp;



The intelligence market launch <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arkham-intelligence-doxxing-users-isnt-that-smart">has landed Arkham in some public hot water</a>, particularly because of a bug that allowed users’ email addresses to be identified. Arkham later said it had fixed the problem.



“We’re very excited about the launch of the Arkham Intel Exchange and the Arkham Oracle,” Arkham representatives told Blockworks in a statement. “These are the kinds of products that will take on-chain analysis to the next level of usability and utility.” The firm declined to comment further.



Arkham also rolled out an AI-enabled oracle product on Tuesday that ties into its new intelligence platform. The product appears to be designed to allow a user to input a prompt into the oracle, which would return on-chain results, including wallet addresses.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Market moves, thus far</h2>



While the comparative dearth of on-chain data makes it difficult to measure precisely how many ARKM claimants have sold their tokens and how many are buying, some details do provide insight into how the market views the new token.&nbsp;



Notably, while the claims contract has been interacted with over 47,000 times, there are roughly 31,000 token holders. Per a Dune Analytics <a href="https://dune.com/chrislee/arkham-intelligence-airdrop-dashboard">dashboard</a> from analyst Chris Lee, over 70% of claimants received fewer than 200 tokens. Five addresses received more than 100,000 ARKM tokens.&nbsp;



Liquidity has, thus far, remained robust. Blockchain analysis indicates that Wintermute has been retained as a market maker. According to Nansen data, Wintermute received roughly 15 million ARKM tokens, the majority of which was sent to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/binance">Binance</a> and the rest were retained in trading addresses.&nbsp;



Of the five <a href="https://etherscan.io/advanced-filter?tkn=0x6e2a43be0b1d33b726f0ca3b8de60b3482b8b050&amp;txntype=2&amp;amt=100000%7e10000000&amp;fadd=0x08c7676680F187A31241E83e6d44C03A98AdaB05">addresses</a> that received over 100,000 tokens, all appear to have moved their stakes to market. One sent over 180,000 tokens to Binance and <a href="https://debank.com/profile/0x32ba3fd50fc7f6e8d62c5359299e488518c051e9/history">received</a> $137,000 USDT shortly after; another <a href="https://debank.com/profile/0xf0dff6c2c30ba13a2cb43e048fa7f98b1bc38d2f/history">sold</a> their claim for ETH over a period of an hour; two others <a href="https://debank.com/profile/0x467a1c29179252fe7e8e3ed75571a58ee0542336/history">sent</a> tokens to <a href="https://debank.com/profile/0xb28bfea0fe4b60a93de53dbae8ce07e34fb8374c/history">Binance</a>; and the last <a href="https://debank.com/profile/0x14ff0bc9417b6796f79768729002a793b51205b8/history">sold</a> directly on-chain via 1inch for USDT.&nbsp;



Despite the sell pressure from both smaller and larger holders, the asset remains up nearly 25% from its IEO price at $.66 at the time of publication. 



Binance previously <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/binance-completes-the-arkham-subscription-launchpad-and-will-open-trading-for-arkm-bd7486abdcbc4099b7ce6fb484052e05">said</a> that to “protect users from high volatility,” the exchange took an unorthodox step in capping the price limit at a multiple of ten of the initial purchase price — $0.05. The move may have been designed as a measure to ward off traders looking to drive up the price.



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Arkham’s airdrop choppy as traders eye ‘intelligence’ bounty odds

James Cirrone

Starbucks is preparing an NFT airdrop for members of its Odyssey rewards program as part of the company’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starbucks-nfts-like-loyalty-cards">foray into Web3</a>.



Users will have to meet specific criteria to be eligible to receive a so-called “limited-edition stamp” from the coffeehouse giant, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/starbucks">Starbucks</a> told Odyssey members in an email obtained by Blockworks.&nbsp;&nbsp;



First, the airdrop is only available for US residents. Second, each participant must be a Starbucks rewards member, and enrolled in Starbucks Odyssey, the company’s waitlisted Web3 rewards platform. The program launched in beta <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-to-power-starbucks-nft-loyalty-program">back in September 2022</a>, and remains available only to a select number of individuals.



Provided that a participant is an Odyssey member, they will then have to make sure to have completed two “journeys,” and that they already own at least one limited-edition NFT stamp. Journeys are challenges that users can <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starbucks-nfts-like-loyalty-cards">complete to win stamps embedded with rewards points</a>. One such example of a journey could be going to a different Starbucks store or trying a new drink, a former Starbucks executive told Blockworks in December.



Users who meet all of these qualifications by the company’s specified date will be eligible for the airdrop, according to Starbucks Odyssey’s airdrop <a href="https://odyssey.starbucks.com/#/terms/airdrop">terms</a>.



The terms also state that “you are not guaranteed a Stamp of your choosing [&#8230;] you will receive a Stamp as determined by Starbucks in its sole discretion.”



Starbucks has shown continued interest in the world of digital ownership. Last month, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starbucks-drops-first-store-nft-collection">it released the “First Store” NFTs</a> with many of the collectibles in the bundle depicting the original, much humbler Starbucks storefront that opened in downtown Seattle back in 1971.



In the last 24 hours, the First Store collection <a href="https://www.niftygateway.com/rankings">has</a> generated the highest sales volume on NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.



Blockworks has reached out to Starbucks concerning the upcoming airdrop.



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Starbucks Airdropping More NFTs in June to Expand Web3 Rewards Program

Shalini Nagarajan

While NFT activity is showing a gradual recovery post-crypto winter, it remains significantly below the robust levels witnessed in 2021 and 2022, new data revealed.



Trading volume experienced a notable surge in the first quarter of 2023, followed by a subsequent decline.



According to a May 18 <a href="https://www.galaxy.com/research/insights/nft-marketplace-update/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> from Galaxy Research, the daily trading volume on NFT marketplaces experienced a decline after reaching a yearly peak of $130 million in late February.



The daily averages for March, April, and May witnessed a decrease, with figures standing at $70 million, $35 million, and $30 million respectively.



Yet, when considering various metrics, the current state of the NFT market significantly surpasses the lows witnessed in Nov. 2022.



According to Galaxy, the NFT marketplace battle between Blur and OpenSea has emerged as the most highly anticipated event in the NFT ecosystem this year, captivating the attention of many.



With a remarkable 361% surge in Ethereum NFT trades, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-opensea-nft-volume-traders-airdrop">Blur surpassed OpenSea</a> as the NFT market leader in February by employing a distinctive token-trading approach, treating NFTs more like fungible tokens in its trader focus.



Around the highly anticipated token airdrop on Feb. 14, Blur experienced the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-nft-volume-opensea">pinnacle of hype</a>.&nbsp;



Subsequently, Blur&#8217;s dominance in trading volume surged to an unprecedented peak, commanding 80% of the market share, while OpenSea witnessed a decline, settling at a 15.5% trading volume market share, Galaxy noted.



“This activity was largely due to airdrop framers positioning themselves for Blur’s season 2 token airdrop,” research analyst Gabe Parker wrote.



The ongoing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-nft-second-crypto-airdrop">&#8220;season&#8221; 2 airdrop</a>, determined by a user&#8217;s loyalty score and listing volume, is anticipated to conclude with a substantial airdrop of over 300 million BLUR tokens.&nbsp;



Initially scheduled to end in April 2023, the airdrop was reportedly extended to May 2023, and there is speculation among users that it might be extended further.



Galaxy said that a significant portion of NFT trading activity in 2023 has been &#8220;inorganic,&#8221; heavily influenced by Blur&#8217;s airdrops. It believes Blur’s dominance in trading volumes is expected to persist through the Season 2 airdrop period.



In a bid to offer competitive fees, several NFT marketplaces like Blur have chosen to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-opensea-royalties-nft-creators">make royalty payments optional</a> or eliminate them entirely.&nbsp;



However, this move jeopardizes secondary trading markets as it diminishes the incentives for NFT creators who depend on secondary royalties for income.



According to Galaxy’s findings, transactions involving royalty fees experienced a sharp decline across major NFT marketplaces starting from February.



 OpenSea and Blur, which previously had notable year-to-date highs, witnessed a staggering 90% drop in royalty-paying transactions.



The primary reason behind OpenSea’s sudden decrease in royalty-paying users is attributed to its decision to enforce a 0.5% royalty fee instead of its usual range of 5% to 7.5%.



Galaxy said that with the two largest marketplaces now operating under a royalty-optional model, it becomes evident that creators will need to explore new structures or strategies to generate income from NFTs.&nbsp;



The extent of control NFT marketplaces hold over royalties will ultimately determine the longevity of royalty-based income streams.



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Blur’s Airdrop Shaped Inorganic Surge in 2023 NFT Trading: Report

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum has officially launched its governance token airdrop. 



Immediately following the airdrop token claim event, Arbitrum’s front end was forced to shut.&nbsp;



Almost 85,000 users had signed onto the webpage in a 30-minute window, Arbiscan, its blockchain scanner, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/arbiscan/status/1638897253388800001" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We&#39;re sorry for turning off the lights on Arbitrum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ARB will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We&#39;d like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction.&mdash; foobar (@0xfoobar) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xfoobar/status/1638891090202722304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Previously governed by New York-based <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/offchain-labs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offchain Labs</a>, the ARB token is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arbitrum-airdrop-faq">designed for Arbitrum to decentralize its governance</a>. 



The Airdrop will allocate 12.75% of ARB’s total supply to users and DAOs building on the network.&nbsp;



Roughly 11.6% of the supply goes to users at a present value of $1.56 billion and 1.1% of the supply goes to DAOs, currently valued at $151 million, Blockworks Research <a href="https://dune.com/blockworks_research/arb-airdrop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> shows. 



At the time of writing, over half of eligible users have claimed their airdrop — equating to roughly 330,000 unique addresses.&nbsp;



Of the remaining <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/arb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ARB</a> tokens, 43% will go to the DAO treasury — managed by the community, while 27% will be allocated to Offchain Labs. And 17.5% will be given to investors of the New York-based startup. 



Eligible airdrop recipients will have six more months to claim their airdrops.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Remember <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arbinauts?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Arbinauts</a>, you have 6 months to claim your tokens! Gas fees will be quite high, and there will be server congestion.&mdash; Arbitrum (💙,🧡) (@arbitrum) <a href="https://twitter.com/arbitrum/status/1638889046964305922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The company warned users to only use the official <a href="http://arbitrum.foundation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a> to avoid potential copycat scams. “This is the safest way to claim, and you&#8217;ll be able to vote for your favorite ecosystem delegate.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Technical Difficulties Aren’t Stopping Users From Claiming Arbitrum Airdrop

The Arbitrum ARB governance token airdrop is one day away and will mark the beginning of its transition into decentralization.



Prior to its token launch, the Ethereum layer-2 network had been governed by New York startup <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/offchain-labs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offchain Labs</a> — the developer behind the protocol. 



Arbitrum is an <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/optimistic-rollups/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">optimistic</a> rollup scaling solution on Ethereum. Scaling solutions are designed to ease congestion and prices of gas fees on the Ethereum network.



Rather than executing a transaction on Ethereum, the transaction is instead sent to Arbitrum, whose throughput capacity is seven to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arbitrum-optimism-exceed-ethereum">10 times greater than that of Ethereum</a>.&nbsp;



Following Arbitrum’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arbitrum-upgrades-to-nitro-ahead-of-ethereum-merge">Nitro upgrade</a>, there has been an <a href="https://dune.com/blockworks_research/l2-comparison-dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">uptick</a> in transactions on-chain, recently <a href="https://dune.com/queries/1873519/3083010" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">overtaking Ethereum</a> in daily transactions.



There’s currently $2 billion locked inside Arbitrum-powered protocols compared to Optimism’s $1 billion, per <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Arbitrum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DeFiLlama</a>. Decentralized derivatives platform GMX and exchange Uniswap command the most value. Ethereum native dapps Aave and Curve have also launched on the network, among others. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="760" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-49814" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/unnamed-1.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Rising usage only amplifies the need for decentralization. According to <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks Research</a>, ARB will allow for decentralized governance over the Arbitrum protocol, similar to Optimism’s OP token. 



ARB holders will vote on all aspects of the protocol including upgrades, inflation adjustments, as well as capital allocations (including grants).&nbsp;



Almost 12% of the total airdrop supply will be distributed to Arbitrum users and a tad over 1% of will be given to <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSSAzkIIJqw4WGKCF9gXFUkQojTt6weQTExZYmp3YRIR2TUjir9N8nh8xg7gQ2wuPA8mJKL2neL--to/pubhtml#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DAOs</a> building on top of the network.



<ul>
<li>43% to the Arbitrum DAO treasury overseen by the protocol’s community governance.&nbsp;</li>



<li>27% to the Offchain Labs team and future advisers.</li>



<li>17.5% to Offchain Labs investors.</li>
</ul>



A security council will also be established to make swift decisions when a normal governance process may be too slow.&nbsp;



“The security council, while removing some element of decentralization, is meant as a backstop in case of emergencies,” Blockworks Research said. “Since Arbitrum, and rollups in general, are still in their infancy it&#8217;s not enough to say they are truly 100% secure especially as new upgrades get added.”



Token holders will elect two groups of six security council members (totaling 12) every six months, each who will have private keys to a multsig that will control the protocol’s primary smart contract.



An eligible candidate for the council must be a member of the DAO and receive support from 0.2% of votable tokens. Chosen members will receive a $5,000 stipend in the form of ARB tokens.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="819" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-49810" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image-6.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How much trust is baked into Arbitrum?</h2>



Main trust <a href="https://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/arbitrum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concerns</a> around Arbitrum are in its state validation and upgradability. Arbitrum did not respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.



State validation refers to the proofs used or how the network decides which transactions (network state) are valid.



“In Arbitrum&#8217;s case, they have fraud proofs enabled, but only by whitelisted validators and used interactive proofs which take many transactions to solve,” Blockworks Research said.



Although enabling fraud proofs is much better than having none at all — as in the case of Arbitrum’s competitor Optimism — it would be more ideal to have permissionless proofs. 



Another risk is the upgradability of Arbiturm’s smart contract, as seen with Jump Crypto’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jump-crypto-wormhole-hack-recovery">counter-exploit of the Wormhole hacker</a> last month. A smart contract is considered to be most secure if it can not be upgraded, which is not the case for both Arbitrum and Optimism.



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Arbitrum Airdrop: What You Need To Know About This Ethereum Layer-2

Arbitrum Foundation, the governing body behind Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum, is making decentralization strides.&nbsp;



The latest indicator: plans for a token airdrop alongside launching Arbitrum Orbit, its layer-3 development tool.



The move falls in line with a <a href="https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/proposed-milestones-for-rollups-taking-off-training-wheels/11571" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proposal</a> from Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, in which he identified necessary steps to allow optimistic rollups to “take off training wheels” — and become fully decentralized in the process.&nbsp;



Steven Goldfeder, CEO at Offchain Labs, told Blockworks that Arbitrum would be one of the first Ethereum rollups to move from stage zero to one.



“This is a very big milestone, not only for us at off-chain or the Arbitrum Foundation, but also for Ethereum scaling,” Goldfeder said.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How Arbitrum mapped out its upcoming airdrop</h2>



Arbitrum is positioning its airdrop — expected March 23 — as a way to place governance power into community hands, Goldfeder told Blockworks.



“We worked very closely with Nansen over the past few months on designing airdrop eligibility criteria,” Goldfeder said. “We have a point system based on different criteria, such as usage, to help determine the amount of points each user gets.”



The eligibility criteria for the airdrop can be found on gov.arbitrum.foundation.



The user airdrop will make up 11.5% of the total token supply, with an additional 1.1% earmarked for DAOs.



“So, projects on Arbitrum that have their own communities will also be eligible for the DAO to get an airdrop,” Goldfeder said. “Our hope and expectation are that this ends up in the hands of Arbitrum users as well, but it is the DAO who will have the ability to distribute them.”



The remaining governance tokens will be distributed over time to the community through grant programs and other initiatives led by the DAO.&nbsp;



“We’d like things to have an open and fair process, and I think history has shown us the importance of delegation in the claiming flow,” he said.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Layer 3 developer tools to boot</h2>



Alongside the airdrop announcement, Arbitrum has also released a development kit for those interested in building a layer-3 solution on top of Arbitrum.



The L3 development toolkit, dubbed Arbitrum Orbit, will allow anyone to launch their own L3 on top of the Arbitrum code base.



“The community will have the ability to innovate and build and also modify the code,” Goldfeder said. “The idea is giving the licensing over into the hands of the community.”



In one prominent feature, the ARB token will not be used to pay any fees on the Arbitrum chain, and on-chain fees will remain payable through ETH.



The mechanism is similar to Optimism’s OP token, which operates only as a governance token. Arbitrum’s airdrop has been much <a href="https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1584518035142217730" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anticipated</a> since its competitor Optimism revealed its governance token last May.



“What the Arbitrum Orbit does, it will bring yet another tool into the hands of developers,” Goldfeder said. “You can now build a smart contract with the public Arbitrum chains and get security derived from Ethereum.”



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Arbitrum’s ARB Token Airdrop: It’s Happening

Magna, a token distribution infrastructure platform, is releasing an open-sourced airdrop tool that can handle up to 9,000 transactions simultaneously.



The head of product at Magna, Nitesh Gupta, told Blockworks that the new airdrop tool was similar to the Disperse app which launched in 2018.



“Since it was launched, nobody has created anything better,” Gupta said.



After noticing that there was an opportunity in the token distribution market, the team at Magna wanted to build a more efficient airdrop tool.



The latest product, with a <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wen%20moon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meme-inspired</a> name, wentokens.xyz, is part of Magna’s vision to improve performance in low-level optimizations. The tool is said to be “30% cheaper and can handle more transactions” than its rival.



“The approach I took is quite similar to Disperse’s relatively standard airdrop,” said Harrison Leggio, protocol engineering lead at Magna. “Where we differ is that I utilize inline assembly to skip…unnecessary EVM opcodes that plain solidity code would be subject to.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Low-level optimizations explained</h2>



A low-level optimization is simply a lower-level programming language — meaning that the written code is closer to the machine.



Similar to how hedge funds regularly use software engineered in the C programming language instead of Python, a growing number of cryptocurrency projects are choosing to use languages such as <a href="https://medium.com/@jtriley15/huff-vs-yul-for-evm-smart-contracts-620d1d618197" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">yul or huff</a> — which are more closely mapped to the bytecode on the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), Gupta said.



“When people write at a lower level, it can be more optimal,” Gupta said. “I would say that lower-level languages tend to be harder to write and harder to read and reason — but they&#8217;re actually simpler and there&#8217;s less things going on.”



Patrick Collins, the founder of Cyfrin, a security auditing firm, has previously noted that he hopes that more cryptocurrency projects will eventually begin writing in lower-level languages as it will help significantly reduce gas prices.&nbsp;



“I wouldn’t be surprised to see popular projects re-written in lower-level languages in the future,” Collins said.



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Token Distribution Tool Aims To Make Airdrops More Efficient

Tuesday witnessed the final airdrop and launch of BLUR, the native crypto of the upstart NFT marketplace of the same name, which saw one trader clinching close to $2 million.



Some NFT traders who <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-last-airdrop-nfts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scooped the BLUR</a> airdrop sold as the asset’s price began in free-fall. BLUR was last trading around $0.76, down nearly 90% from prices beyond $6 briefly seen on some exchanges.



The token is listed on Coinbase and OKX, among other centralized platforms, as well as decentralized exchanges Uniswap.



Over time, airdrops have pivoted from paying new users for completing social tasks to rewarding early adopters. 



Blur, for example, scaled its crypto airdrops to NFT trading activity on its platform, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-could-unseat-nft-marketplace-opensea" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">serves as both a NFT marketplace and aggregator</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12754703/embed#?secret=fKDn1UEM9T" data-secret="fKDn1UEM9T" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div></figure>



As Blockworks <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blur-opensea-nft-volume-traders-airdrop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously reported</a>, Blur&#8217;s incentives often inspired more trade volumes on the platform than market leader OpenSea over the past few months.



BLUR’s short-term volatility is to be expected. But the longer-term performance of other airdropped tokens may shed light on its potential future.&nbsp;



Blockworks analyzed the performance of 11 tokens issued via airdrops and found they&#8217;ve fallen 43.4% on average. 



UNI is a notable outlier alongside optimism (OP), the governance token used to help steward the Layer-2 Ethereum network of the same name. OP is up 74% since its first trading price recorded on CoinGecko, jumping from $1.40 on May 31, 2022 to $2.43 today.



Popular decentralized exchange Uniswap’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/uni" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UNI</a> airdropped on Sept. 17, 2020. Two days later, it had risen 160%, from $2.97 to $7.82, per CoinGecko.



UNI had shed significant value after 40 days, eventually bottoming out at $1.70 before running up alongside the broader crypto market throughout 2021, to a peak of $45 on May 3. 



UNI is basically even over the past 30 days and down 36% on a yearly basis. It&#8217;s performed well since launch, comparatively, practically tracking bitcoin to more than double.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12756024/embed#?secret=HDmzCZyrNT" data-secret="HDmzCZyrNT" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Blur rival LooksRare also airdropped crypto</h2>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/dydx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DYDX</a>, the token of its namesake decentralized crypto derivatives exchange, shot up 35% after its <a href="https://twitter.com/dydxfoundation/status/1435622063729938434" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">retroactive</a> airdrop on Sept. 8, 2021. DYDX jumped a further 70% over a three-week period to an all-time high of $26.80.



The token has since lost more than 95% of its value, dropping to a low of $1 last June. DYDX has enjoyed a 70% bounce over the last 30 days but it remains 60% down from prices one year ago.



Ethereum Name Service’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ens" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ENS</a> token, whose first price on CoinGecko was $39.31 on Nov. 10, 2021, spiked 107% to a high of $81.61 on Nov. 11, before halving to $39 only eight days later.&nbsp;



ENS is now trending down, sans a brief pump to $75. It has lost 14% on a yearly basis to reach $14.40, 63% below its first recorded price.



The native token of Blur rival LooksRare has fared much worse since its airdrop.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/12755118/embed#?secret=F09qJT2pXR" data-secret="F09qJT2pXR" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">uniswap and optimism stand as some of the best performing airdrop tokens</figcaption></figure>



After airdropping 120 million <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/looks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LOOKS</a> to certain OpenSea users on Jan. 10 last year, prices jumped 250% in the following nine days to an all-time high of $7.10. 



Price action failed to hold up throughout 2022 as the token shed 98% of its value — dropping to a low of $0.11 on Nov. 21. The token is down 89% over the past year.



Over the past few years, airdrops have proven successful in incentivizing user participation, particularly over the short term. But maintaining valuations seems difficult.



Smaller cryptocurrencies almost always correlate with bitcoin, so poor performances post-airdrop should be considered with this in mind. 



Still, their histories show they tend to suffer from intense volatility, especially in the days directly following their initial distributions.



David Canellis contributed reporting.



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What Previous Crypto Airdrops Tell Us About Where BLUR May Be Headed

<div id="highlights-block_6312249aee08f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Although announcements have been made, the SUDO token has not yet been deployed</li>
 <li>The Ethereum-based token will initially be non-transferable until a governance vote determines otherwise</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Decentralized NFT marketplace <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Sudoswap" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sudoswap</a> is laying the groundwork for a massive airdrop of 60 million SUDO tokens, an up-and-coming governance token built on the protocol.



At its core, Sudoswap allows users to use liquidity pools to buy and sell NFTs (non-fungible tokens) — similar to how <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/uniswap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uniswap</a> participants provide liquidity to pools and earn money from trading fees. The SUDO governance token will allow holders to participate in protocol governance and ensure the organization moves in the right direction.



The Ethereum-based token will initially be non-transferable, <a href="https://blog.sudoswap.xyz/sudo-distribution.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a blog post</a> by Sudoswap said. This is to ensure that SUDO will not be circulated unless there is sufficient governance participation from SUDO holders.



“A governance proposal to initiate transferability may be put forward through the standard governance process for the sudoAMM protocol, which will be addressed at a later time,” the blog said.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">This post outlines the distribution of SUDO, the governance token of the sudoAMM protocol. <a href="https://t.co/aGwNWSDaB6">https://t.co/aGwNWSDaB6</a> NOTE THAT THE SUDO TOKEN GOVERNING THE SUDOSWAP PROTOCOL HAS NOT YET BEEN DEPLOYED. PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION&mdash; sudoswap (@sudoswap) <a href="https://twitter.com/sudoswap/status/1565508305312571392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The plurality of SUDO tokens (41.9%) will be available for distribution to XMON holders — a utility token behind NFT project 0xmons — a scarce digital collectible inspired by a mix of Pokemon, SCP and Lovecraft that lives on the Ethereum blockchain.



XMON holders will have a one-month window to decide if they want to receive SUDO. Those who wish to hold the governance token must lock away their XMON tokens for three months before withdrawal — a necessary step, as it will indicate their willingness to participate in sudoAMM governance.&nbsp;



“XMON will retain 100% of its functionality and will in no way be altered by the locking mechanism, except that the locked XMON will not be transferable during the locking period,” the blog post said. “The SUDO distributed is pro-rata to the amount of XMON locked, at a rate of 10,000 SUDO per 1 XMON locked.”



Of the remaining 58.1% of SUDO tokens, 15% will be given to the initial founding team of Sudoswap; another 15% will be distributed to SudoRandom Labs, a primary contributor to the sudoAMM protocol; and 25% will be given to the treasury governed by SUDO holders.



0xmons NFT holders and retroactive liquidity providers will each receive 1.5% of the initial SUDO supply.



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Sudoswap Is Getting a New Governance Token

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6220e68e129d8" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Over $12.5 million in digital asset donations were sent to Ukraine’s crypto wallets on Wednesday after the country announced a pending airdrop</li>
 <li>“Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon,” the country’s vice prime minister tweeted</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



After what would have been a first-of-its-kind donor incentive, Ukraine has canceled an airdrop for contributors to its crowdfunding campaign.



The highest volume of donations for Ukraine occurred on Wednesday, with $12.5 million donated across over 35,000 Ethereum transactions, all after the announcement of an “airdrop” surfaced, according to Elliptic <a href="https://www.elliptic.co/blog/live-updates-millions-in-crypto-crowdfunded-for-the-ukrainian-military" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>.



The country initially shared that an airdrop was “<a href="https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1498911922791583746?s=20&amp;t=j4KQx4IIdj3rJgAGCxdHZA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a>” for anyone who contributed to its crypto donations by 11 am ET on Thursday, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ukraine-government-prepares-first-of-its-kind-airdrop-to-crypto-donors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Airdrops involve businesses or crypto projects providing free tokens or NFTs to their communities as a way to encourage adoption — in this case, to increase donations to the country. 



But, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov backpedaled early Thursday morning, about 29 hours after Ukraine made the initial announcement.



“After careful consideration we decided to cancel [the] airdrop,” Fedorov said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1499348177002151937?s=20&amp;t=BJm7D5IaYQFXmcWewsFz5Q" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>. “Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the [aggression.] Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens.”



Rumors arose in the crypto community that the Ukrainian government might have been planning to release Peaceful World, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/03/apparent-ukraine-world-airdrop-might-be-spoof/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WORLD</a>, tokens, in the airdrop for people who donated to its crypto crowdfunding campaign, according to <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/03/03/could-this-peaceful-world-token-be-ukraines-secret-airdrop/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a> by CoinDesk.



Etherscan data shows that the tokens were sent to Ukraine’s crypto wallet address and although about 1 million WORLD tokens were <a href="https://etherscan.io/tx/0x70d66923bf5f08869c95472c0a5717ddc84927801bd65d4be4de7e841a7ffdaf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sent</a> to Uniswap, seemingly through Ukraine’s wallet, a third party potentially triggered the transaction without Ukraine’s involvement. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Peaceful World token rumored to be airdropped by the Ukrainian government are suspected to be fake and have been marked by Etherscan as a problem address, said this token is misleading to make people believe that it was sent from a well-known address, which is prone to fraud. <a href="https://t.co/e3mYWltRHW">pic.twitter.com/e3mYWltRHW</a>&mdash; Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) <a href="https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1499325443530379268?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



There has been no confirmation by Ukrainian officials of any association with the token.&nbsp;



In total, over $46 million has been sent to Ukraine’s crypto wallet addresses across 96,000 cryptocurrency donations. Its total crypto donations rose 53% day-over-day from $30 million to $46 million, Elliptic <a target="_blank" href="https://www.elliptic.co/blog/live-updates-millions-in-crypto-crowdfunded-for-the-ukrainian-military" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> shows.



Other crypto-focused organizations have banded together to raise money as well — UkraineDAO has raised over $6.3 million, according to on-chain Etherscan <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x633b7218644b83d57d90e7299039ebab19698e9c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>.



Ukrainian staking service firm Everstake also launched a Solana-based donation platform called Aid for Ukraine in collaboration with the country’s government and others in the crypto community. The platform has <a href="https://nation.io/dao/ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised</a> about $1.45 million, at the time of publication. 



Ukrainian government officials were not available for immediate comment on Thursday.



This is a developing story and may be updated if new information becomes available.



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Ukraine Cancels Proposed Airdrop After Receiving Record Donations

<div id="highlights-block_621fa25329d98" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The government has not provided additional information about what the Thursday airdrop will entail</li>
 <li>Since Ukraine launched its unconventional crowdfunding efforts on Feb. 26, it has accumulated over $30 million from about 50,000 donations</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Update: Ukraine has since <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ukraine-cancels-proposed-airdrop-after-receiving-record-donations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called off the airdrop</a> for its crowdfunding campaign contributors. Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted the cancellation just 29 hours after the country made the initial airdrop announcement.



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The Ukrainian government has confirmed an airdrop for anyone who contributes to its crypto donations by 11 am ET on Thursday, March 3. The potential reward for the global community of donors foreshadows new potential use cases for crypto across mainstream audiences.



For context, airdrops involve businesses or crypto projects providing free tokens or NFTs to their communities as a way to encourage adoption — in this case, to increase donations to the country. The government has not provided additional information about what Thursday&#8217;s airdrop will entail.



“Ukraine making history tomorrow by being the first nation state to airdrop a token to those that donated,” Luke Martin, host of The Coinist Podcast, <a href="https://twitter.com/VentureCoinist/status/1499049620705525760?s=20&amp;t=bYbdqAyuA1aMzljQlhA6Ow" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> on Wednesday.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Countries airdropping coins. Wild times.”</blockquote>



Ukraine launched its unconventional crowdfunding efforts on Feb. 26, just two days after Russia invaded the country. Since then, it has accumulated over $30 million from about 50,000 donations to its Ethereum, Polkadot and US dollar Tether wallets, as of Wednesday morning, according to <a href="https://www.elliptic.co/blog/live-updates-millions-in-crypto-crowdfunded-for-the-ukrainian-military" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> from Elliptic.



Additionally, the popular decentralized exchange Uniswap has created a “Donate to Ukraine” <a href="https://donate.uniswap.org/#/swap" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">feature</a> on its platform, which allows users to swap listed tokens into ether donations for Ukraine in a single Ethereum transaction. The exchange wasn’t available for immediate comment.



“The people of Ukraine are grateful to Uniswap,” Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation of Ukraine, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1498936977474965504?s=20&amp;t=KQCudLbW255ccianOlO9QA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>.&nbsp;



Among those donations was a CryptoPunk NFT (non-fungible token) smoking a cigarette while wearing a blue hat and sunglasses. That NFT was worth about $200,000 and was sent to Ukraine’s Ethereum address.



Gavin Wood, who co-founded Ethereum and is the current founder of multichain protocol Polkadot and Kusama, also donated $5 million to the country, Ukraine <a href="https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1498733635083587584?s=20&amp;t=KQCudLbW255ccianOlO9QA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>.



&#8220;Bitcoin was created in a time of global adversity, the great financial crisis,” Matthew Le Merle, managing partner of Blockchain Coinvestors, said to Blockworks. “Right now, in Russia and Ukraine, the world is coming apart for tens of millions of people. Fortunately, Bitcoin is there for them and their families just when they need it.”



The crypto crowdfunding and airdrop point to a potential new way for mainstream adoption of the industry through traditional organizations such as government agencies.



&#8220;Airdropped tokens will forever serve as a public and immutable proof of something,&#8221; Haohan Xu, CEO of Apifiny, said to Blockworks. &#8220;Often these tokens will not only be receipts, but something of value.



In this case, the airdrop is not just a token of appreciation from Ukraine, but could also be valuable, Xu said.



&#8220;Donations are a simple point A to B transaction,” Xu noted. “As this situation develops in Eastern Europe, we will perhaps see blockchain-based [decentralized finance] apps do more good, such as facilitating financial access while centralized infrastructure is down.”



Funding the Ukrainian national defense through a global cryptocurrency crowdfund and airdrop is the modern day “war bond,” Nick Tomaino, general partner at 1confirmation, <a href="https://twitter.com/NTmoney/status/1498976681242947588?s=20&amp;t=Cx5qjKjeUuxJpv6mBan8qg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>.&nbsp;



In the past, countries including the United States, Germany and Canada all used war bonds to raise money to fund participation in wars.



These bonds were typically limited to domestic involvement, so only Americans could buy Liberty Bonds, for example, Tomaino said. However, cryptocurrency-based crowdfunding and airdrops allow for anyone to participate globally.



“Cryptocurrency enables Ukraine to easily raise funds from anyone in the world who wants to support protecting their sovereignty — not just Ukrainians,” he said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“This has the potential to help deescalate the dangerous situation the world is currently [in.]”</blockquote>



While it is hard to determine the short-term impact from Ukraine’s crowdfunding and airdrop, the long-term impact can be very positive for blockchain adoption, Le Merle said.



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