Ethereum restaking protocol, EigenLayer, has announced that it will be conducting an airdrop of approximately 28 million EIGEN tokens to over 280,000 wallets. This comes just days after the initial airdrop announcement. The Eigen Foundation stated that it would allocate 15% of its total supply to the community, but some users expressed concerns about certain provisions of the airdrop program.
In a recent post, the Eigen Foundation revealed that additional EIGEN tokens would be airdropped to users who had interacted with the protocol before April 29. This means that the initial airdrop claimants will also receive the additional tokens. In a follow-up blog post, EigenLayer announced that Season 1 claimants will receive a minimum of 110 EIGEN tokens, while Season 2 claimants (those who interacted with the protocol between March 15 and April 29) will receive a minimum of 100 EIGEN tokens.
With the inclusion of the bonus tokens in the airdrop, Season 1 claimants will receive a minimum of 110 EIGEN tokens, and Season 2 claimants will receive a minimum of 100 EIGEN tokens. The restaking protocol confirmed this in a follow-up blog post.
Although the tokens have not yet been released to the market, EIGEN perpetual futures contracts are currently trading for $10 on the derivatives market, according to Aevo data. This suggests that the latest airdrop could be valued at approximately $280 million. However, it is important to note that the price of EIGEN could change significantly before the token’s official distribution event on May 10.
After the restaking protocol announced its “stakedrop” program on April 30, users who felt excluded from the initial airdrop expressed their dissatisfaction. Critics mainly criticized EIGEN’s nontransferable token structure, the smaller-than-expected community allocation of 15%, and the “aggressive” geo-blocking and anti-VPN measures that prevented users from 30 countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Russia, from claiming EIGEN tokens.
EigenLayer acknowledged the concerns raised by users and stated that it would include more of its testnet users who may have been omitted from the airdrop. The protocol assured users that missed testnet user allocations would be updated in Phase 2 of Season 1, with more details to be provided in the coming weeks.
In the initial airdrop announcement, the Eigen Foundation stated that users would be able to claim their tokens from May 10 but would not be able to transfer or sell them until a later date, which was not disclosed. EigenLayer implemented this control to ensure that key features, such as payments and slashing parameters, were well-established before EIGEN tokens could be transferred among users.
The recent blog post by EigenLayer provided further information about EIGEN’s non-transferability but did not specify a date for when the tokens would become transferable. It was revealed that private investors and team members would be subject to a one-year lock-up period after the tokens became transferable to the community. Following this lock-up period, the tokens would gradually unlock at a rate of 4% per month until fully unlocked three years after transferability. This measure ensures that users of the protocol have transfer powers before any core contributors.
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