Ethereum’s ZK layer-2 scaler, zkSync, has recently introduced its own token, zkSync (ZK), with plans to airdrop approximately 3.68 billion tokens in the upcoming week. The project announced on June 11 that they will distribute 17.5% of the total token supply of 21 billion to 695,232 eligible wallets, reserving the rest for various purposes such as initiatives, team members, investors, and token assembly.
The token, ZK, saw trading up to $0.71 on pre-market exchanges like Aevo and PancakeSwap, estimating its market capitalization at around $14.91 billion. The distribution of the ZK tokens will consist of approximately 3.27 billion tokens, with 89% of the airdrop designated for network users and the remaining portion allocated to native projects and communities.
To qualify for the airdrop, wallets must have interacted with zkSync Era or zkSync Lite networks before the March 24th midnight UTC snapshot date and meet the project’s seven eligibility criteria, including involvement with smart contracts, ERC-20 tokens, and DeFi protocols.
Each wallet participating in the airdrop will receive a maximum of 100,000 tokens. Additionally, a small percentage of the total supply will be distributed to players of Crypto: The Game, holders of specific NFT collections, and recipients of DEGEN and BONSAI tokens.
The remaining one-third of the total ZK token supply will be divided between investors and the zkSync development team Matter Labs. The tokens are scheduled to unlock gradually over three years, starting from June 2025 to 2028.
zkSync emphasized that awarding more tokens in the airdrop than to investors and the development team signifies a significant decision for the community. The airdrop will commence next week and continue until January 3, 2025, allowing holders to engage in the governance of the protocols immediately.
Overall, zkSync’s introduction of the ZK token aims to enhance the scalability and efficiency of Ethereum’s ZK-rollups, potentially leading to increased interoperability among various blockchain networks.