Just days after announcing its initial airdrop, Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is now airdropping an additional 28 million of its native EIGEN coins to over 280,000 wallets.
EigenLayer declared on Monday that it will give away 15% of its whole supply to the community; nevertheless, a number of users felt that the company’s airdrop program had too many restrictions.
The Eigen Foundation said in a post published on May 2 on X that it will now start airdropping more EIGEN tokens to the wallets of users who engaged with the protocol prior to April 29. This implies that the initial claimants of the airdrop will also receive additional tokens.
According to Aevo data, EIGEN perpetual futures contracts are presently trading for $10 on the derivatives market, despite the token not having been released to the market. This suggests that the value of the most recent airdrop may be over $280 million.
The EIGEN price is subject to large fluctuations prior to the actual token distribution event on May 10.
Once the restaking protocol launched its “stakedrop” scheme on April 30, users who felt left out of the first airdrop flocked to social media to vent their frustrations.
The majority of the criticisms were directed towards EIGEN’s nontransferable token structure, a 15% community allocation that was less than anticipated, “aggressive” geo-blocking, and anti-VPN measures that prevented users from 30 countries—including the US, Canada, China, and Russia—from claiming EIGEN tokens.
EigenLayer disclosed that it intends to incorporate additional testnet users who might have been left out of the airdrop.
As part of Season 1’s Phase 2, testnet user allocations that were overlooked will be adjusted. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll share more information,” EigenLayer wrote.
The Eigen Foundation stated in its initial airdrop announcement that although consumers may claim their tokens starting on May 10, they couldn’t sell or transfer them until a later date.
According to EigenLayer, this restriction was implemented to guarantee that important functionalities, such as payments and cutting parameters, were “well established” prior to the user base’s ability to transfer EIGEN.
EigenLayer expanded on the non-transferability of EIGEN in their most recent blog post, however they did not specify a timeline for when user tokens would become transferable.
It added that after the token became transferable to the community, private investors and team members would be subject to a complete one-year lock-up.
“After that, three years after transferability, they will fully unlock at a rate of 4% per month. This guarantees that transfer powers are granted to protocol users long before they are granted to core contributors.”
May 2024, Cryptoniteuae
