Weekly Project Updates: ZK & ZRO Airdrops Go Live This Week, Blast Airdrop Starts Next Week, ENA to Join Symbiotic for Re-staking, etc

Jun 22, 2024

1. ZK Airdrop Opened for Claiming on Monday link

ZKSync’s airdrop opened for claiming on Monday, with listings on Binance, OKX, and South Korea’s second-largest crypto exchange Bithumb. Binance further announced its decision to distribute 10,500,000 ZK tokens to up to 52,500 eligible users due to ongoing community concerns about the ZK token airdrop distribution. As of the latest update, ZK is priced at $0.175 with a circulating market cap of $644 million.

According to Nansen data, among the top 10,000 addresses that received the ZK airdrop, 23.4% chose to hold their tokens; 41.8% of addresses opted to completely transfer or sell approximately 360 million ZK tokens; and 34.7% of addresses chose to partially transfer or sell about 170 million ZK tokens.

2. LayerZero Airdrop Goes Live, Arbitrum Emerges as One of the Biggest Beneficiaries link

On June 20th, LayerZero opened its airdrop claim, and its ZRO token was promptly listed on major exchanges such as Binance, OKX, Coinbase, and Upbit. LayerZero allocated the airdrop based on various criteria including the number of used blockchains, L0 protocol usage, Stargate voting rewards, LP, ONFT, and OFT users. A total of 1.28 million addresses qualified for the airdrop, with nearly 10 million ZRO tokens initially held by Sybil attackers now redistributed to legitimate users.

Additionally, LayerZero introduced a new claim mechanism called “Proof-of-Donation,” requiring users to donate $0.10 in USDC, USDT, or native ETH for each ZRO token claimed. These small donations will be directly given to the Protocol Guild, and the LayerZero Foundation will match all donations up to a maximum of $10 million.

While ZRO airdrops can be claimed on multiple L2s, the validation of the airdrop root Merkle proof must be done on Arbitrum. After successful validation, tokens can be transferred cross-chain to the respective claiming chain via the LayerZero protocol. The mandatory donation requirement for claiming the LayerZero airdrop caused congestion and increased network gas fees on Arbitrum. On June 20th, Arbitrum’s rollup revenue reached $3.43 million, with a net profit of $3.29 million, marking a historic single-day high. Consequently, Arbitrum emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the LayerZero airdrop. According to @hildobby_’s data panel, Arbitrum’s median gas fee surged to nearly 35 gwei following the opening of the LayerZero airdrop claims.

3. Blast Airdrop Set to Launch Next Week link

Blast announced on Twitter that its airdrop campaign will commence in one week. Users who possess Gold or points in their EOA (Externally Owned Account) must log in to the Blast dashboard at least once (via invitation receipt or linking to an existing account) to be included in the airdrop calculation. Additionally, DApps are required to distribute all Gold or points to users by 20:00 Beijing time on June 25th.

4. Merlin Chain Announces Ecosystem Funding Program “Merlin’s Adventure,” Offering 210 Million MERL Tokens link

Merlin Chain has announced the launch of its ecosystem funding initiative named Merlin’s Adventure, offering 210 million MERL tokens to support developers driving innovation on Merlin Chain. The open applications are categorized into five groups: User Experience Pioneers, BTC Native Asset Innovators, Merlin Awareness Pioneers, Ecosystem Engagement Leaders, and Bitcoin Innovation Explorers.

5. Fantom Foundation Establishes Sonic Labs Innovators Fund, Allocating Up to 200 Million FTM link

Fantom Foundation has announced the establishment of the Sonic Labs Innovators Fund, aimed at accelerating the migration of innovative DApps to the Sonic network, with a commitment of up to 200 million FTM tokens. This fund supplements their earlier airdrop of over 100 million S tokens. Previously, Fantom Foundation secured a strategic financing round of $10 million led by Hashed to support the Sonic Foundation.

Furthermore, Fantom has released the third Sonic governance proposal, which includes ecosystem grants, a new token burn mechanism, and innovative initiatives such as Sonic Spark and Sonic University. Over the next six years, the Sonic Foundation will allocate a portion of tokens as operational funds for Sonic Labs to manage dApp, BD partnerships, and network growth among the expanding existing and new user communities. Additionally, if the community decides to maintain the inflation rate at 1.5% per year, 47,625,000 tokens will be minted annually (3,175,000,000 x 1.5%). If Sonic Labs uses only 5,000,000 tokens that year, the Sonic Foundation will burn the remaining 42,625,000 tokens.

6. Worldcoin Investigation in Kenya Withdrawn link

The investigation into Worldcoin in Kenya has been terminated, with the police indicating no further action will be taken. The Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) announced in a statement on June 14, 2024, that they have concluded their investigation into Worldcoin. Previously, Worldcoin faced suspension of operations in 2023 over allegations of illegal collection and transmission of personal sensitive data. The DCI advised Worldcoin to register as a business in Kenya, obtain appropriate licenses, and ensure all third-party suppliers undergo strict scrutiny and have legal contracts in place.

7. ENA Updates Tokenomics, Airdrop Participants Required to Lock at Least 50% ENA link

Ethena Labs has released an update on the ENA token economics, introducing ENA and sUSDe re-staking through Symbiotic and LayerZero. Cross-chain transfers of Ethena assets will be verified via the LayerZero DVN network, with the Symbiotic ENA re-staking pool aimed at securing the Ethena Chain. The Symbiotic ENA pool is scheduled to launch on June 26. Additionally, Ethena Chain will focus on building applications and infrastructure using USDe as the gas token and anchor asset, with re-staked ENA providing general security for use cases. Notably, since June 17, users who receive ENA tokens through airdrops will be required to lock 50% of the receivable ENA amount in Ethena locking, Pendle PT-ENA, or Symbiotic Restaking.

In addition, Bitget announced its support for Ethena’s USDe as collateral for perpetual contract trading, integrating it into Bitget’s “Earn” savings products and spot trading pairs. According to Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, USDe generates income through staking rewards and neutral position trading, offering traders protection against value loss compared to other stablecoins. However, USDe carries risks, such as potential profit reductions or losses when funding rates remain negative for prolonged periods.

8. ether.fi Proposes Using Up to 50% of Protocol Revenue to Buy ETHFI link

The ether.fi Foundation has announced the launch of its first community proposal, suggesting the use of up to 50% of protocol revenue to purchase ETHFI tokens. Initially, 5% of monthly revenues will be allocated for this purpose, with further increments subject to community voting. Revenues will be sourced from staking and liquidity insurance vaults. Any future income from new products will also be earmarked for this initiative based on subsequent community votes. The purchased ETHFI tokens will be used to establish a treasury and provide liquidity to a pool on Curve, thereby enhancing ETHFI’s Total Value Locked (TVL).

9. Solana Memecoin Slerf Drives Community Governance, Plans to Establish Community Council and DAO link

Solana Memecoin Slerf has announced through its official channels that it will collaborate with NFT holders to establish a community committee and DAO for SLERF and Slerf Capital, aiming to grant the community greater control and decision-making power. The committee will include key opinion leaders (KOLs) from both the English and Chinese SLERF communities. Billywen, founder of Negentropy Capital and self-proclaimed largest donor to Slerf, stated he has engaged deeply with Slerf project developers and supports their proposal to establish a community governance DAO. Moving forward, important decisions for Slerf will be determined through community voting, including the formation of a management committee composed of influential KOLs to oversee project operations. The community aims to empower NFTs continuously and expedite the sale of remaining NFT assets to repay the final 12,000 SOL debt. In March this year, Slerf raised over 50,000 SOL (over $10 million), but inadvertently destroyed all LP and airdrop tokens due to operational errors.

10. Notcoin Founder: Click-to-earn Model Unsustainable, Plans to Build Sustainable and Efficient Subsystems Over the Next Four Years link

Sasha, the founder of the Ton ecosystem’s click-to-earn game Notcoin, believes that the click-to-earn model is unsustainable. He asserts that only games with sustainable models can thrive, citing examples like Catizen. Sasha aims for Notcoin to transcend the narrative of click-to-earn games by building sustainable and efficient subsystems over the next four years, making the project independent of the team. Currently, the focus is on allowing users to earn Notcoin through interactions with other Telegram games, while simultaneously burning some tokens in the process. He anticipates these activities will increase to between 50 and 100 per week. Sasha also mentions that Notcoin rewards those who invite other paying Telegram Premium users, claiming that 30% of all Telegram Premium users have played Notcoin. The game sees the highest demand in countries such as Russia, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, the United States, Germany, and Iran. Future subsystems will include competitions, ways to incentivize contributors, gaming platforms, and potentially even a decentralized university based on AI content accessible to everyone.

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