Matter Labs, the main development firm behind the Layer 2 network ZKsync Era, has officially disclosed the distribution criteria for its long-awaited ZK token airdrop. According to the plan released Tuesday, 17.5% of ZK’s 21 billion total token supply will be airdropped to users beginning “next week.”
Airdrop Details
The ZKsync Era, like other Layer 2 networks, aims to provide a quick and cost-effective way to execute transactions on Ethereum. The ZK airdrop will be the “largest distribution of tokens to users amongst major L2s,” according to Matter Labs, with just under 3.7 billion tokens allocated to users.
Pre-market prices from Aevo, a crypto perpetuals exchange, currently value ZK at $0.66, placing the airdrop’s fully diluted value (FDV) above $2.5 billion. This is nearly triple ZKsync Era’s current total value locked (TVL) of $815 million.
Distribution Plan
Under the distribution plan, 89% of the airdrop will go to ZKsync users, including anyone who has transacted on ZKsync and met a certain activity threshold (specifics not provided). The remaining 11% will go towards contributors to the ecosystem, including:
- zkSync native projects (5.8%)
- On-chain communities (2.8%)
- Builders (2.4%)
To cap individual gains and ensure fair distribution, any given address can receive a maximum of 100,000 tokens. This measure aims to limit “whales,” or especially big-pocketed traders, and fairly reward community members.
Matter Labs’ Token Allocation
Matter Labs employees will receive 16.1% of ZK tokens, and Matter Labs investors will get 17.2%. These tokens will be locked for a year and then unlocked over the course of three more years. The rest of the token supply will go to ZKsync’s new “Token Assembly” (29.3%) as part of its new governance plans and various Ecosystem Initiatives (19.9%).
Airdrop Politics
This airdrop follows a series of other airdrops, such as those from StarkNet and EigenLayer, which sparked controversy among users. Some users were unhappy with the token allotments, particularly in EigenLayer’s case, where airdrop claimants from the U.S. and several other countries were strictly barred.
“We have put a lot of thought into the design of the airdrop,” said Alex Gluchowski, CEO of Matter Labs. “No matter what you do, some people are going to be disappointed, but we have looked into others,” he said. The distribution plan prioritizes community involvement as a key pillar.
Exclusion of Certain Jurisdictions
Gluchowski mentioned that “certain jurisdictions are excluded because they are either banned by sanctioned regimes or are just not welcome, unfortunately for crypto projects doing airdrops.” He did not specify which countries would be excluded or the methods ZKsync would use to enforce these restrictions.
ZK Trademark Controversy
The airdrop news comes after Matter Labs received backlash for attempting to trademark the term “ZK.” Competitors and community members saw the trademark filing as an attempt to monopolize a public good. In response to the criticism, Matter Labs withdrew the trademark application. Gluchowski noted, “We did not want to leave even the slightest impression that we are trying to manipulate the system to our advantage.”
