Matter Labs, the principal developer of the layer-2 network ZKsync Era, has announced the criteria for its eagerly anticipated ZK token airdrop. As outlined in their recent Tuesday release, 17.5% of the total 21 billion ZK tokens will be distributed to users starting “next week.”
ZKsync Era, similar to further layer-2 solutions, promotes itself as a fast and cost-effective method for Ethereum transactions. Matter Labs describes this airdrop as the “largest token distribution to users among major L2s,” with nearly 3.7 billion tokens set to be allocated to users.
Matter Labs said that the airdrop will limit the number of tokens any individual address can receive to 100,000. The reason:
“By capping whales, the ZK airdrop fairly rewards community members that contribute to ZKsync in different ways.”
Matter Labs
Additionally, Matter Labs revealed that its employees will receive 16.1% of the ZK tokens, while investors will be allocated 17.2%. These tokens will be locked for one year, followed by a gradual unlocking over the next three years.
ZK’s Potential Market Value
Based on pre-market prices from Aevo, a crypto perpetuals exchange, which currently lists ZK at $0.66, the airdrop’s fully diluted value (FDV) would exceed $2.5 billion. This figure is nearly three times the current total value locked (TVL) of ZKsync Era, which stands at $815 million.
According to the distribution plan, 89% of the airdrop will be allocated to ZKsync users who have engaged in transactions on the platform and met a certain activity threshold, though specific criteria were not disclosed. The remaining 11% will be distributed among ecosystem contributors, including 5.8% for zkSync native projects, 2.8% for on-chain communities, and 2.4% for builders.
Matter Labs’ Beef With The Market
The announcement of the airdrop comes amid criticism from Matter Labs’ layer-2 counterparts regarding its attempt to trademark “ZK,” an abbreviation for “zero-knowledge” cryptography—the foundational technology behind ZKsync and many other blockchain projects. Following pushback from the crypto community, Matter Labs rescinded its trademark application, which they initially claimed was intended to safeguard users from projects and token tickers with similar names.
