Ethereum Layer 2 network ZKsync announced on Tuesday (11th) the details of the distribution and airdrop of its protocol token ZK, with 17.5% of the total token supply set to be airdropped next week to early users and adopters of ZKsync.
According to the announcement from the ZK Nation governance system of ZKsync, the total token supply of ZK is 21 billion, with 3.675 billion tokens to be distributed through a “one-time airdrop” to 695,232 eligible wallets. ZKsync stated that the eligibility and distribution of the airdrop are based on snapshots taken of the ZKsync Era and ZKsync Lite activities on March 24, 2024, at 8:00 Taiwan time, in commemoration of the first anniversary of the ZKsync Era mainnet launch.
Details of the initial 17.5% community airdrop can be found on the ZK Nation source. ZKsync community members can check their eligibility on the official claim page and start claiming tokens from next week (deadline January 3, 2025). Eligible GitHub developers and ZKsync GitHub Discussion Helpers must link their wallet addresses to their accounts before midnight Central European Summer Time on June 25 to claim tokens. External projects, Protocol Guild, and ZKsync native project contributors will be able to start claiming from June 24.
Token distribution
As per the announcement, 66.7% of the total token supply of ZK is allocated to the community, with the remaining 49.17% of token supply, in addition to the 17.5% used for the airdrop, to be distributed through ecosystem projects.
Furthermore, 33.3% of the total token supply of ZK will be allocated to investors (17.2%) and the Matter Labs team (16.1%), with these tokens being locked for the first year and then unlocked over three years (from June 2025 to June 2028).
The tokens from the airdrop do not have any vesting period or lock-up, and have “full liquidity from day one.” When asked if this would lead to selling pressure, Matter Labs founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski stated in an interview with The Block, “People are free to do whatever they want with their tokens.”
Gluchowski described this as a community governance airdrop, stating, “So we hope that most recipients will participate in governance, delegate their tokens, and become active members of the community,” or let the tokens fall into the hands of those who truly care about the protocol.
Gluchowski emphasized that two-thirds of the distribution will flow to the community, not to the team and investors, using this to argue that for ZKsync, “the community is everything.”