Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling solution, zkSync, has introduced its own token, zkSync (ZK), and is preparing to distribute nearly 3.68 billion tokens through an upcoming airdrop.
Announced on June 11, zkSync plans to airdrop 17.5% of the total supply of 21 billion ZK tokens to 695,232 eligible wallets starting next week. The remaining tokens will be allocated for various initiatives, the project team, investors, and a token reserve.
Trading at $0.71 on pre-market exchanges such as Aevo and PancakeSwap, zkSync’s market capitalization is estimated to be approximately $14.91 billion.
The distribution of ZK tokens will see 89% of the airdrop tokens going to network users, with the rest being distributed among native projects and communities. Eligible wallets must have interacted with zkSync Era or zkSync Lite networks before the March 24 snapshot date.
To be eligible for the airdrop, wallets must meet one of seven criteria set by zkSync, including interacting with smart contracts, trading ERC-20 tokens, or providing liquidity to DeFi protocols.
Each wallet will receive a maximum of 100,000 tokens in the airdrop. Additionally, a small portion of the total supply will be distributed to players of Crypto: The Game, holders of specific NFT collections, and recipients of DEGEN and BONSAI tokens.
The remaining one-third of the ZK token supply will be split evenly between investors and the zkSync development team, Matter Labs, which faced criticism in May for attempting to trademark “ZK.”
The tokens will unlock gradually over a period of three years, from June 2025 to 2028. zkSync emphasized that awarding more tokens through the airdrop than to investors and Matter Labs is a significant decision for the community.
The airdrop is set to begin next week and will continue until January 3, 2025. Holders will have the opportunity to participate in the governance of zkSync protocols immediately.