EigenLayer, the Ethereum re-staking protocol, announced today its token economy and airdrop plan. The first season of the airdrop, which took a snapshot on March 15th, will be distributed in two phases, totaling 5% of the total supply, to direct stakers (Phase 1) and LRTFi users (Phase 2).
The official announcement states that users can now check the distribution amount of $EIGEN on the website by simply entering their address, without the need to connect a wallet. Users can claim their tokens from May 10th to September 7th, but it should be noted that initially they can only be used for staking and cannot be traded or transferred.
According to the official blog post, the initial total supply of $EIGEN is 1,673,646,668 tokens, with no upper limit and an undetermined inflation plan. 45% of the initial supply (including future inflation) has been allocated to the community, distributed evenly among the staking airdrop (15%), community projects (15%), and ecosystem development (15%).
In the staking airdrop, a total of three seasons will be distributed. The first season, which took a snapshot on March 15th, will be distributed in two phases, with a total airdrop of 5% (approximately 83.68 million tokens). Phase 1 will be distributed to direct stakers of LRT, including users who stake through the EigenLayer website or through protocols like Renzo. This accounts for nearly 90% of the total airdrop for the first season (approximately 75.91 million tokens). Phase 2 will be distributed to LRTFi users who have accumulated EigenLayer points through protocols like Pendle and Gearbox, which they refer to as unresolved (DeFi) contracts. This accounts for nearly 10% of the total airdrop for the first season (approximately 7.77 million tokens), and the exact allocation amount for the $EIGEN airdrop is yet to be confirmed. The official announcement advises to closely monitor the LRTFi protocol’s announcement regarding the distribution for this phase after May 6th.
Other points to note include the start of the second season after the snapshot on March 15th of the first season. Although the claiming periods for Phase 1 and Phase 2 are different, users will simultaneously receive tradable $EIGEN tokens.
Furthermore, 29.5% of the initial token supply has been allocated to investors, while the remaining 25.5% has been allocated to early contributors. The lock-up period for both investors and early contributors is three years, with the first year being fully locked, followed by linear unlocking at a rate of 4% per month for the next two years.
The release of the airdrop distribution news for the first season led to a misconception among the community that EigenLayer only distributed 10% of the first season’s airdrop tokens to LRTFi users, penalizing related protocols like Pendle. As a result, $PENDLE experienced a significant drop of over 14% in the past 24 hours, temporarily dipping to $4.27.
In response to this, the Eigen Foundation clarified that unresolved (DeFi) contracts, including Pendle, have not been penalized compared to other participants. The official statement emphasized that most of these unresolved (DeFi) contracts will be deployed in January 2024 or later. However, EigenLayer launched re-staking on the mainnet in June 2023, based on the snapshot of the first season on March 15th and the staking duration as a factor for airdrop distribution. The allocation percentage for these contracts in the first season is 9.28%. Therefore, this is simply a normal distribution ratio and not a penalty or pre-established by EigenLayer.
Shortly after EigenLayer’s announcement of the $EIGEN token, the over-the-counter trading market Aevo opened trading for $EIGEN at around $12, with a peak of $12.8. This implies a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of up to $21.376 billion, making it the 12th largest cryptocurrency in terms of FDV.
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