Arbitrum network activity booms ahead of airdrop

Network activity on Arbitrum has been booming, with the popular Ethereum layer-2 solution seeing an unprecedented uptick in the number of transactions and addresses.

According to data from Arbiscan, the network processed over 1.3 million transactions on March 21 — up from 1 million transactions recorded on March 20. The sharp increase in the number of daily transactions began in late January and pumped further after Arbitrum announced a massive airdrop to its users.

The airdrop will see 1.27 billion ARB tokens distributed to users based on a Feb. 26 snapshot. The 1.27 billion ARB tokens represent 12.75% of the token’s circulating supply. Out of the 10 billion tokens, around 56% will be allocated to the community.

Set to take place on March 23, the airdrop will also see 112.8 million ARB tokens distributed to various DAOs in its ecosystem. The network said that this was a way to “empower the subcommunities” and entice them to participate in governance decisions once it fully transitions to a DAO.

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) GMX and TREASURE would get 8 million tokens each, while Uniswap (UNI) and SushiSwap (SUSHI), would get 4.3 million and 4.2 million ARB tokens, respectively. MakerDAO, KyberSwap, DODO, Camelot, and 24 other projects would receive over 1 million ARB tokens.

The number of unique addresses on Arbitrum has also been growing rapidly. Since the beginning of the year, the network saw almost 1.5 million new addresses created.

Interest in Arbitrum has also gone up thanks to Coinbase following the announced that it would support its upcoming ARB token and list it for trading. Trading is expected to begin sometime after the airdrop once sufficient supply and liquidity conditions are met. The exchange said that the USD-ARB trading pairs will launch in phases and be considered “experimental.”

The Arbitrum frenzy also saw many users start selling wallets eligible for the airdrop. The current speculative value of ARB hovers around $1, but various IOU markets show that the token is expected to trade around $6 following the airdrop.