LayerZero Usage Triples After Arbitrum Airdrop

Cumulative transactions on LayerZero, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, have tripled since Arbitrum airdropped $1.7B of ARB tokens to its users last month.

LayerZero launched in March 2022 and reached nearly 2M cumulative transactions roughly a year later. In just the past month, however, users have pushed through almost 5M transactions.

LayerZero Transaction Count

Considering that the surge in LayerZero activity came almost immediately after the Arbitrum airdrop, users appear to be hoping for another ARB-like windfall.

At $1.7B on launch day, the Arbitrum airdrop was the largest ever, according to IntoTheBlock, a data provider.

It’s clear that airdrops are major drivers of activity in the crypto space, especially during the ongoing bear market. zkSync, another scaling solution for Ethereum, outpaced a competitor by 60-to-1 in terms of attracting deposits, as users chase a potential airdrop. Blur, the NFT marketplace, has distorted the NFT market through an airdrop program which rewards users for bidding on tokens they likely otherwise wouldn’t have.

It seems clear that the distribution of free ARB tokens just over a month ago has accelerated the trend of users interacting with projects hoping to receive a payout.

An ecosystem has sprung up around how to receive unreleased tokens from live projects — Social media is awash with hundreds of posts about how to qualify for a LayerZero airdrop. Many reference ARB and BLUR as examples of potentially similar payouts.

Investors are betting that the growth will be sustainable — LayerZero Labs announced a $120M raise at a $2.9B valuation on April 3.