In recent news, Arbitrum, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, announced an airdrop of its ARB governance token, which has generated significant hype within the blockchain community. The airdrop is expected to reward eligible receivers with the token by March 23. The hype around the airdrop has helped another layer-2 scaling solution, zkSync, experience significant growth in the last week.
ZkSync, another layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, supports nonfungible tokens (NFT), and atomic swaps and transfers of Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens within the Ethereum network. Despite not having a native token or announcing any airdrop, zkSync has seen a surge in the number of addresses bridging to its platform. According to data from crypto on-chain analytic firm Nansen, over 39,000 addresses have bridged over $871 million to zkSync in the last seven days, with the number of addresses bridging to zkSync surging by 5x in the last week.
Many proponents of zkSync believe that they will be rewarded with an airdrop in the near future, similar to Arbitrum’s recent airdrop. After the Arbitrum airdrop, zkSync and StarkNet are regarded as the upcoming airdrops with the most potential value. On March 17, nearly 5,000 people deposited more than 536 ETH using the zkSync bridge, and almost 3,000 users deposited over 234 ETH using the StarkNet bridge.
Although zkSync is not conducting an airdrop, the enthusiasm around the Arbitrum airdrop has led many proponents to believe that they could be rewarded in the future. However, scammers have attempted to use Arbitrum branding to conduct fake and scam airdrops, which highlights the importance of verifying the authenticity of such promotional tools.
A crypto airdrop is a promotional tool used by crypto projects to generate hype around their projects. The crypto projects behind these airdrops often directly deposit digital tokens into the wallets of active blockchain community members as a gift. The eligibility criteria for these airdrops may include specific requirements, such as spreading awareness around the project, among others.
Not all crypto airdrops are equally valuable due to multiple factors, such as the project’s use cases and the people behind the projects, among others. However, layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync have established themselves in the blockchain community and have proven records, which has attracted more traders to the Arbitrum airdrop. As a result, it could prove to be more valuable than the usual crypto airdrops.
Source: https://blockchain.news/news/arbitrum-airdrop-boosts-zksync-growth