It's for a good cause...right? 💸
Did you think you could just claim your airdrop for free? Think again!
Off the back of the highly anticipated LayerZero airdrop, the team has introduced a new and controversial claiming mechanism called ‘Proof-of-Donation’ for users who want to claim their ZRO tokens.
Simply put, claimers would have to donate the equivalent of $0.10 in USDT, USDC, or ETH to the Protocol Guild for the ZRO token they received.
The LayerZero Foundation would then match all donations up to $10M to support the Protocol Guild’s goals of community building and protecting protocols.
However, a mandatory donation for a supposedly free airdrop has drawn the ire of many from the crypto community, with popular Yearn contributor Banteg calling it a ‘glorified ICO,’
Nevertheless, LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino defended their airdrop method, stating that users can simply choose not to donate and not claim their airdrop since it is a token that is offered and not owned by recipients.
Another unintended consequence of LayerZero’s airdrop method was its effect on the Polymarket predictions platform, where $680,000 hung in the balance.
On the wager that LayerZero would airdrop its tokens by June 30th, users butted heads as to whether the incorporation of donations counted as an airdrop, especially considering LayerZero technically never mentioned it as an airdrop in any of their communications.
In any case, the final outcome of the prediction market has resolved to ‘Yes’ after a rules update was added to the Polymarket’s bulletin board.
The donation drama ultimately resulted in the price of ZRO plunging by 25.9% from its initial launch price of $4.41 to $3.23 today.
