Arbitrum’s daily revenue skyrockets by over 16,500% to $3.4M due to increased activity from LayerZero’s ZRO token airdrop claims. Learn more about the surge in transaction fees and market reactions.
Bollywood Fever: Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum saw a dramatic increase in daily revenue, reaching a record $3.4 million (in ETH) on Thursday. This surge was driven by heightened activity related to the opening of LayerZero’s ZRO token claims, for which Arbitrum served as the coordination chain.
On June 19, Arbitrum’s revenue was just $20,000, highlighting a more than 16,500% spike in daily revenue by Thursday, according to data aggregated by a Dune dashboard managed by datawarlock.
“One of the biggest winners from the LayerZero airdrop — Arbitrum,” said Austin Marrazza, product manager at Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs. “DAO raked in $3 million in congestion fees from claiming traffic today.”
The LayerZero Foundation, supporting the cross-chain interoperability platform LayerZero, opened airdrop claims for its native ZRO token at 7 a.m. on Thursday, with the claims remaining open until September 20.
Out of the 1 billion total supply of ZRO tokens, 85 million tokens, or 8.5%, are claimable by eligible participants. The remaining tokens are reserved for future distribution programs, ecosystem growth, strategic partners, and core contributors. LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino identified a total of 1.28 million wallets eligible for the airdrop.
However, to claim ZRO, users must make a $0.10 donation per token in USDC, USDT, or ETH to support Protocol Guild, a non-profit funding collective for Ethereum core researchers and developers. This new “Proof-of-Donation” mechanism is expected to generate up to $18.5 million for Protocol Guild, with the LayerZero Foundation matching donations up to $10 million, with funds vested over four years.
The mandatory donation mechanism faced criticism from some in the crypto community, viewing it as a disguised form of funding or a tax rather than a true airdrop. Pellegrino responded, “There is no forced donation, if you don’t want to donate… simply don’t claim. This is not something you own, it’s something being offered.”
Arbitrum significantly benefited as it was the coordination chain for the LayerZero token claims contract, processing claims without additional LayerZero messaging. Claims can also be made from Ethereum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Avalanche, but these require a LayerZero cross-chain message.
This activity caused median gas prices on Arbitrum to spike from 0.01 gwei to 34.7 gwei, before returning to typical levels as activity subsided. The surge in gas prices resulted in average daily transaction fees on Arbitrum soaring to $0.89 on Thursday, compared to a usual sub-cent fee.
LayerZero’s ZRO token is currently trading for $3.15, with a market cap of $796 million and a fully diluted valuation of $3.2 billion, according to CoinGecko. The token has seen nearly $1 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours.
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