Arbitrum: New $145 million airdrop

Arbitrum, the Layer 2 leader on Ethereum, has proceeded to distribute governance tokens to eligible DAOs within its ecosystem. This initiative aims to encourage user adoption and engagement on the protocol.

Millions of TRPs distributed to DAOs

After the success of its airdrop last March, Arbitrum allocated 113 million TRPs (or 1.13% of the total supply) to project DAOs in its ecosystem. At the current price, this is equivalent to over $145 million. 

Several qualified projects have already confirmed receipt of their allocations. As for the protocol’s Onchain data, it shows more than 125 transactions from the Arbitrum Foundation to DAOs. More transactions are planned for later.

With this allocation, the Arbitrum Foundation hopes to make the protocol more attractive. Indeed, the tokens distributed to the DAOs could help finance the development of useful applications on Arbitrum. 

Among the beneficiary projects are GMX, TreasureDAO, SushiSwap, Uniswap, Aave, Hop Protocol, Radiant Capital, Balancer, Gains Network, Synapse, MakerDAO, Vesta, Curve, Layer Zero, 1inch, Swapr and many others.

With this funding, Arbitrum is following a similar approach to Optimism, which distributed its governance tokens earlier in 2022. However, despite the project’s runaway success, it has not been immune to a governance crisis. 

The controversies surrounding the Arbitrum Foundation

The Arbitrum Foundation has recently been the subject of much controversy. Indeed, the AIP-1 proposal was rejected because it involved the transfer of 750 million tokens to the foundation. This was because the foundation had already spent 50 million tokens without proper authorization.

However, the AIP-1.1 proposal allowed the Foundation to replenish its coffers with ARB 750 million. The tokens will be used for special grants within the Foundation’s administrative budget. 

Token allocations to DAOs support activity on the Arbitrum network. They also create an environment for quality projects. As token distribution continues, it is likely that more and more projects will join the Arbitrum ecosystem, providing users with a wider choice of decentralized applications and financial services.

Moreover, this move reflects a growing trend in the blockchain industry. Many projects are looking to strengthen their ecosystems by supporting key players and rewarding active users. This collaborative and incentivized approach is driving adoption and growth of these networks. They also reinforce the decentralization of the industry.