EigenLayer to cough up around 28M more EIGEN after airdrop backlash

EigenLayer is handing out an extra 100 to 110 EIGEN to 280,000 qualifying wallet addresses after criticism over its first airdrop.

Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is airdropping around 28 million more of its native EIGEN tokens to over 280,000 wallets — just days after its first airdrop announcement. 

On Monday, EigenLayer announced it would allocate 15% of its total supply to the community, but some users deemed several provisions of its airdrop program as restrictive.

In a May 2 post to X, the Eigen Foundation said that it will now be airdropping additional EIGEN tokens to the wallets of users who interacted with the protocol before April 29 — meaning it will also include the initial airdrop claimants.

In a follow-up blog post, the restaking protocol shared that Season 1 claimants are set to receive a minimum of 110 EIGEN, while Season 2 claimants — those who interacted with the protocol between March 15 and April 29 — will receive a minimum of 100 EIGEN.

Despite the token not yet being released to the market, EIGEN perpetual futures contracts are currently trading for $10 on the derivatives market, per Aevo data, meaning the latest airdrop could be estimated to be worth around $280 million.

This price of EIGEN could change significantly before the token’s official distribution event on May 10.

Users who felt left out of the first airdrop lashed out at the restaking protocol after it announced its “stakedrop” program on April 30.

Critics focused the bulk of their criticisms on EIGEN’s nontransferable token structure, a smaller-than-expected 15% community allocation as well as “aggressive” geo-blocking and anti-VPN measures that saw users from 30 countries including the United States, Canada, China, and Russia blocked from claiming EIGEN tokens.

EigenLayer shared that it would look to include more of its testnet users that may have been omitted from the airdrop.

“Missed testnet user allocations will be updated as part of Phase 2 of Season 1. We will provide more details in the coming weeks,” wrote EigenLayer.

Related: EigenLayer sees over 12,000 queued withdrawals — How far will TVL fall?

In its first airdrop announcement, the Eigen Foundation said that while users could claim their tokens from May 10, they would be prevented from transferring or selling them until an undisclosed date.

EigenLayer said this control was put in place to ensure that key features including payments and slashing parameters were “well established” before EIGEN became transferable among users.

In the most recent blog post, EigenLayer provided further details concerning EIGEN’s non-transferability but still did not provide a date for when the tokens would be transferable for users.

It said private investors and team members would be subject to a full one-year lock-up after the token became transferable to the community.

“After that, they will unlock at 4% per month and finish fully unlocking three years after transferability. This ensures that the users of the protocol get transfer powers well before any core contributors can.”