Interesting data can be generated when attracting users to use the platform after an airdrop or token launch.
Last week’s airdrop took place on Blast, a new bullish rollup that launched its mainnet in February after a somewhat controversial early access period that began in November 2023.
Since its mainnet debut, Blast’s metrics have generally trended upward. Blast is also already the 7th largest network by total value locked, with nearly $1.5 billion in assets. Blast launched with a lot of hype, with big-name backers and developers, and perhaps most importantly, native yield offerings for stablecoins and ETH. The yields are what make Blast unique and probably partly contributed to its rapid success.
But one thing that might have helped was the idea that Blast could eventually airdrop. Given that the protocol already distributed “Blast points,” a typical precursor to tokens in its early access phase, this wasn’t a far-fetched idea. Most rollups also eventually airdrop as a means to decentralization.
As of mid-June, Blast is ahead of OP Mainnet in terms of the 7-day moving average of transactions and active addresses, but lags far behind Arbitrum One and Base. Nevertheless, both metrics have been steadily increasing since the Mainnet launch.
Now that Blast has minted 17 billion tokens, can the momentum continue? It actually could. Firstly, this was only the first phase of the airdrop. Blast has allocated 50% of the total supply of 100 billion to the community and has stated that more airdrops will be made in the next three years. Yields are very attractive to many in the crypto space, so it is possible that Blast will gain an advantage over its competitors by appealing to users in this aspect.
There has been no significant spike in active addresses or transactions since the airdrop claiming began on June 26, which can sometimes happen when claimers rush to claim. However, the BLAST token has seen a typical airdrop sell-off. The market cap reached $493 million on launch day, but has fallen to $367 million at the time of writing.
So while there was no spike in activity following the airdrop, there was no dip either, unlike many platforms that face a slowdown after the airdrop is announced or the snapshots are released.
This is an excerpt from The Block’s Data & Insights newsletter, where we dig into the numbers that make up the industry’s most thought-provoking trends.
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