Interoperability platform Wormhole launched a highly anticipated token airdrop to eligible users, allowing them to claim 678,823,000 Wormhole tokens, which account for 6.78% of the total supply of 10 billion tokens. Approximately 400,000 wallets are eligible to participate in the airdrop, which is distributed based on a snapshot taken on February 6 across Wormhole’s Portal bridge and ecosystem apps on 30 different connected blockchains. Additionally, 117 million tokens have been reserved for specific groups, including Wormhole Discord members, Monad community members, Pyth stakers, and holders of NFT collections like Bad Kids, DeGods, Mad Lads, and y00ts, who must also be registered on the Discord platform.
The Wormhole token functions as both a native ERC20 token and a native Solana SPL token with an initial circulating supply of 1.8 billion tokens. Post-airdrop claims, the token is expected to be listed on centralized and decentralized exchanges, with Binance scheduled to list the token for trading at 8 p.m. ET with trading pairs against bitcoin and stablecoins. Solana-based decentralized exchanges will also offer the token for swaps once the airdrop claims begin. Before its official listing, the Wormhole token already trades on pre-launch markets like HyperLiquid and Aevo, reaching a price of over $1.5, giving it a fully diluted market capitalization of $15 billion.
Wormhole experienced a significant setback in the past when it lost nearly $325 million to hackers, making it the second-largest hack of the year after Axie Infinity’s Ronin blockchain exploit. However, Jump Crypto, the crypto arm of Jump Trading, managed to counter-exploit the Wormhole protocol hacker and retrieved $140 million worth of tokens in June. Wormhole is a communication protocol that facilitates the seamless transfer of tokens and data across different blockchains. It recently integrated zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) for enhanced security during transfers and aims to create secure “corridors” between blockchains for efficient messaging while addressing scaling concerns related to proof generation and verification through the use of AMD chips.
In addition to its interoperability efforts, Wormhole is developing Gateway, an application-specific blockchain within the Cosmos ecosystem. The project successfully concluded a funding round last year, raising $225 million and achieving a $2.5 billion valuation. Wormhole’s token airdrop signifies a significant step in its journey towards enhancing interoperability in the blockchain space, providing users with the opportunity to claim a portion of the allocated tokens. The successful distribution of tokens and subsequent listings on various exchanges mark a crucial milestone for the project as it continues to innovate and drive advancements in cross-chain communication and security within the blockchain ecosystem.
