Arbitrum, a Layer 2 network built on Ethereum, witnessed a remarkable surge in its daily revenue, reaching an unprecedented $3.4 million on Thursday. This substantial increase can be attributed to the heightened activity surrounding the launch of LayerZero's ZRO token claims, for which Arbitrum served as the coordination chain. The previous day, Arbitrum's revenue stood at a mere $20,000, making this growth a staggering 16,500% jump.

The launch of LayerZero's ZRO token claims on June 20 instigated a significant surge in fees on Arbitrum. This increase led to a record-breaking daily revenue of $3.43 million for the blockchain, a remarkable 16,680% rise compared to the previous day. LayerZero introduced an obligatory "donation" mechanism, requiring claimants to spend a small amount of money per token to secure their allocation. This mechanism pushed up the average gas fees on the blockchain, which soared to 89 cents, up from its typical less-than-1-cent fee.

The LayerZero Foundation, the organization supporting the cross-chain interoperability platform LayerZero, opened airdrop claims for its native ZRO token at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday. The claims will remain open until September 20. A total of 85 million ZRO tokens, representing 8.5% of the 1 billion total supply, 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, the foundation subsequently announced that to claim ZRO, users must make a $0.10 donation per ZRO token in USDC, USDT or ETH to support Protocol Guild. This non-profit funding collective supports Ethereum core researchers and developers. The new "Proof-of-Donation" claims mechanism is designed to generate up to $18.5 million for Protocol Guild, with LayerZero Foundation matching donations up to $10 million. The donated funds will be vested over four years.

The new claim mechanism faced criticism from some in the crypto community, who view the mandatory donations as a disguised form of funding or a tax rather than a true airdrop. Typically, airdrops are intended as a reward for user contributions and to decentralize the protocol. In response to the criticism, Pellegrino stated, "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 benefitted from being the coordination chain for the LayerZero token claims contract, processing claims atomically without needing additional LayerZero messaging. Eligible users can also claim ZRO from Ethereum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, BNB Chain and Avalanche, but this requires a LayerZero cross-chain message to facilitate the claim on these networks. As a result, median gas prices on Arbitrum spiked from 0.01 gwei to 34.7 gwei before falling back to similar levels as the activity subsided. The jump in gas price equated to average daily transaction fees on Arbitrum soaring to $0.89 on Thursday, compared to a sub-cent typical fee. They have since returned to that baseline.