The Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is significantly increasing the size of its EIGEN token airdrop distribution after facing criticism over its initial airdrop announcement. The protocol will now airdrop around 28 million additional EIGEN tokens to over 280,000 qualifying wallet addresses.

The expanded airdrop comes just days after EigenLayer revealed it would allocate 15% of EIGEN's total supply, worth over $150 million at current prices, to the community via an airdrop. However, some users viewed the original terms as too restrictive.

Addressing Critiques with More Tokens In response to the backlash, EigenLayer stated on May 2nd that it will retroactively airdrop EIGEN to users who interacted with the protocol before April 29th. This includes both the original "Season 1" airdrop recipients as well as a new "Season 2" group.

Season 1 claimants will now receive a minimum of 110 EIGEN tokens, while Season 2 users get at least 100 EIGEN. With EIGEN trading around $10 in perpetual futures markets currently, the additional tokens could be valued at around $280 million.

The protocol acknowledged it may have "missed" allocating some testnet users in the first airdrop, promising to include them in an upcoming Phase 2 distribution with more details to come.

Earlier Complaints Over Terms When first announcing the airdrop on April 30th, some of EigenLayer's design choices drew ire from certain segments of the crypto community.

Complaints centered around the 15% allocation being smaller than expected, geo-blocking of 30 countries including the U.S. and China, and the protocol's non-transferable token structure.

By retroactively expanding the airdrop to more users and increasing individual allocations, EigenLayer appears to be attempting to address some of those concerns over its distribution fairness and inclusiveness.

While the $280 million figure is just an estimate based on current prices, the beefed up airdrop ensures a much larger portion of EIGEN tokens ends up directly in the hands of the protocol's active user base.

As one of the highest-profile airdrop events this year, the EigenLayer distribution had been hotly anticipated. Addressing the community's critiques could help boost EIGEN's reputation and adoption when it officially hits the market on May 10th.