The LayerZero Foundation, the organization backing the cross-chain interoperability platform LayerZero, has announced that claims for its native token, ZRO, will open today at 7 a.m. ET. This follows the release of an eligibility checker for users on the previous day.

“The launch of ZRO marks a pivotal step for the protocol: making it publicly owned, immutable infrastructure,” the foundation stated in a blog post. The platform’s native token has a fixed supply of 1 billion, with 38.3% set aside for distribution to users, developers, and community members.

Initial Distribution

On the first day of distribution, 8.5% of the total supply, equating to 85 million ZRO tokens, will be claimable by eligible participants. The remaining community-allocated tokens will be reserved for future distribution programs and ecosystem growth initiatives.

The foundation has allocated 15.3% of the overall ZRO supply for future distributions to users, protocols, infrastructure builders, and community members through future snapshots and methods such as Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

Strategic and Core Contributor Allocations

LayerZero plans to distribute 32.2% of the total token supply to strategic partners and 25.5% to its core contributors. These allocations are subject to a three-year vesting period, with a one-year lock and a monthly unlock over the following two years. Additionally, the foundation has repurchased 40 million ZRO tokens, which are “pledged to the community bucket.”

Eligibility and Voting Privileges

LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino disclosed that 1.28 million wallets are eligible for airdrop claims, out of over six million unique wallet addresses that have interacted with the LayerZero protocol. ZRO token holders will have the privilege of voting on decisions related to the LayerZero protocol’s fee switch. An immutable voting contract will enforce a public on-chain referendum every six months.

Challenges and Criteria

The foundation acknowledged the difficulty in executing the airdrop event correctly, given LayerZero’s extensive usage and farming activities. Despite these challenges, the foundation believes the distribution is fair and aims to reward durable users in alignment with the protocol's future.

Airdrop eligibility was determined based on three main factors: Sybil filtering, RFP, and eligibility criteria. Stringent measures were set to prevent token distribution to Sybil attackers, who create multiple fake accounts to unfairly gain a larger share of free tokens. These measures include self-reporting, bounty hunting, and collaboration with on-chain security firms.

RFP and User Distribution

The foundation is distributing 3% of the total supply to 211 approved RFPs, which are unique proposals to improve the protocol. Users who transacted on the protocol before the snapshot are eligible to receive the airdrop, with allocations ranging from a minimum of 25 ZRO to a maximum of 5,000 ZRO, weighted by the amount of protocol fees paid.

Redistribution of Unclaimed Tokens

“All unclaimed tokens at the end of the claim period will be redistributed to those who did claim based on [LayerZero] Core allocation,” Pellegrino stated in an X post.

This airdrop marks a significant step in LayerZero’s mission to enhance cross-chain interoperability and ensure the protocol’s infrastructure is both publicly owned and immutably secure.