The long-awaited native token of Ethereum layer-2 network Blast (BLAST) surged 40% following its launch, faring better than other high-profile airdrops to hit the market in recent weeks.
BLAST debuted for $0.02 per token, placing it at a fully diluted value (FDV) of $2 billion at launch, according to aggregated data from Ambient Finance and perps trading platform Aevo.
The price of BLAST has since rallied a little over 40% to a value of $0.0281 at the time of publication, per CoinMarketCap data.
It comes in contrast to recent high-profile token launches, including Ethereum layer-2 network zkSync (ZK) and cross-chain interoperability LayerZero (ZRO). Both tokens have fallen 46% and 43% from launch, respectively.
The airdrop released 17% of BLAST’s total supply, with 7% going to users who bridged Ether (ETH) or USD on Blast (USDB) to the network beginning late last year.
An additional 7% went to users who “contributed to the success” of decentralized applications (DApps) on the network, while 3% went to the Blur Foundation for future airdrops to its community.
The airdrop attracted some criticism from crypto market commentators on X, most from those who believe the launch valuation fell short of their expectations.
Arthur Cheong, the co-founder of crypto investment firm DeFiance Capital said BLAST’s $2 billion FDV came as a surprise, as he expected a value closer to the $5 billion mark.
Related: Blockchain fraud group shifts $1M to Blast for new schemes
The Blast network, co-founded by Blur creator Tieshun Roquerre — more commonly known by his pseudonym PacMan — was criticized by its own seed investors in November for lacking enough features to justify a one-way bridging mechanism that saw users lock up their ETH for several months.
Blast airdrop attracts scams
Like several other high-profile airdrops this year — including that of cross-chain bridge protocol Wormhole — Blast’s airdrop event attracted a deluge of scammers across X.
Scammers often choose large-scale airdrop events to pose as legitimate-looking copycats, as airdrops usually require crypto users to connect their wallets and sign transactions to claim their allotted tokens.
Crypto security service Scam Sniffer identified one user who fell victim to a Blast airdrop scam who lost over $217,000 after signing multiple phishing signatures.
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