EigenLayer’s native token is now available for claim, although the developer has stated that EIGEN will not be transferable.
The 120-day period to claim EIGEN opened on May 10 and will run until September for EigenLayer’s phase one “stakedrop.” During phase one, participants will be able to obtain 6.05% of the token’s 1.67 billion supply; in phase two, the amount of tokens available will increase by 0.7%.
For qualifying customers who have been staking Ether (ETH) on the platform for months, EigenLayer intends to distribute 113 billion EIGEN tokens. The Eigen Foundation states that users will receive 15% of EIGEN’s total supply, with the proportion being distributed across several seasons.
The inability of claimants to transfer EIGEN across wallets and the geo-blocked access to the airdrop in some areas of the world caused a controversy within the cryptocurrency community regarding the plan.
The claims website is unavailable to users in the United States, Canada, and some regions of Africa and Asia. Normally, a VPN would get over this prohibition, but VPN users were also prohibited, casting even more doubt on the EigenLayer protocol.
In the second quarter of 2024, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is being shaken by several token distributions, including the controversial EigenLayer airdrop. For its “report-to-earn” program and anti-Sybil systems, LayerZero also faced criticism.
Experts disagree about the EIGEN token’s potential and the extent to which the massive retaker has improved Ethereum’s ecosystem. Galaxy researcher Christine Kim questioned issues the team found and remarked on X that the protocol’s whitepaper left much to be desired.
