EigenLayer, the Ethereum re-staking protocol, has announced its token economy and airdrop plan. The first season of the airdrop, which took a snapshot on March 15th, will be distributed in two stages, accounting for 5% of the total supply, to direct stakers (Stage 1) and LRTFi users (Stage 2).
The official announcement states that users can now check the distribution of $EIGEN tokens on the website by entering their address, without the need to connect a wallet. Users can claim their tokens from May 10th to September 7th, but during the initial claim period, the tokens can only be used for staking and cannot be traded or transferred.
According to the official blog post, the initial total supply of $EIGEN is 1,673,646,668 tokens, with no upper limit and an undecided inflation plan. 45% of the initial supply (including future inflation) has been allocated to the community, divided equally among the staking airdrop (15%), community initiatives (15%), and ecosystem development (15%).
In the staking airdrop, the tokens will be distributed in three seasons. The first season, which took a snapshot on March 15th, will be distributed in two stages, with a total airdrop of 5% (approximately 83.68 million tokens). Stage 1 will be distributed to direct stakers of LRT, such as those who stake through the EigenLayer website or through protocols like Renzo, accounting for nearly 90% of the total airdrop in the first season (approximately 75.91 million tokens). Stage 2 will be distributed to LRTFi users who have accumulated EigenLayer points through protocols like Pendle and Gearbox, accounting for nearly 10% of the total airdrop in the first season (approximately 7.77 million tokens). The exact allocation for the LRTFi users is yet to be confirmed, and the official announcement advises to pay close attention to the announcement from the LRTFi protocol after May 6th regarding the distribution for this stage.
Other important details include that the second season has already started after the snapshot on March 15th in the first season. Although the claiming period for Stage 1 and Stage 2 is different, both will receive tradable $EIGEN tokens.
Furthermore, 29.5% of the initial token supply has been allocated to investors, while the remaining 25.5% has been allocated to early contributors. The lock-up period for both investors and early contributors is three years, with the first year being fully locked, followed by a linear unlocking rate of 4% per month for the next two years.
The announcement of the first season’s airdrop distribution caused confusion in the community, with many mistakenly believing that EigenLayer only allocated 1% of the first season’s airdrop tokens to LRTFi users, penalizing protocols like Pendle. As a result, $PENDLE experienced a significant drop of over 14% in the past 24 hours, briefly dipping to $4.27.
Eigen Foundation clarified that the unresolved DeFi contracts in Stage 2 were not penalized compared to other participants. The majority of these unresolved DeFi contracts were deployed after January 2024, while EigenLayer started re-staking on the mainnet in June 2023 based on the snapshot from the first season on March 15th and the staking duration as factors for the airdrop distribution. The allocation percentage for these contracts in the first season is 9.28%, which is a normal distribution and not a penalty or a predetermined measure by EigenLayer.
Shortly after the announcement of $EIGEN, the off-exchange trading market Aevo opened trading for $EIGEN at around $12, reaching a peak of $12.8. This implies a fully diluted valuation of $21.376 billion, making it the 12th largest cryptocurrency in terms of fully diluted valuation.