Highly anticipated yet disappointing? A review of the EigenLayer airdrop controversy

Author: Alex Liu，Foresight News

EigenLayer announced the launch of the token EIGEN last night and will conduct a "Stakedrop" airdrop. Currently, EIGEN is quoted at 9.94 USDT on AEVO, corresponding to nearly 16 billion USD in FDV. Users participating in re-staking directly through EigenLayer and holders of LRT can now check the airdrop amount on the official claim website, while participants from DeFi protocols like Pendle will have to wait for the second phase.

The airdrop from EigenLayer has finally arrived, but it has brought unexpected controversy.

Voting in the community about who has the worse airdrop

Highly Anticipated Project

If you ask what the most watched project this year is, EigenLayer, which has single-handedly sparked the "re-staking" wave, is undoubtedly the answer for many. While alt L1s like Solana continue to thrive and meme coins are flying everywhere, LRTfi based on EigenLayer has stabilized the Ethereum ecosystem, absorbing a large amount of TVL and leaving users hopeful for future excess returns, keeping funds and confidence within Ethereum.

According to DeFiLlama, EigenLayer has nearly 16 billion USD in TVL, ranking second across all chains.

Many believe that "EigenLayer will be the largest airdrop this year, or even in history."

However, during the process of the Eigen Foundation X account, domain name, airdrop claim website domain, EIGEN token white paper, and airdrop eligibility query feature being successively revealed and launched last night, many people became increasingly disappointed and even angry. What exactly happened?

Bankless closed comments due to continuous insults from dissatisfied users regarding the airdrop while live streaming with the founder of EigenLayer.

Disappointing Results

Distribution: More for VCs and Team, Less for Users

From the first deposit opening in June last year to the snapshot on March 15 this year, all re-staking participants who have invested nearly 16 billion USD in EigenLayer over the past year will share only 5% of the total token supply for the first season "Stakedrop" rewards. Meanwhile, the combined share for early contributors and investors (i.e., VCs and the team) is as high as 55%.

News containing token distribution details

The Tokenomics provided in the lengthy 40-page white paper shows that the first season airdrop share not only falls below some users' expectations but also below market pricing (after the announcement, Pendle's related YT dropped sharply), and the community seems to be unconvinced—many users reported receiving only 10 EIGEN as a basic guarantee, with the majority of community members feeling the token amount was too low and below expectations.

"Non-transferable" Tokens

Indeed, it has been officially announced that 90% of the tokens in the first season "Stakedrop" can be claimed directly by participants in EigenLayer staking and LRT holders on May 10. But it seems to be of little use? Because at this time, the tokens cannot be transferred, meaning they cannot be sold. The documentation states: To ensure sufficient time for decentralization, the tokens will remain in a non-transferable state.

Relevant section in the documentation

This has not only triggered further dissatisfaction in the community but also led to Ethena, which previously conducted a large-scale airdrop, to post: "Our tokens are transferable, we love you," seemingly mocking the situation.

Tweet from Ethena Labs

Notably, some have explained for EigenLayer: The temporary non-transferability of tokens is to confirm the share of DeFi users for the first quarter before officially launching in the second phase. Therefore, whether this criticism is reasonable remains debatable.

Did These People Know the Snapshot Time?

Whenever a project conducts an airdrop, whether someone has insider information or if there is a so-called "rat trading" will certainly become a hot topic. This relates to the two most critical standards for airdrops: fairness and transparency. This time, however, there seem to be some rather strange "coincidences."

The snapshot date for the first season airdrop was March 15, and on March 16, just one day after the snapshot, the "legendary trader" GSR, who had previously posted during the recent market crash, withdrew wBETH worth 7 million USD.

Snapshot date

GSR's withdrawal record

This is not an isolated case. On January 2, a wallet newly funded by Binance deposited about 4000 wBETH into EigenLayer, approximately 13 million USD, and accumulated nearly 3.5 million Eigen points over the next three months. On March 16, the day after the snapshot, it withdrew all of it.

Deposit and withdrawal records of that wallet

Are these people "insiders" with insider information? Some in the community believe so, and they are very angry.

Strict Geolocation Restrictions

Geolocation restrictions preventing access to the airdrop page

It is not uncommon for airdrop eligibility to have geographical restrictions, but it often stops at prohibiting the U.S. mainland and surrounding territories and a few sanctioned countries. EigenLayer's list of restricted countries is quite long, with China being the first listed.

Long list of countries prohibited from claiming the airdrop

Red-marked areas are regions prohibited by Eigen

Moreover, previous geographical restrictions were often superficial; using a VPN from other countries would still allow normal token claims. However, EigenLayer is different; it has taken "real action." I personally experienced that a previously reliable proxy was detected and blocked, marking its first failure. After some effort, I finally bypassed the geographical restrictions to check my share. (Tutorial at the end)

Another point of controversy in the community is: Since there is such a powerful geolocation detection and blocking capability, why was it not used when the protocol opened for deposits, but only activated when claiming rewards? Is it because of dislike?

Users complain that the U.S. was not a "restricted location" when "depositing money."

Bypassing Geolocation Restrictions to Check Airdrop Tutorial

• Open an Incognito Tab in a browser, enter the website to reach the page, right-click to inspect or press F12 to bring up the debugging interface.

• Remove "/restricted" from the page link and refresh, then in the Network section, find "is-blocked."

• Right-click and select "Block request URL."

• Remove "/restricted" from the page link, refresh, and successfully follow the prompts to check.