ZkSync Airdrop Allocations Leave DeFi Community Split

The ZkSync airdrop will distribute 17.5% of the ZK token supply among 695,232 wallets next week, but despite the relatively generous airdrop allocation, controversy swirls over the distribution method.

ZkSync said over 6 million unique addresses interacted with the network, making the Layer-2 scaling solution one of the most heavily farmed airdrops yet.

The eligibility criteria are laid out in ZkSync’s blog post, and the resulting airdrop allocation has the DeFi community torn. Some users feel that the team was in an impossible position considering the large number of sybil clusters, while others are outraged that real users are not being rewarded.

Sybil clusters refer to groups of wallets – sometimes numbering in the hundreds or thousands – controlled by a single entity, designed to game airdrop opportunities to receive multiple token allocations.

The team said it is working to address the feedback from the community.

Allocation Breakdown

Matter Labs took a points-based approach and then accounted for variables such as multipliers for holding ecosystem assets, time spent on the network, and finally, sybil detection.

In the post, the team states that all wallets were assigned an initial token allocation based on the criteria. However, there is a maximum token allocation of 100,000 tokens and a minimum allocation of 450 tokens. Any wallets that qualified for less than 450 tokens had their allocations redistributed to eligible wallets, and any wallets that qualified for more than 100,000 tokens also had their excess tokens redistributed. The 100,000 maximum does not apply to wallets associated with the ZkSync team, of which there are 155.

The large gap between minimum and maximum allocations has led to 55% of the airdrop going to less than 1% of wallets that were active on the network, another bone of contention within the community

Anti-Sybil Criteria

In the blog post, Matter Labs stated, “The ZK airdrop focuses on identifying real users using a human-first approach.” It cited “risk-on” wallet behavior as a sign of a normal community member and user.

The controversy is fueled in part by LayerZero’s ongoing sybil reporting campaign. Occasionally, protocols that operate on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) share lists of flagged wallets to streamline the sybil detection process.

However, many users are upset that addresses recently flagged as sybil wallets using LayerZero’s criteria have still managed to qualify for the ZkSync airdrop.

There have also been complaints of genuine users of the protocol being omitted from the airdrop, with some having used the network since 2021.

Amid the controversy, the team believes there is an ongoing “coordinated, Sybil misinformation campaign against ZKsync on X.”

The airdrop claim will go live on June 16. The ZK token is trading pre-market at $0.36 on Hyperliquid, implying a fully diluted valuation of $7.56 billion.

UPDATED @ 11pm ET 6/12 to reflect community concerns.