Wormhole Launches Monumental Airdrop: Over 678M W Tokens Released

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Key Takeaways

  • Wormhole's W token airdrop commences, distributing 678 million tokens to over 400,000 wallets, signaling a major event in the crypto space.
  • Pre-market trading values W token at $1.5, with listings on major exchanges like Binance and Kraken anticipated, underscoring strong market interest.
  • Wormhole, enhancing cross-chain communication since 2020, introduces "Gateway" on Cosmos and secures $225 million in funding, aiming for broad blockchain interoperability.

Wormhole’s W token airdrop, which started on April 3, is open for claims. It released over 678 million tokens, accounting for 6.78% of the total supply.

The protocol rolled out its Airdrop Round 1 Allocation earlier today at 11:30 AM UTC. A significant 678,823,000 W tokens were earmarked for the token airdrop, which would be released to over 400,000 wallets.

W Set to be One of the Year’s Biggest Token Launches

The token airdrop accounts for 6.78% of the network’s total 10 billion supply.

This eligibility is based on the Wormhole snapshot report, which the team released on February 6. It shows users across the project’s Portal bridge and ecosystem apps connected to 30 Wormhole-connected blockchains.

From the airdrop allocation, 117 million tokens will be distributed among:

  • Wormhole Discord members;
  • some Monad community members;
  • Pyth stakers;
  • holders of NFT collections (Bad Kids, DeGods, Mad Lads, and y00ts) who were also registered on the project’s Discord.

This accounts for about 19% of the allocation. Roughly 81% of the distribution will be distributed to on-chain users.

What is W Token?

The W token was designed as a native ERC20 token and a Solana LP token with an estimated circulating supply of 1.8 billion at launch. While it hasn’t been listed yet on exchanges, according to Whales Market data, it exchanges hands at a pre-market trading price of $1.5 on markets such as HyperLiquid.

Due to the euphoria surrounding the airdrop distribution, several centralized exchanges have revealed their intentions to list the W token for spot trading at 12 pm UTC today. These exchanges include Binance, Bitget, Kraken, Backpack, Gate.io, and OKX, with the possibility of more exchanges joining the list.

What is Wormhole Ecosystem?

Wormhole is a communication protocol launched in 2020. It has since been at the forefront of enabling cryptocurrency tokens and data transfer across various blockchain networks.

The protocol has recently integrated zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) into its platform, which has led to the development of the “light client,” a feature that secures transfers across different blockchains using ZKPs.

To achieve its goal of establishing a pathway for tokens and data transfer, Wormhole is focused on creating secure communication channels across major chains such as Ethereum, Solana, Aptos, and Cosmos.

Additionally, on July 21, 2023, the protocol unveiled “Gateway,” a powerful application blockchain deployed on the Cosmos ecosystem to improve interoperability and connect Cosmos chains and applications through a single cross-chain liquidity router.

Last year, Wormhole successfully closed a $225 million funding round, which resulted in the project’s valuation of $2.5 billion. Investors who led the round included popular firms such as Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, ParaFi, and Multicoin Capital.

The team behind Wormhole has emphasized that the airdrop associated with the project is designed to reward early and active users, highlighting their commitment to building a strong and engaged community around the platform.