ZKsync Airdrop Controversy: Community Dissatisfaction and Large Airdrops to Sybil Addresses

After four years of development, ZKsync finally announced an upcoming airdrop for users on June 11, 2024. Optimism, Arbitrum, StarkNet, and ZKsync have been the most prominent projects in the Layer2 space, with Optimism and Arbitrum using Optimistic Rollups and StarkNet and ZKsync using ZK Rollups. Due to the numerous opportunities for gains in these projects and their respective ecosystems, many users have actively participated.

Previously, Optimism, Arbitrum, and StarkNet implemented different airdrop strategies for their users, resulting in significant benefits for many. This led to increased attention on ZKsync, which had not yet announced its token issuance. However, after announcing its airdrop plan and opening the query tool, ZKsync's airdrop mechanism sparked considerable dissatisfaction among users.

ZKsync Airdrop Rules

According to official documentation, ZKsyncs total issuance of the $ZK token is 21 billion, with 17.5% (3.775 billion tokens) allocated for the airdrop.

For regular users, 89% of the airdrop portion is allocated based on their usage, with distribution factors including seven main criteria. Additional factors, such as on-chain funds and market holdings, as well as NFT holdings, serve as multipliers to increase the airdrop rewards.

Ultimately, 695,232 addresses qualified for the airdrop. Community statistics revealed that 9,203 addresses received 23.9% of the total airdrop amount.

Community Reaction

With the query tool's launch, many community members reported meeting the airdrop criteria yet found themselves ineligible for the airdrop. Upon reviewing the detailed documentation, it was found that:

“Meeting one or more of the airdrop criteria does not entitle or guarantee a legal right to the airdrop. All decisions related to airdrop distribution are at the discretion of the ZKsync Association.”

This statement fueled further dissatisfaction and skepticism within the community. As the discontent spread, more data was disclosed, elevating the criticism to new heights. The main areas of contention were:

• Number of Eligible Addresses: Crypto KOL @DefiWimar analyzed the ZK Nation website code and concluded that 1,650,351 addresses should be eligible for the ZKsync airdrop.



• Redistribution of Tokens: ZKsync stated that tokens allocated to addresses eligible for fewer than 450 tokens would be reclaimed, further aggravating community tensions.

• Sybil Addresses Receiving Airdrops: According to Sybil hunter Artemis, a user who previously profited $4.2 million from the Arbitrum airdrop qualified to receive nearly 1,000,000 ZK tokens across over 3,000 wallet addresses. Further investigation by Artemis revealed that certain accounts, which deposited identical amounts of Ethereum on the same day, received over 2 million ZK tokens, averaging 15,000 tokens per wallet. Most of these accounts were listed on the @LayerZero_Labs Sybil list.

As of now, ZKsync has yet to provide a direct response to the communitys concerns.

Question: How many addresses are eligible for the ZKsync airdrop？

A. 9,203

B. 1,650,351

C. 695,232

D. 2,050,000