Ethereum L2 Blast Airdrops $430M Worth of BLAST, Token Immediately Selloffs
Ethereum layer-2 network Blast finally launched its eagerly awaited airdrop. However, the initial excitement quickly turned to a rush of selloffs, driving down the price of BLAST tokens. The BLAST token launched at a price of $0.025, making the Phase One airdrop of 17 billion tokens valued at around $430 million. Within minutes of the airdrop, a significant number of claimants began offloading their tokens, causing the price to drop closer to $0.02.
The rapid selloff appears to be fueled by a mixture of genuine disappointment and high expectations within the DeFi community. Many had anticipated a higher opening price for BLAST, given the network's popularity and the substantial sums raised during the airdrop for Blast's predecessor, Blur, an incentivized NFT marketplace.
Prior to the airdrop, speculations about BLAST's value ran high. Crypto traders had predicted that the token would debut between $0.03 and $0.10, a range it has not yet achieved. Just a month ago, pre-market trading saw BLAST valued at $4.40, which would have put the airdrop's worth at a staggering $74.8 billion.
Leading up to the airdrop, Blast saw a surge in activity, with the total value locked (TVL) on its network soaring to $2.3 billion by June 5. However, since the airdrop, TVL has dropped by over 30%, now sitting at $1.6 billion, according to DefiLlama. The price of BLAST has since gained 31% over the past 24 hours to trade at $0.0277.
