[Hypothesized Layer2 Blast, most deposits left within 1 day of launch]
Decentralized finance platform Blast’s total value locked (TVL) plummeted from $2.3 billion to $650 million after opening withdrawals on Friday. Half of Blast’s upcoming airdrop will be awarded to depositors and the other half will be distributed to developers.
According to DefiLlama data, in the first 24 hours after Blast, the newly launched Layer 2, users withdrew US$1.6 billion in Ethereum (ETH) assets. Blast claims on its official website to be "the first Ethereum Layer 22 to offer native yields," and launched a deposit-only bridge in November that quickly attracted more than $2 billion in deposits. Deposit Ethereum on Blast Users receive Blast points, which can be redeemed for token airdrops in the future.
Developers who create decentralized applications (DApps) on Blast will also receive 50% of the market share in the upcoming airdrop.
Blast is backed by Paradigm, and its design of a one-way cross-chain bridge has caused controversy in the crypto community, with some commentators comparing it to a pyramid scheme. Despite facing skepticism, Blast quickly became one of the most popular Layer 2s, attracting 181,000 users to deposit $2.3 billion and generating $85 million in annual revenue even before its official launch.
Earlier this week, the Blast ecosystem suffered its first exit scam, with a protocol called "RiskOnBlast" disappearing, taking $1.3 million worth of Ethereum with it. Nonetheless, several projects have added support for Blast, including NFT platform Zora and The partnership with pricing oracle provider Pyth was announced on Thursday.
