The Next 5 L2 Airdrops We're Watching
Blast's disaster of an airdrop may have left a bad taste in the mouths of L2 airdrop chasers, but we think there are still plenty of riches to hunt. We've got an idea where you should look.
While it can be tedious to comb through all the chains yourself, in our Bankless Airdrop Hunter, we have curated the most promising L2s, ready for potentially significant airdrops that could catch people offside. We’re looking at both new entrants with buzzy innovations and established players who have already shown promise thanks to successful incentive programs.
Below, let's dive into these top 5 L2s, what they do, and why we’re watching them for airdrops 👇
📜 Scroll
About:
Scroll is the 8th largest L2 and the 3rd largest zkEVM L2, with nearly $1B on its chain after a TVL surge of nearly 20% in the past week.
Founded in 2021, the blockchain was valued at $1.8B in 2023, raising funds from notable VCs like Polychain Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, and Sequoia China. Operating across three layers, the network comes composed of the Settlement Layer, bridging Ethereum and Scroll, ensuring data availability and verifying zkEVM validity proofs; the Sequencing Layer, executing transactions, processing and batching them to Ethereum for data availability and validity proofs; and the Proving Layer, which generates zkEVM validity proofs to ensure the correctness of L2 transactions, with a pool of provers and a coordinator handling these proofs and finalizing them on Ethereum.
Why We're Watching:
In April, Scroll announced its “Scroll Sessions” rewards campaigns, which allow users to earn Scroll Marks, equatable to points. The campaigns also provided retroactive rewards for those who deployed assets on Scroll since its October 2023 mainnet, a sign that they’re looking to tally up all activity on their chain to date. Scroll has just finished Session Zero, where users were rewarded for bridging assets like ETH and wstETH via the native bridge or STONE using LayerZero, and will start Session One soon, most likely focusing on other assets and actions for receiving Marks. It has become a popular choice as the next L2 to hunt after the success of zkSync's airdrop, which is evident in its recent TVL surge. Start into Scroll’s hunt here!
🔌 Zircuit
About:
Zircuit is an upcoming zkEVM using AI for enhanced security backed by funds like Dragonfly, Pantera, and Maelstrom.
Founded in mid-2022 and currently in the testnet phase, Zircuit stands out thanks to its Sequencer Level Security (SLS) feature. Unlike other rollups where the sequencer simply organizes transactions into blocks, Zircuit's sequencer uses AI to inspect each transaction's effects before including them in a block, checking whether a transaction is a hack or exploit. If SLS identifies a transaction as malicious, it is quarantined and not included in the block.
Why We're Watching:
To accrue TVL ahead of its mainnet launch, Zircuit has launched a points campaign for depositing ETH, LSTs, and LRTs into its network. A multitude of different assets are supported, from liquid staking tokens like wstETH and mETH; to liquid restaking tokens like Puffer’s pufETH, Renzo’s ezETH, and KelpDAO’s rsETH; and Ethena’s sUSDe synthetic dollars, each of which provides a combination of rewards Zircuit and their associated projects. Zircuit has already gathered over $2.5B in staked assets and has attracted over 1K applications for its "Build to Earn" program. Get started hunting Zircuit here!
💻 Reya
About:
Reya Network is an upcoming trading-optimized L2 backed by Framework, Coinbase, and Wintermute, designed to enhance market depth by providing shared liquidity for all exchanges operating on the L2.
Users can provide funds to the liquidity pool through a separate account, generating returns from trade spreads, funding fees, protocol fees, and liquidations. The uniqueness of this feature comes from its ability to stop protocols from having to compete for liquidity through potentially dilutive rewards programs, instead being able to draw from the network’s overall liquidity network. To become the de facto destination for onchain trading, Reya aims for high-performance block times of 100ms with up to 30K transactions per second.
Why We're Watching:
Although an official airdrop has not been announced, Reya went public with a liquidity generation event that yielded depositors points in return for depositing stables to seed its exchange. As always, points programs imply an airdrop, though no timeline has been announced yet. Besides deposits, Reya’s flagship perpetuals DEX is currently live for trading Bitcoin and Ethereum. Jump in here!
🪼 Zora
About:
Zora Network is an ETH L2 designed to make NFTs more efficient and cost-effective.
Built using Optimism’s OP Stack, Zora offers a fast-paced and inexpensive environment tailored for NFTs. As the first NFT-centric L2 using OP Stack, transactions are confirmed in seconds, and minting costs cents, outside of the low-cost Zora protocol fee it distributes back to creators, a feature which has resulted in rewards of $25M to artists bringing media onchain across its network. Zora provides a comprehensive toolkit for creators to release NFTs in multiple formats, whether open editions, collections, or 1/1s.
Why We're Watching:
While Zora has not confirmed an airdrop, the launch of their own network suggests they’ll have one to come in the future for governance of the chain. Further, given their participation in the Superchain, creators on Zora may once again qualify for retroactive rewards from Optimism as they did from Airdrop 4. Start hunting Zora here!
🛞 Mantle
About:
Mantle is an Ethereum L2 that uses optimistic rollups and EigenLayer’s EigenDA to lower transaction fees and increase scalability.
Currently sporting a TVL of $1.25B, Mantle has made itself a popular restaking destination thanks to its support of popular DeFi protocols like Pendle and Init Capital, as well as having its own ETH liquid staking token, mETH, which is currently the 4th largest LST and can be used in protocols like Zircuit and EigenLayer.
Why We're Watching:
Half of the MNT supply is reserved for the community treasury and Mantle has a history of implementing token incentives programs, which are expected to continue into the future. Further, Mantle recently launched the "Metamorphosis" campaign for their mETH liquid staking protocol (LSP). The campaign rewards stakers with "Powder," convertible to COOK, the future governance token for Mantle LSP when used natively or in partnered protocols. These aren’t the only hunts available on Mantle, though — explore them all here!