Insights: Why did the Starknet airdrop reach millions of wallets? And why now?
Starknet Airdrop is imminent, whether it is the unprecedented number of airdrop wallets or the brand pressure of carrying ZK Layer2 volume, has become a unique challenge that needs to be considered in the design of this airdrop. Crypto researcher Haotian authored this article, analyzing how Starknet will respond to challenges through airdrop actions in the increasingly competitive L2 market.
Starknet is facing numerous challenges. The brand reputation has become a source of pressure, and the narrative of ZK Layer2 is insufficient. The competition has also increased. In this context, how will Starknet utilize airdrop actions to cope with these challenges?
The L2 competition has become intense, with projects like Arbitrum, Starknet, and zkSync having technical and brand advantages. However, they also face significant expectations for implementation. The ZK Layer2 project has been stuck in the narrative stage of technical advantages for a long time, and its comprehensive indicators in terms of developer resources, ecosystem projects, TVL, user base, and user experience have fallen short of expectations.
Furthermore, the strategic approach of using development toolkits (Stack) is not attractive enough to secondary market investors, as it relies on traditional B2B investment narratives. Recently, a large number of new challengers have emerged, attempting to disrupt the Layer2 landscape. For example, Metis is trying to overtake others with decentralized sequencers and native token economics. Manta, ZKFair, Blast, and others are using the power of the market, operations, and capital to fight back and rise to the top. Celestia, Altlayer, Espresso, and other projects are continuously introducing new variables to the Layer2 market through modular thinking.
The current L2 market can no longer rely solely on established advantages such as technical strength and capital background to secure market positions. In the face of successive market impacts and competition, the projects that survive will be those with balanced comprehensive capabilities. Within a year after the Cancun upgrade, market competition is expected to intensify, and there may be the emergence of a new set of four Layer2 leaders.
To cope with the aforementioned challenges, Starknet has designed its airdrop timing, scale, and token economics ingeniously. Initially, the airdrop standards, scale, and coverage of Starknet were unclear, leading to various rumors and speculation. Some even believed that it would be collectively disregarded. In this context, the sudden announcement of a super airdrop of over 700 million STRK tokens to more than 1.3 million addresses surprised many people and benefited every participant in the ecosystem.
As a popular project actively traded and sought after by market participants, Starknet faced challenges in designing its airdrop standards. It needed to balance various interests and avoid excessive dumping caused by airdrops while providing sufficient incentives. Therefore, it was difficult to achieve absolute satisfaction in the results. Ultimately, the Starknet team chose to reward early contributors to ECMP, GitHub open-source developers, and users of the Starknet network with a larger-scale benefit.
This approach is also likely the final choice for projects like zkSync and LayerZero. When brand influence reaches a certain level, conducting airdrop actions in the open is the wisest choice. The primary goal is to ensure that airdrop activities do not negatively impact the established brand value. Providing additional incentives to airdrop hunters may increase some risks, but large-scale airdrop actions are more beneficial for the long-term development of the brand.
Starknet’s airdrop is a redemption action. This is because, as mentioned earlier, ZK-based Layer2 projects have been stuck in the narrative stage of technical advantages, while the comprehensive market data lags behind. Especially considering that the total locked value in the Layer2 ecosystem has exceeded $25.5 billion, while Starknet, ranking in the top five in terms of brand reputation, accounts for less than $200 million. How can this data inspire confidence in subsequent secondary market investors? This has been a key concern for Starknet and zkSync.
In such a situation, the team has come up with a killer move in token economics, hoping to regain an advantage in the market narrative. Haotian believes that tokens can successfully bring growth momentum to Starknet, especially since the STRK token has unique mechanisms, such as participating in project development and user interaction as transaction fees. There is still great potential in this regard.
To address market challenges, Starknet has made the best choice among the existing options—using a large-scale token airdrop in conjunction with the Cancun upgrade narrative to promote ecosystem growth and shift from a long-term technical development narrative to market engagement. Regardless of the technology, the success of the product ultimately depends on application and demand-driven factors. The market needs a few killer applications to drive the Starknet market ecosystem, and tokens will be the team’s most potent weapon.
Whether the market will respond positively remains to be seen.
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