EigenLayer announces token launch and airdrop for the community

• EigenLayer’s token EIGEN will launch in May, with a total supply of 1.67 billion tokens.
• The Eigen Foundation has announced an airdrop for the community, set for May.

The Eigen Foundation, the non-profit supporting the development of restaking protocol EigenLayer, has announced the launch and distribution of the native token EIGEN.

Alongside the announcement for the token, the foundation and the Eigen Labs team unveiled the EigenLayer whitepaper. The project, which attracted investment from Binance Labs and a16z early this year, has seen tremendous growth in terms of staked Ether (ETH).

EIGEN token launch and airdrop

According to today’s announcement, the Eigen Foundation will launch the EIGEN token in May. An airdrop for the community of stakers on EigenLayer will also go live.

The new token is set at a total supply of 1.67 billion, with 45% of the EIGEN tokens allocated to the community.

Today the @eigenfoundation introduces EIGEN, based on research by @eigen_labs, alongside a Season 1 Stakedrop.

EIGEN is the Universal Intersubjective Work Token, complementing ETH as the Universal Objective Work Token in EigenLayer.

See the full Eigen Foundation announcement: https://t.co/ZxswOiwWyR

— EigenLayer (@eigenlayer) April 29, 2024

Per the details in a blog post summarizing the distribution, 15% of supply will go to stakedrops, another 15% set aside for community initiatives and a similar amount (15%) allocated to the EigenLayer ecosystem development.

The EIGEN airdrop Season 1 will see the community get a chance to grab a share of 5% of the token supply. This allocation goes to stakedrop participants captured in a snapshot taken on March 15, 2024. Claims for this airdrop begin on May 10, with 90% of the tokens claimable for up to 120 days.

The next batch, which is the remaining 10%, will go live will 30 days after the first phase claim window ends.

Meanwhile, the Eigen Foundation has earmarked 29.5% of supply for investors and 25.5% for early contributors.

Allocations to investors and early contributors face a 3-year crypto vesting period, with total lockup in year 1. The next two years will include an unlock rate of 4% per month.