ExplosionAn Ethereum layer-2 scaling network from the founder of leading NFT Marketplace Blur launched its mainnet on Thursday afternoon, finally unlocking billions of dollars in crypto funds that users had locked up in an attempt to earn staking and airdrop rewards.
According to the Blast website, more than $2.3 billion was invested in the bridge from the Ethereum mainnet to Blast just before the scaling network went online. Explosion was unveiled in Novemberin addition to the bridge and reward campaign.
The total had risen rapidly in recent days, partly as traders tried to get their money on Blast to take advantage of a growing range of projects set to launch on the network and air drop tokens and rewards for early users.
Furthermore, the rising price of Ethereum in recent days has helped grow the value of what had already been staked. Ethereums price has increased 12% this past week, amid a broader market surge fueled by Bitcoin, which peaked to a price of nearly $64,000 on Wednesday.
To summarize: Blast is the natural yield L2. ETH and stablecoin balances on Blast automatically bear interest. This increases capital efficiency for users and unlocks new possibilities for Dapps.
— Blast (@Blast_L2) February 29, 2024
While some Blast users are keeping their money on the network to take advantage of newly launched apps and protocols – plus continued wagering rewards and airdrop benefits on the horizon – others are withdrawing their money in a crypto market that has since seen significant gains across the board . late last year.
According to a on-chain data dashboard from analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the total amount of funds on Blast has fallen below $1.9 billion at the time of writing.
Blast will give users “airdrop points” in May, which will relate to a future token launch around the scaling network. It competes with other Ethereum scalers such as Arbitration, Optimism, BaseAnd Polygon– but the incentive model threw Blur to the top of the NFT world, and founder Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre and his team should expect the same from Blast with scalable networks.
The launch of Blast has not been without controversy. Both crypto traders and builders criticized Blast’s approach of launching a bridge that would prevent users from withdrawing money for months, and objected to the creation of the incentive model.
In November, Dan Robinson – head of research and general partner at Paradigm, the venture capital firm that co-led Blast’s $20 million seed round – wrote that the company felt that this week’s “announcement crossed lines in both reporting and execution.”
He further criticized the decision to hold on to funds for months, saying that “a lot of marketing cheapens the work of a serious team.” Blast founder Pacman admitted that Paradigm asked them to “make changes” to the launch plan, but he said it was ultimately Blast’s own decision.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.