Blast (BLAST) Token Soars 40% After Launch, Despite Controversy and Scams Surrounding Airdrop

The native token of Ethereum layer-2 network Blast (BLAST) increased by 40% following its launch.

The native token of Ethereum layer-2 network Blast (BLAST) soared 40% after its launch on Monday.

BLAST debuted at $0.02 per token, reaching a fully diluted value (FDV) of $2 billion at launch, noted Ambient Finance and Aevo. At the time of writing, BLAST’s price had risen to $0.0245, per CoinMarketCap.

This price action comes as other recent token launches, like Ethereum layer-2 zkSync (ZK) and cross-chain interoperability LayerZero (ZRO), saw their tokens decline 46% and 43%, respectively. Blast distributed 17% of its total token supply during the airdrop.

Eligible users who bridged Ether (ETH) or USD on Blast (USDB) to the network received 7% of the supply. Another 7% went to users contributing to decentralized applications (DApps) on the network, while 3% was allocated to the Blur Foundation for future community airdrops.

BLAST Airdrop Sparks Controversy, Scams

Despite the rally, the airdrop was met with some criticism and scams. Some market commentators on X slammed the launch valuation, which they said fell short of expectations.

Arthur Cheong, co-founder of DeFiance Capital, expressed surprise at BLAST’s $2 billion FDV, expecting a value closer to $5 billion.

The Blast network, co-founded by Tieshun Roquerre (PacMan), faced criticism from its seed investors in November for lacking features to justify a one-way bridging mechanism, which locked up users’ ETH for several months.

Despite this, the network went on to amass $2.3 billion in deposits between November and March. Currently, Blast holds $1.62 billion in total value locked, making it the second-largest layer-2 network after Arbitrum, according to CoinGecko.

The airdrop event also saw scammers targeting users, posing as legitimate-looking copycats. Scam Sniffer, a crypto security service, highlighted a user who lost over $217,000 after signing multiple phishing signatures.

The airdrop follows other high-profile airdrops this year, like the cross-chain bridge protocol Wormhole, which have also attracted scams.