Original Title: "Zora's Token Launch Faces On-Chain Backlash: Early Users Betrayed, Average Airdrop Only $37"
Original Author: Nancy, PANews
After years of "PUA," Zora has finally launched its token, but the community users who have been waiting for a long time did not receive the "big result" they hoped for. Upon opening their wallets, they found rewards that couldn't even cover the Gas fees, let alone the tokens themselves being of no use. In an instant, community sentiment completely "broke down," and the on-chain reputation protocol Ethos unexpectedly became an outlet for users to express their dissatisfaction. Zora's "crash site" was permanently recorded on-chain, marking a collapse of trust.
Airdrop "Slaps" Early Users, Token Distribution Accused of Betraying the Community
Last month, Zora announced the upcoming launch of its native token ZORA, raising the community's expectations that had been building for years. On the eve of the token launch, the Base official account released multiple tweets to hype Zora, successfully capturing attention, with various memes circulating and several metrics skyrocketing.
However, this airdrop ultimately turned into a "century crash" that left many disappointed. On April 23, Zora opened the airdrop claims, stating that it would distribute 1 billion ZORA tokens to 2,415,024 addresses. Most of the airdrop tokens were based on the first snapshot distribution (from January 1, 2020, 8:00 to March 3, 2025, 22:00), while the second snapshot distribution accounted for a smaller proportion (from March 3, 2025, 22:00 to April 20, 2025, 8:00), covering the Coins activity on Zora's latest protocol. The specific distribution amounts were calculated based on user activity on Zora and overall participation in the current protocol and its previous versions, including but not limited to minting, trading, and referrals.
At the same time, the ZORA token was listed on Binance Alpha, with eligible users set to receive 4,276 ZORA tokens. However, the results of this airdrop left many long-term participants in the Zora ecosystem feeling angry, as they received only a small amount of tokens, insufficient even to cover Gas fees.
In contrast, recent speculators and Binance Alpha users easily claimed a large number of tokens. This severely imbalanced distribution method not only sparked widespread anger in the community but was also seen as a betrayal of early supporters. Adding to the community's dissatisfaction, the Zora airdrop snapshots were divided into two parts, but the specific distribution criteria were never made public, leading to a lack of transparency throughout the process.
Moreover, Zora faced strong criticism from the community due to its highly concentrated and opaque distribution ratios. According to the tokenomics disclosed by ZORA, community airdrops accounted for only 10%, while the team, treasury, and strategic contributors received as much as 65%, with only a 6-month lock-up period before unlocking could begin, and the specific unlocking schedule was also not detailed.
Additionally, Zora officials stated that the ZORA token is merely a "just for fun" MEME coin, not carrying any technical or governance functions, primarily used for community rewards and ecosystem incentives. This positioning led to a series of questions from the community: since the token has no substantial use, why does the team still need to occupy such a high proportion? What basis does the community have to believe that ZORA possesses long-term value?
Amidst multiple layers of disappointment, Ethos's negative review feature was seen as an outlet for emotional expression, with community users leaving "bad reviews," causing Zora's credibility score to plummet. Many users stated, "On-chain records are immutable; malicious projects must be recorded in history."
Airdrop Progress Halfway, User Claim Rate Below 20%, Average Only $37
From a price performance perspective, Binance data shows that ZORA briefly surged to $0.0466 after its launch, only to drop to a low of $0.0172 the next day, with a maximum decline of nearly 63%, and market enthusiasm quickly cooled.
Dune data indicates that as of the time of writing, over 514 million tokens from the ZORA airdrop have been successfully claimed by users. Among them, the top 50 addresses collectively claimed over 190 million tokens, averaging about 3.931 million tokens per address, which, at the current price (approximately $0.0235), is valued at about $92,000, accounting for 36.9% of the total claimed amount. This indicates a clear dominance of large addresses in the airdrop distribution.
At the same time, in terms of the number of participating users, over 320,000 users have participated in the claims, but the average claim per user is only 1,571.1 ZORA, equivalent to about $37. This stark contrast highlights the extreme imbalance in the distribution structure—large holders reaped substantial airdrops, while ordinary users received very limited allocations.
In terms of claim progress, approximately 51.42% of the total token supply has been claimed, but only 13.35% of eligible users have actually completed the claim, further indicating that the proportion of users actively taking action to claim is very low, with most users preferring to forgo the claim.
User Participation Significantly Declines, Controversy Over Transition to On-Chain Social
Founded in 2020, Zora was initially positioned as an NFT marketplace protocol. Public data shows that the project has raised at least $52 million in funding, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, and Haun Ventures, among others, with the last round of funding valuing the company at $600 million. However, as the NFT market cooled and competition intensified, Zora gradually evolved into a focus on on-chain social and creator economy ecosystems, including the launch of the "Coins" feature, which automatically mints each piece of social content (such as images, videos, and text) into ERC-20 tokens, and the launch of its own Layer 2 network, Zora Network.
Despite continuously exploring new narrative directions, Zora's overall ecosystem activity has significantly declined. According to Dune data, as of April 24, over 3.51 million smart contracts have been created on the Zora network, but the daily contract creation numbers have dropped from an early peak of 144,000 to about 13,000, less than one-tenth of the peak; similarly, the cumulative transaction volume on the Zora network has exceeded 87.4 million, but the daily transaction volume has also fallen from a historical high of 3.338 million to the current approximately 428,000; although the total number of active addresses has reached 470,000, compared to about 259,000 daily active users at last year's peak, it is now only about 50,900, indicating a decline in user participation.
In terms of revenue, data from DeFiLlama and Dune shows that Zora's cumulative revenue is only $5.4 million, and Zora Network's profit is merely 527.74 ETH. The community believes this falls far short of the market expectations corresponding to its $600 million valuation.
Furthermore, although Zora claims to have brought tens of millions of dollars in revenue to creators, its on-chain experimental and tokenization narrative remains controversial. For instance, recently, Base protocol head Jesse Pollak praised Zora Coins for achieving a record high in active users, but ZachXBT criticized these tokens as "viruses," with a market cap of less than $5 million. In response, Jesse admitted that most content is nearly worthless, while a few pieces have significant value, but ZachXBT questioned why creators would issue a large number of tokens that dilute their brand. Jesse countered that on-chain creation does not dilute the brand, as good content will naturally spread, with the market and algorithms determining its value.
Overall, Zora is attempting to reshape itself through on-chain social and tokenization narratives, but the inflated valuation and increasingly cooling ecosystem activity have long buried the seeds of a trust crisis, and this insincere airdrop may become the last straw that breaks the community's confidence.
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