Zora airdrop triggers confusion as token launches without announcement, requires users claim manually

Crypto social media platform Zora's self-titled "memecoin," which is based on the Ethereum Layer-2 Base network, caused confusion on Wednesday as it began trading without an official announcement or claim link.

Users could only claim ZORA tokens manually by interacting directly with its smart contract address, thus making it more difficult to claim for novice crypto users. Multiple exchanges including Binance, Bitget and Bybit were allocated millions of dollars worth of tokens for trading. Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid also launched leveraged options. 

There has been about $6 million in on-chain exchange flows , the movement of coins on- and off-platform, according to data provider Arkham Intelligence. Claiming tokens before an official "token generation event" can potentially give users with earlier access an unfair trading advantage, which is why some argue the process is unfair. 

Social media platform X was quickly flooded with users railing against Zora for its handling of the airdrop. One user, @aadvark89 called it a "grift masterclass" in a post , citing a series a of reasons for the TGE's dubiousness, including "farming" users for years, the lack of communication on launch day and Base creator and Coinbase engineer Jesse Pollak's promotion the Zora platform. Earlier this month, for instance, Base faced backlash after publicly endorsing a token on Zora that briefly lost most of its value shortly after launch.

Zora is an onchain social media network that automatically converts posts into tokens. The platform, which has been a fan favorite for NFT collectors since launch in 2020, also received criticism for its tokenomics. Only 10% of ZORA's 10 billion total supply was allocated to users for the retroactive airdrop. And while Zora marketed the coin as being "for fun only" without giving users any "governance rights" or claims on company equity, some questioned why the team pocketed so much of the supply. 

In a post announcing the airdrop was officially live , Zora noted there is "no end date for claiming" ZORA tokens. This message was broadcasted approximately two hours after the team moved the tokens allocated for the airdrop from a Gnosis Safe into the contact address, according to onchain data. ZORA launched at a price of approximately $0.03 and currently trades at $0.0195.

Zora has seen major growth in the lead up to its airdrop. Notably, Base creator Pollak's multiple promotional posts about “content coins” — tokenized versions of social media posts — attracted much attention in recent days. Over 150,000 new coins were minted in the past week alone, according to Dune Analytics, though not always without controversy.

Coinbase Ventures participated in Zora's $2 million seed round and a $50 million raise in 2022 .