Optimism Vs. Arbitrum Airdrop
This analysis compares the OP Airdrop from the Optimism chain with the ARB Airdrop from the Arbitrum chain. Optimism and Arbitrum are popular Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum and share many similarities. However, the two chains differ in the way they distribute their tokens.
Optimism distributed approximately 5% of its OP tokens in late May 2022, while Arbitrum distributed 10% on March 23, 2023. I examined the first seven days after each chain distributed its tokens to determine which airdrop was more successful.
Specifically, we aimed to assess which chain's users were happier and which group earned more money. Additionally, we analyzed the activities of users after they claimed their airdrop.
In May 2022, Optimism carried out Airdrop 1, distributing over 200 million $OP to 248,699 qualifying addresses. The allocation of $OP to each address varied from 409.42 to 27,534.98 $OP. This initial airdrop by Optimism served as a reward to early adopters and engaged users of Optimism and L1 Ethereum.
I was eligible for both the Airdrop, and I checked the contract addresses that distributed the tokens. The Airdrop for Optimism came from 0xfedfaf1a10335448b7fa0268f56d2b44dbd357de, while the tokens for Arbitrum were distributed from 0x67a24ce4321ab3af51c2d0a4801c3e111d88c9d9. Using Fact token transfer on both chains, I identified the claimers and their claimed amounts.
During the first seven days of the Airdrop, the average price of OP and ARB was 1.3 US dollars, which I used to calculate the USD volume.
It's important to note that this comparison is based solely on the Airdrop's first seven days. For Optimism, this timeframe was from 2022-05-31 to 2022-06-06, while for Arbitrum, it was from 2023-03-23 to 2023-03-29.
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Over 600,000 wallet addresses received slightly above one billion tokens. The smallest entitlement in the airdrop is 625 tokens, while the largest is 10,250. Arbitrum calls the airdrop an "official move" towards a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Holders of ARB will be able to engage in voting regarding crucial decisions that impact both the Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova networks.
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