Wormhole airdrop sparks controversy as some NFT holders miss out on slice of $900m tokens

Crypto bridge Wormhole just announced the eligibility criteria for its upcoming W governance token airdrop, where almost 400,000 wallets qualified.

As has become more common in recent crypto airdrops, Wormhole included holders of certain NFT collections in its airdrop. Bad Kids, DeGods, Mad Lads, and y00ts, all NFT collections with ties to Wormhole, will receive tokens.

But not all holders of eligible NFTs were able to qualify, leading to complaints over how Wormhole determined eligibility.

0xAllen, a pseudonymous Bad Kids NFT investor, told DL News that many Bad Kids NFT holders missed out on the airdrop, despite Wormhole including the collection.

“You had to get a specific role in the Discord server and there was a small time window to obtain it,” he said.

DL News asked Wormhole about some Bad Kids NFT holders missing out on the airdrop.

“The eligibility criteria and snapshot date are in the blog post, and yes, there are users from the various groups who will not qualify,” a Wormhole spokesperson told DL News.

The Bad Kids NFT collection launched in 2022 on a Cosmos-based blockchain called Stargaze, which is connected to other blockchains using Wormhole’s technology.

The gaff adds to a growing list of controversies surrounding crypto airdrops.

In February, Ethereum layer 2 blockchain Starknet was hit by a wave of criticism over the eligibility criteria of its STRK token airdrop.

Many users who registered activity on the blockchain in the leadup to the airdrop were excluded, while others, such as one user who fixed a spelling error in Starkware’s documentation, received over $3,000 worth of tokens.

Earlier in the year, Alt Layer, a protocol that facilitates the launch of other blockchains, also received criticism for its airdrop after a large amount of tokens were allocated to holders of OG Badge NFTs, which had been distributed to Alt Layer team members almost a year prior.

Half a billion tokens to be airdropped

Wormhole plans to distribute 500 million W tokens to users who registered onchain activity across more than 30 Wormhole-connected blockchains and applications.

Among the actions granting users tokens was using Wormhole-connected protocol across 26 blockchains, including Ethereum-compatible chains like Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, as well as other chains such as Solana, Aptos and Near.

Using DeFi applications that integrate Wormhole’s cross-chain messaging, such as Solana decentralised exchange aggregator Jupiter and USDC issuer Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol, also granted tokens.

An additional 117 million tokens will go to Wormhole Discord users, various NFT communities, the Monad community, and the top 10,000 PYTH token stakers.

Although the token has yet to launch, futures contracts tracking its price already trade across several exchanges. At the current futures price of $1.45 per token, the airdrop is set to give away over $900 million worth of tokens.

Wormhole helps separate blockchains send information between each other. The most common application of this technology is bridging — transferring crypto assets from one blockchain to another.

The W token will govern the Wormhole DAO, a digital cooperative of token holders who will eventually be responsible for various aspects of the protocol’s management.

The W token will launch with an initial circulating supply of 1.8 billion.

Wormhole’s initial airdrop will distribute 6.17% — about 617 million tokens — of its planned 10 billion token supply. The remaining 1.2 billion tokens will be distributed to those running Wormhole’s infrastructure, core contributors to the protocol, strategic network participants, and the Wormhole Foundation, among others.

The Wormhole Foundation is an organisation tasked with stewarding the development of the Wormhole protocol.

Wormhole announced the airdrop at the beginning of February. The move came just five months after wormhole parted ways from its previous owner Jump Crypto, the crypto arm of market maker Jump Trading.

Wormhole has not yet revealed when those eligible to receive W tokens will be able to claim them, nor the exact criteria it is using to allocate tokens. Only activity before a February 6 snapshot counted towards eligibility.

Update, March 8: DL News was initially told a quote included in this article was provided by Wormhole Foundation co-founder and COO Dan Reecer. Wormhole has since requested the comment be attributed to a Wormhole spokesperson instead. The article has been updated to accommodate this request.

Disclaimer: The author of this piece is eligible to receive a W token airdrop.