- Blast has touched another milestone months before launching as an Ethereum scaling layer
- The platform has attracted over $1 billion in deposits
- There are speculations that the funds are from users targeting to farm more coins during Blast’s upcoming airdrop
Blur-affiliated platform Blast has registered a new milestone attracting over $1 billion in deposits months before its expected launch as an Ethereum layer 2. Commentators have linked the deposits to crypto users hoping to receive more free tokens during Blast’s upcoming airdrop. Last month, Blast disclosed that those depositing funds have to wait until February to withdraw funds, adding that depositors will earn “Blast points,” raising questions on whether it’ll maintain the high deposit amount once it conducts the airdrop.
Machi Big Brother Among Top Depositors
According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked on Blast is $1.116 billion deposited by more than 86,500 users. The platform crossed the $1 billion mark in TVL on December 26, exactly a month after it passed the $500 million level.
Early users earn between 4% and 5% depending on whether they deposit ETH or stablecoins respectively. Among the top depositors is Jeffrey Huang popularly known in web3 circles as Machi Big Brother. Huang has in the past been seen conducting wash trades on NFT marketplace Blur to farm more reward tokens.
Blast’s model of promising airdrop tokens depending on the points earned resembles the tactic used by Blur to remove OpenSea from the leading position in NFT trading volume.
Funds Controlled by Anonymous Developers
Blast’s way of doing business has however attracted controversy with some arguing that a token bridge can’t be launched before the launch of the layer two platform. The blockchain community also questioned why it requires people to stake funds “to a chain that doesn’t exist” and why the funds are under the control of anonymous developers.
With most of those staking their assets likely targeting free tokens, it’s to be seen whether they’ll cash out the rewards and abandon the network after launch.
