Blast Token's Debut Shakes Crypto World

Blast Token's Rollercoaster Launch

On June 26, the highly anticipated Blast token airdrop finally went live. For 30 days, eligible users can claim their tokens. This airdrop distributed 17% of BLAST's total supply, allocating 7% to Blast Gold developers, 7% to Blast Points users, and 3% as staking rewards on Blur, Blast's NFT marketplace. 

Blast token entered the market with a bang, boasting an initial market cap of around $420 million and a fully diluted valuation near $2.48 billion. The starting price was set at $0.025 per token, with 17 billion tokens in circulation. However, massive selloffs quickly drove the price down to $0.02 before settling at $0.022, slashing the value of reserved tokens from $354 million to $289 million.

Despite high hopes, the initial price left many DeFi enthusiasts disappointed. They had anticipated a range between $0.03 and $0.10, while pre-market trading had fueled unrealistic expectations of $4.40 per token. This mirrored the airdrop pattern of Blast's predecessor, Blur, which had previously shaken up the market.

Blast aims to "unbank the banked" by transitioning from an offchain to an on-chain economy. Phase 2 of their plan involves developing a "full-stack chain," drawing comparisons to Apple's integrated approach. Upcoming projects include desktop and mobile wallet applications to rival Metamask.

Since its November launch, Blast attracted $500 million in deposits within five days and hit $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) in 13 days. Decentralized applications on Blast reached a $2 billion TVL in 100 days. As of June 6, Blast became the sixth-largest chain by DeFi TVL, despite early controversies. The TVL saw a 30% drop from $2.3 billion on June 5 to $1.6 billion during the writing.

Half of BLAST's 100 billion total supply is earmarked for the community. Over the next four months, Phase 2 rewards will continue, focusing on superior wallet solutions and optimizing the full stack for better user experience and market transition.

Blast's initial launch faced criticism for its one-way deposit contract with anonymous developers and the lack of a testnet and transaction data on Ethereum. Despite these hurdles, Blast has emerged as a significant player in DeFi. 

Blast users have deposited 82% of the network's TVL into DeFi applications, compared to Arbitrum's 24% of $17.1 billion TVL, Base's 22.7% of $7.49 billion, and OP Mainnet's 12.3% of $6.45 billion in DeFi protocols. Blast ranks sixth among blockchains by decentralized exchange volume, with USDB stablecoin ranking fourth by number of holders and fifth by 24-hour volume.

On social media, opinions were mixed. Some users on Crypto Twitter appreciated the value of free tokens despite lower-than-expected market performance. Overall, community sentiment was a blend of disappointment and tempered expectations, highlighting the need for better market anticipation and a deeper understanding of token distribution impacts.

As of June 27, Blast's airdrop of Ethereum layer-2 tokens has subsequently rebounded from the sell-offs. Despite starting at $0.025 and dipping to around $0.020, the price gradually recovered to a high of $0.029 before settling down at $0.024 at the time of writing. 

However, the recovery was overshadowed by security concerns. Specifically, Resonance Security highlighted security concerns with Blast, including its reliance on third-party DeFi protocols like Lido and MakerDAO, which pose risks if compromised. The use of a 3/5 multisig address and lack of validity proofs for L2 state roots were also noted as potential vulnerabilities.