Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch is rewarding users with free tokens for their participation on Optimism — a move the organization says will further incentivize activity on the Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution.
The exchange aggregator announced Tuesday that it would equally distribute 300,000 OP tokens among its most active wallets and regular users on Optimism through a retrospective Merkle drop. 1inch said 3,782 wallets have been selected for the airdrop. OP token is the native cryptocurrency of Optimism giving holders the ability to participate in the network’s multi-tiered governance system.
OP token’s current value is $1.22, having gained 5% on the day, according to CoinMarketCap. The governance token traded as high as $4.57 when it was first airdropped in May but has since faced extreme volatility due to underlying market conditions and so-called airdrop dumpers. Optimism witnessed a surge in demand after the project announced its multi-phase airdrop program.
1inch deployed on Optimism in August 2021, with co-founder Sergej Kunz touting faster transaction speeds following the integration. On Thursday, Kunz said 1inch’s integration with Optimism has resulted in “substantial activity on the network.”
As of August 2022, over 45,000 wallets had interacted with 1inch protocols on Optimism, the company said. Of that total, 28,600 wallets carried out the majority of their transactions on the layer-2 scaling solution.
Related: Buterin: Layer-2 scaling will make crypto payments ‘make sense’ again
The Optimism Foundation tasked with overseeing the Optimism network unveiled a new governance structure in April of this year. The newly established “Optimism Collective” is being governed by two components: Citizens’ House tasked with distributing funding via revenues and Token House, which is responsible for voting on protocol upgrades.
Optimism’s total value locked, or TVL, peaked north of $1.1 billion in early August, according to DeFi Llama. Network TVL currently stands at $892.9 million.
