Yahya 
Taiko, a Layer 2 rollup project working on Ethereum, recently revealed an interesting airdrop that will be held in preparation for the mainnet release. This “genesis airdrop” will grant stakeholders 5% of Taiko’s total token supply of 1 billion tokens. To be eligible for this airdrop, a participant must have used the Taiko testnet, block proposers and provers, contributors to certain GitHub repositories and Ethereum ICO.
Speaking to Forbes, Daniel Wang, the co-founder, and CEO of Taiko Labs, highlighted the project’s aim of being as fair as possible when issuing tokens. “Our aim is to be fair and equal but it is impossible to make everyone happy. Congratulations to those who got the TKO, and sorry to those who did not” Wang said. The airdrop will be claimed once Taiko’s Layer 2 mainnet is launched and this is anticipated to happen soon after going through development and testing phases.
Token Allocation and Stakeholders
To ensure the long-term viability of the project, the distribution of Taiko tokens is carefully considered. An impressive 48.5% of the entire supply is set aside for important stakeholders. The core team and Taiko Labs will receive 20% of the total, the Taiko Foundation will receive 16.88%, and investors will receive 11.62%. Furthermore, 20% of the tokens will be held by the DAO Treasury.
Additional allocations include 5% for Grants and RetroPGF, another 5% for liquidity and market making, and 10% for the Trailblazer airdrop, which is separate from the genesis airdrop. The detailed and transparent distribution strategy reflects Taiko’s dedication to fostering a robust and supportive ecosystem.
Funding and Development Milestones
Taiko Labs has gained significant capital to support its progressive strategies, achieving $22 million in two funding rounds. The first funding was raised in 2022, in the form of a $10 million seed round, backed by Sequoia China. Another funding round was a $12 million pre-Series A round in 2023 led by Generative Ventures.
The new mainnet update is set to occur after a development period spanning several years and six testnets. Taiko’s network plans to be an Ethereum equivalent ZK-EVM (Type-1), which means it has to be fully compatible with the Ethereum mainnet.
These strategic developments and the community-focused initiatives mentioned above indicate that Taiko has what it takes to make a big difference in the blockchain industry. The genesis airdrop is an important way to incentivize its early adopters as the project progresses towards its next stage.