Can you still claim the LayerZero airdrop?
No. "Claims are open from June 20 through September 20," the LayerZero Foundation wrote in 2024, and on 20 September it posted: "The ZRO claim period has ended." The unclaimed ZRO went into a second, 30-day claim, open only to wallets that had already claimed and had used LayerZero again after the launch. After that, the Foundation said, "Any tokens not claimed in the next 30 days will go to the LayerZero Foundation."
The old claim and checker pages on layerzero.foundation now return errors. On 3 June 2026 LayerZero wrote that the Foundation's remaining tokens "will be used conservatively to grow the LayerZero ecosystem, and there are no plans for a future airdrop."
Warning At the 2024 claim the Foundation said its own account would post the one real link: "Any other links are scams." With no claim open now, any LayerZero airdrop checker or claim page is fake.
What was the LayerZero airdrop?
LayerZero is a messaging protocol that connects blockchains, and ZRO is its token, with a fixed supply of 1 billion. On 20 June 2024 the Foundation opened the first distribution: "8.5% of ZRO supply can be claimed by eligible participants on June 20." That was 85 million ZRO. Bryan Pellegrino, chief executive of LayerZero Labs, put the eligible wallets at 1.28 million, out of the "nearly 6 million unique wallet addresses" that had used the protocol.
The Foundation avoided the word itself. Its claim post said "this is not an airdrop".
Who got the LayerZero airdrop?
- Users (5% of supply): every wallet that "transacted before the snapshot" of 1 May 2024 got between 25 and 5,000 ZRO, based on the fees it had paid to the protocol. Transactions under $1 counted for less.
- Projects (3%): 211 approved projects received ZRO to hand to their own users, between 5 and 10,000 ZRO per wallet.
- Community pool (0.5%): the rest of the first-day distribution.
The LayerZero sybil hunt
Before any ZRO went out, LayerZero went after airdrop farmers. On 3 May 2024 it offered them a deal: self-report within 14 days "in return for 15% of their intended allocation, no questions asked". Pellegrino said up to 100,000 addresses took it.
Then LayerZero published a list: "Between the sybil self-report and analysis by LayerZero, @chaoslabs, and @nansen_ai, 803,093 addresses were identified as potential sybils." Bounty hunters could earn 10% of a farmer's allocation by reporting more. Within hours Pellegrino counted "30,000 appeals, 3000+ bounty reports", and he paused the bounty process for a day or two. LayerZero said the hunt kept about 10 million ZRO, roughly 1% of the supply, away from sybil wallets.
The LayerZero donation to claim
The biggest surprise came on claim day: "To claim ZRO, users must donate $0.10 in USDC, USDT, or native ETH per ZRO." The money went to Protocol Guild, which funds Ethereum core developers, and the Foundation matched donations up to $10 million, for up to $18.5 million in all.
Not everyone liked it. The Block quoted Yearn contributor Banteg, who said mandatory donations "sound more like a glorified ICO", and Rotki founder Lefteris Karapetsas: "If you force a donation then it's called a tax." Pellegrino's answer, also in The Block, was "simply don't claim".
How much was the LayerZero airdrop worth?
Before launch ZRO traded at $4.27 in pre-market futures, CoinDesk reported, and The Block said it opened at a fully diluted value of $4 billion, about $4 a token, before sliding to $3 billion within a week. Decrypt's price data shows a peak of $7.47 on 6 December 2024 and about $1.62 on 29 October 2026.
At that price the smallest user allocation, 25 ZRO, was worth about $40, after a $2.50 donation to claim it.
Is there a new LayerZero airdrop in 2026?
No. Besides saying there are no plans for one, LayerZero has ruled out a token for its new Zero blockchain: "There is no second token and there never will be." Zero's mainnet is due on 30 November 2026, and LayerZero announced: "The countdown begins: Zero mainnet and lzATLAS go live on November 30." ZRO holders have voted four times on switching on a protocol fee, and each time it stayed off.
Sources
- ZRO Claim LayerZero Foundation,
- Introducing ZRO LayerZero Foundation,
- Addressing sybil activity LayerZero,
- 803,093 addresses identified as potential sybils LayerZero on X,
- 30,000 appeals, 3000+ bounty reports Bryan Pellegrino on X,
- 1.28M eligible wallets Bryan Pellegrino on X,
- The ZRO claim period has ended LayerZero Foundation on X,
- The ZRO Token LayerZero,
- Zero mainnet and lzATLAS go live on November 30 LayerZero on X,
- Fee switch votes LayerZero Foundation
- LayerZero asks eligible users to pay 10 cents per ZRO to claim airdrop The Block,
- LayerZero's ZRO token faces mixed reactions as sybil crackdown continues The Block,
- LayerZero Users Must Pay 10 Cents per ZRO to Claim Airdropped Token CoinDesk,
- LayerZero price Decrypt
This article is general information, not financial or tax advice. No airdrop is guaranteed.