Justin Sun’s $30 Million EIGEN Holdings Spotlighted as EigenLayer Airdrop Kicks Off

The Eigen Foundation, an independent non-profit, announced on May 10 that the Season 1 airdrop claims process for the restaking protocol EigenLayer has begun.

Community members uncovered that Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON network, received approximately 3.62 million EIGEN tokens through four addresses.

Justin Sun Gets $30 Million Worth of EIGEN

At current market rates of $8 per token on decentralized exchanges like Aevo, Sun’s EIGEN holdings are valued at around $30 million. The EIGEN token’s anticipated initial market capitalization is approximately $800 million, with a fully diluted valuation of $16 billion.

“Justin used his 665,000 $ETH (worth $1.9 billion) to stake in various platforms, including EigenLayer, Swell, Puffer, Lido, Etherfi,” data analyst Jonaso said.

Read more: How to Participate in an EigenLayer Airdrop: A Step-by-Step Guide

Justin Sun EIGEN Tokens. Source: EmberCN

Meanwhile, the Foundation has allayed concerns about early dumping, as EIGEN is currently nontransferable. This prevents early claimers of the airdrop from selling.

The Foundation announced that they will make EIGEN transferable after the team implements new features, aiming for implementation by September 30. The claim process will close on September 7. Users who fail to claim by then cannot receive their tokens.

EigenLayer aims to allocate 15% of its total token supply of 1.6 billion to users. Following controversies surrounding the initial airdrop, a second phase of Season 2 airdrop is planned for mid-June. It will distribute 0.7% to eligible participants, including users of popular yield farming apps like Pendle, Kelp, and Equilibrium.

EigenLayer Airdrop Plan. Source: Eigen Foundation

Despite these efforts, the project excluded many individuals from the airdrop, spanning over 30 countries, including China, the US, and Canada. Additionally, VPN users were banned from claiming the airdrop.

Read more: Ethereum Restaking: What Is It And How Does It Work?

EigenLayer is a platform that allows users to re-stake their Ethereum to secure third-party networks or actively validated services. According to DeFillama data, since its launch, the crypto community staked $15 billion worth of ETH on the platform.