Arbitrum experienced a dramatic increase in daily revenue on Thursday, driven by a surge in transactions coinciding with the commencement of the LayerZero (ZRO) token airdrop.
According to Datawarlock, a prominent Dune Analytics dashboard focused on Arbitrum’s economic activity, the Ethereum layer-2 network recorded a modest daily revenue of $20,000 on Wednesday, June 19. However, this figure skyrocketed on June 20, as the LayerZero airdrop claim commenced, with Arbitrum registering a total revenue of $3.4 million. This surge was fueled by 3.7 million transactions, marking an increase of 1.2 million transactions from the previous day.
Austin Marrazza, Product Manager at Offchain Labs, noted the significant traffic generated by ZRO claimers, which resulted in Arbitrum DAO collecting over $3 million in congestion fees. “Arbitrum emerged as a major beneficiary from the LayerZero airdrop. The DAO accrued $3 million today alone due to claiming traffic,” Marrazza stated.
Arbitrum Transactions Surge Amid LayerZero Token Claim
LayerZero’s airdrop distributed 8.5 million ZRO tokens, representing 8.5% of its total 1 billion token supply. This event proved to be a significant advantage for Arbitrum, as ZRO claimers flocked to the network. Arbitrum’s capability to handle ZRO tokens atomically, independent of LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging, further bolstered its appeal.
The network saw a significant increase in traffic, causing the average gas price to rise from 0.011 gwei to over 2.189 gwei, and transaction fees to soar correspondingly. Data from Dune Analytics revealed that network costs on June 20 reached $140,200, while revenue soared to $3.43 million, resulting in a profit of $3.29 million. In terms of Ether (ETH), costs were 40 ETH while revenue stood at 956 ETH, with profits amounting to 916 ETH.
For Arbitrum, revenue encompasses transaction fees from Arbitrum One, while costs relate to transaction fees for posting data to Ethereum. According to Datawarlock, Arbitrum has cumulatively achieved a total profit exceeding $57 million to date.