Zora’s Token Airdrop Sparks Confusion

Zora, an on-chain social media and NFT platform, officially launched the airdrop of its native token, ZORA, today – but it didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. The rollout left many users confused, with some claiming they couldn’t claim or trade their tokens.

The airdrop comprised 1 billion tokens, distributed to roughly 2.4 million unique addresses, according to Zora’s website. Eligibility was determined based on two snapshots: the first captured activity between January 1, 2020, and March 3, 2025, while the second included activity from March 3 to April 20, 2025.

However, shortly after the token went live, the token began plummeting – currently, it’s down 33% and trading at around $0.023, according to CoinGecko.

The sharp drop came amid a wave of social media complaints from users who encountered technical issues when trying to claim their tokens and others who received little to nothing from their airdrops.

A Plethora of Problems

One user on X (formerly Twitter), a crypto analyst with the handle PackBagPoints, criticized the decision to airdrop to such a large group. “Imagine being on the Zora team and thinking this was a good idea. Who airdrops to 2.5 million wallets?”

The user added that they’d rather be disqualified based on arbitrary rules than receive a token allocation that felt meaningless. “I’d rather have been told I didn’t qualify … than to get airdrops worth 2 cents or 4 cents,” they said.

Adding to the frustration, Binance Wallet also confirmed some users were experiencing issues when attempting to sell Zora tokens. “Our team is actively investigating it and will endeavor to resolve the issue asap,” the platform said on X.

Zora, which didn’t announce the airdrop officially until around two hours after it was live, noted on its X account that “$ZORA is for fun only and not for investment purposes.”

“Zora’s airdrop reflects a broader issue we’ve seen across the industry: token launches that prioritize reach over real utility,” Mike Cahill, CEO of Douro Labs, a leading contributor to the Pyth Network, told The Defiant.

“Airdropping to 2.4 million wallets sounds great on paper, but if liquidity, UX, and communications aren’t in place, it undermines confidence – not just in terms of the project, but in the broader ecosystem.”

Controversy Continues

The airdrop drama follows closely behind another Zora-related controversy involving Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network. On April 16, Base’s official X account posted “Base is for everyone,” linking to a tokenized version of the phrase on Zora.

Since all Zora posts are automatically minted as tokens, many mistook the post as an official Base token. The confusion led to the token briefly surging past a $17 million market cap before crashing 95%. As of now, it’s trading at $0.003521, down 40% in the past day, with a market cap of $3.5 million, per CoinGecko.

Just days later, Base and Zora were accused of shady marketing after revealing the launch date of the ZORA token. Specifically, users on crypto Twitter accused both Zora and Base of using the memecoin drama to generate hype ahead of the airdrop, calling the timing manipulative and misleading.