Scroll Backers Down 48% As FDVs of Airdropped Tokens Fall

Recent investors in Scroll, the fourth-largest Layer 2 network, appear to be underwater by nearly 48% after its highly-anticipated airdrop failed to live up to its hype.

On Oct. 22, Scroll airdropped 7% of SCR’s supply to early adopters. SCR is currently trading at a $178.5 million market cap and fully-diluted valuation (FDV) of $939.2 billion after crashing 30% since debuting, according to CoinGecko.

With Scroll reportedly closing a $50 million funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation in March 2023, SCR's performance implies that investors who participated in the round are down 47.8% on their outlay. The round featured participation from heavyweight crypto VCs including Polychain Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, and IOSG Ventures.

Scroll also raised $30 million at an undisclosed valuation in April 2022.

The SCR airdrop has elevated Scroll’s total value locked to an all-time high of $1.54 billion, according to L2beat.

Airdrop FDVs slump

Scroll’s weak post-airdrop performance suggests the recent trend of VC-backed tokens launching at massive multi-billion dollar FDVs is subsiding, as illustrated by the airdrops of rival Layer 2 networks ranked among the top 10.

On May 31, Optimism became the first major L2 to airdrop a token to early adoptions, with its OP token debuting at an FDV of $6 billion and trading at a $7.42 billion FDV today.

Arbitrum made waves when its ARB token dropped at a $13 billion FDV in March 2023, but the token has since tumbled to an FDV of $5.68 billion.

Starknet’s token launch closed its debut day at a FDV of $12.78 billion on Feb. 20. STRK has since suffered a steep decline, with its FDV now sitting at $4.05 billion.

Recent drops have taken place with more modest FDVs, with ZKsync’s ZK token launching at a $5.3 billion valuation and BLAST debuting at a $2.9 billion FDV in June. However, ZK has since dropped to a $2.9 billion FDV, while BLAST has slumped to a $865 million valuation.