Users have locked more than $2.1 billion on the Blast protocol as they eagerly await an airdrop slated for May. Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network, has surpassed a total value locked (Blast TVL) of $2.1 billion. Just a few days before the recently declared launch of its mainnet, scheduled for the end of this month.
Blast’s Explosive Growth: TVL Soars to $2.1 Billion Amid Airdrop Anticipation
DefiLlama’s data indicates that the TVL of Blast has now reached a value of $2.1 billion. Marking an increase of more than 2,200% since its bridging protocol initially became active on November 22.
Eager airdrop seekers, who have locked their Ethereum in the protocol to harvest a potential Blast token airdrop that the protocol’s management predicts will occur in May, attribute the great majority of the locked value.
IT’S TIME TO BLAST OFF
— Blast (@Blast_L2) February 26, 2024
Mainnet. February 29.
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是时候发射了！
主网。2月29日。
–
BLAST 여정의 시작.
메인넷. 2월 29일. pic.twitter.com/9jaBnFF6gw
The introduction of the Blast protocol drew criticism because users could not remove funds once locked in the platform until the mainnet launched.
There are a lot of components of Blast that I’m excited about and would be interested in engaging with people on. That said, we at Paradigm think the announcement this week crossed lines in both messaging and execution. For example, we don’t agree with the decision to launch the…
— Dan Robinson (@danrobinson) November 26, 2023
Risk on Blast Controversy: Rug Pull Raises $1.35M in ETH
On February 26, the Blast protocol once more sparked controversy when critics claimed that a gambling protocol named ‘Risk on Blast’ had executed a rug pull.The GambleFi project successfully raised 420 Ether (ETH), or $1.35 million at today’s exchange rates, for the RISK presale token, which ran from February 22 to the next day.
Since then, the group has deleted its associated social media profiles and transferred portions of the algorithmic stablecoin Dai (DAI) to the noncustodial cryptocurrency market ChangeNOW.
The Blast protocol, which was introduced in the middle of November, is a scalability solution for the Ethereum network. Users that stake their funds on the protocol are eligible for native rewards in Ether (ETH) and stablecoins.
Notably, Tieshun Roquerre, the creator of Blast and creator of the NFT platform Blur, goes by the moniker “PacMan.”
Roquerre defended Blast against accusations of “too good to be true” yields in a post on November 23 on X, asserting that MakerDAO and Lido were responsible for Blast’s yield.
1/ There's a meme going around that Blast is a ponzi. The yield that Blast provides users can feel too good to be true, so this meme is understandable. But to put it simply, the yield Blast provides comes (initially) from Lido and MakerDAO.
— Pacman | Blur + Blast (@PacmanBlur) November 24, 2023
Lido yield comes from ETH staking…
Days before debut, Blast closed a $20 million seed financing backed by Standard Crypto and Paradigm.
