Zora Airdrop Sparks Confusion After Surprise Token Launch Without Announcement
In a move that left many users puzzled, decentralized social media platform Zora launched its new ZORA token without an official announcement or claim link — triggering backlash across the crypto community.
The memecoin, built on Ethereum’s Layer-2 Base network, debuted on Wednesday with no prior communication from the development team, forcing users to manually claim tokens by interacting directly with the smart contract. This complicated process proved especially challenging for newcomers to the ecosystem.
Adding to the confusion, major exchanges including Binance, Bybit, and Bitget listed the ZORA token shortly after launch, with millions of dollars' worth of tokens allocated for trading. Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives platform, also began offering leveraged options on the token. On-chain data from Arkham Intelligence shows that roughly $6 million has flowed across exchanges since launch.
Critics were quick to take to social media. On X (formerly Twitter), user @aadvark89 labeled the rollout a “grift masterclass,” pointing to the lack of transparency, years of user "farming," and promotional posts from Jesse Pollak, the Coinbase engineer behind the Base network — which publicly endorsed a Zora-backed token earlier this month that later plummeted in value.
Despite Zora’s positioning of the token as a light-hearted memecoin “for fun only,” community members have raised concerns about the tokenomics. Of the 10 billion total ZORA supply, only 10% was distributed to users via a retroactive airdrop. The remainder, much of which is retained by the team and investors, has sparked debate over fairness — particularly given the token does not offer any governance rights or equity claims.
The situation was further complicated by the timing of the airdrop. On-chain records show that the airdrop allocation was transferred from a Gnosis Safe to a contract address hours before the public announcement. The Zora team only confirmed the airdrop had officially begun two hours after the tokens were moved. They have since clarified that there is no expiration date for claiming the tokens.
Zora has seen significant traction in the run-up to this event, especially after Pollak’s public endorsements of “content coins” — a trend in which social media posts are minted as tokens. Dune Analytics reports over 150,000 new coins have been created on Zora in just the past week.
Launched in 2020, Zora originally gained popularity among NFT collectors. Backed by Coinbase Ventures, which invested during both its $2 million seed round and a $50 million raise in 2022, the platform’s direction appears to be shifting — albeit not without growing pains.