Cross-Chain Bridge Stargate's Volume Soars as Airdrop Hunters Set Sights on LayerZero Token

Volume on the Stargate cross-chain bridge has surged by 30% in the past 24 hours as investors attempt to meet the criteria for a rumored LayerZero airdrop.

Data from DefiLlama shows that activity on Stargate has risen significantly over the past five weeks. Earlier in April, the protocol announced that it surpassed $1 billion in monthly volume for the first time. Stargate is a gateway to LayerZero and is responsible for the majority of capital flowing into the protocol.

Trading volume for Stargate's STG token has jumped by 95% in the past 24 hours, and the token was recently trading at 78 cents, up 2% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

Although LayerZero hasn't announced that it will release a token, the protocol's code on GitBook mentions "ZRO token holder," suggesting that a native token is set to be issued.

LayerZero is an "omnichain" protocol that communicates with different blockchains. It facilitates the transfer of assets and arbitrary data across different blockchains. Earlier this month, the firm raised $120 million at a $3 billion valuation with investments from Andreessen Horowitz, Samsung Next and Sequoia Capital.

The funding caught the attention of crypto traders. A number of high-profile airdrops in the past 12 months yielded significant returns for a minimal amount of effort. Optimism (OP), Aptos (APT), Arbitrum (ARB) and Blur (BLUR) all issued lucrative airdrops that rewarded early adopters.

Airdrop hunters are hopping on Stargate governance proposals in the hope of receiving a larger allocation of LayerZero's rumored token. More than 6.4 million STG tokens were staked for a recent proposal on whether to make decentralized exchange Velodrome an STG hub on the Optimism blockchain.

LayerZero didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.