LayerZero to fire employees participating in internal airdrops

The co-founder and CEO of LayerZero Labs, Bryan Pellegrino, discussed concerns about company employees participating in its upcoming airdrop.

In an X post on May 7, Pellegrino said that all the LayerZero Labs employees are “100% restricted” from participating in the platform’s long-awaited airdrop — first addressed in December 2023.

He added the matter has already been shared within the company and is “a fireable offense.”

On May 1, 2023, the LayerZero team announced the tokenomics of the ZRO token as follows: 

• 25% of the ZRO tokens are allocated to the ecosystem fund.
• 19% will be airdropped to the early adopters and users of the platform — this includes a 5% allocation for an Initial DEX Offering (IDO). 
• 19% will be sent to the core contributors.
• 17% of the tokens are allocated to investors.
• 20% is allocated to Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RPGF) — actors who have completed projects on LayerZero which has already benefited the platform.

After completing its snapshot on May 1, LayerZero is currently hunting Sybil actors — users who create multiple fake accounts to earn more rewards from an airdrop. Notably, the company announced the launch of its airdrop in the first half of 2024.

In July 2023, a fake LayerZero airdrop drained user wallets in a phishing attack. The bogus website stole funds from crypto wallets immediately after getting connected. However, the total amounts of the losses were not reported.