41.6% of ZEX Airdrop Recipients Have Diamond Hands - Did Zeta’s Gamified Claim Strategy Work?

One week after Zeta Markets’ gamified airdrop went live the dust has finally settled. While ZEX price action might have disappointed investors and ZEX bulls, data on claimant behavior suggests that recipients are aligned with Zeta’s long-term goals.

Over 54% of Claimed ZEX Staked in Anticipation of Further Rewards

Zeta Market’s highly anticipated TGE event went live last week, with approximately 80,000 traders eligible to claim their share of 80M ZEX tokens. In an attempt to avoid the immediate price depreciation commonly witnessed during airdrop events, Zeta Markets encouraged users to delay claiming their tokens in exchange for boosted rewards.

A linear bonus was applied to all claims, essentially meaning that the longer users waited to claim their tokens, the more they would receive. As of press time, only 38.3% of the initial airdrop has been claimed, with 27,875 Zeta Markets traders claiming their allocation.

By staking ZEX tokens, users will be eligible for more airdrops down the line, with an additional 20M tokens (2% of the total supply) to be distributed to wallets who stake ZEX before July 25.

This course of action proved popular among recipients of larger ZEX allocations, with over 54% of claimed ZEX being staked despite only 44.4% of claimants opting to stake their airdrop, based on Dune Analytics data.

Do Zeta Users Have Diamond Hands?

Zeta Markets also proposed a ‘Diamond Hand’ claim mechanic, wherein users could choose to claim their full allocation, including the 7-day bonus, if they were willing to immediately stake their full allocation. 

While taking the ‘Diamond Hand’ route was overall less popular than immediately claiming, the ZEX community showed that there are plenty among them with a long-term mindset. Overall approximately 41.6% of all claimants chose to stake their tokens.

Unsurprisingly, Zeta Markets power users and loyal supporters were more likely to opt for a Diamond Hand claim. Among wallets that were eligible to claim over 10,000 ZEX tokens, 54.1% chose to stake their allocations. This contrasts with recipients of smaller allocations, of whom an average of only 44.1% chose to stake their ZEX airdrop.

Did Zeta’s Gamified Claim Strategy Work?

Despite these novel airdrop claim mechanics, ZEX still suffered price volatility upon launch. Upon listing at approximately $0.10, ZEX opened confidently, climbing as much as 160% to reach highs of $0.26 within four hours of launch.

However, as more airdrop recipients successfully claimed their tokens, ZEX succumbed to bearish forces and entered into a period of consolidation since launch. At press time, ZEX is exchanging hands at $0.064, based on Step Finance data.

While this might suggest that Zeta’s approach was unsuccessful, it’s important to recognize that the entire crypto market is suffering a downturn across the board, driven by sustained BTC sell pressure from the German government, among other factors.

With this in mind, it is difficult to ascertain whether ZEX’s price performance is due to airdrop recipients immediately selling their allocations or whether the token is simply a victim of wider market dynamics.

In any case, Zeta’s strategy highlights that the platform has attracted a strong core community of users, with loyal power users proving that they are aligned with the protocol’s long-term vision.

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