Taiko, a well-known layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain, has just closed a $15 million Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Faction, Wintermute Ventures, GSR and other Venture Capitals.
The money will be used to develop the emerging network, which will enter the mainnet in the coming months. Furthermore, part of the funds raised could be dedicated to an airdrop incentive program, distributing Taiko’s new native crypto to all early adopters of the chain.
All the details below.
Taiko: Ethereum Layer 2 Announces $15 Million Series A Funding Round
Taiko is a layer-2 cryptographic network, designed to improve the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain.
It is a ZKEVM rollup using zero-knowledge computational proofs to group transactions off the main chain and subsequently send the compressed data to Ethereum.
The project presents a “based contestable rollup” architecture in which there are mechanisms for contesting operations.
While the work of the Taiko developers continues from 2022, the network is currently in testnet, to be precise within the sixth test phase called Katia.
With the launch of the mainnet expected in the next few months, this type of layer-2 has already recorded excellent numbers with 1.1 million addresses created and 13 million transactions carried out
Now Taiko can count on new resources ready to be invested in the development of the chain, after a $15 million Series A financing round was closed.
Investing on the Ethereum secondary network we find investors such as
Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures e Token Bay Capital who led the round, and other Venture Capitals such as Wintermute Ventures, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures and GSR.
9 months ago Taiko had revealed two other loans, with a total value of 22 million dollars, which have been used in recent months to continue with the development of the new network.
It is currently unclear whether the latest Series A funding announcement was through an equity, token or mixed structure for investors. What we know is that in the future, with the same investors who are “betting” on the growth of Taiko, an investment fund will be created on the crypto sector.
In honor of the excellent result achieved, Terence Lam, the co-founder of the project, declared verbatim words while layer 2 impatiently awaits its entry into the mainnet:
“We definitely need to update our Katla testnet to enable support for EIP-4844 and perform an additional round of stress tests and security audits for the mainnet. The current outlook for completing all of this is before the end of the second quarter.”
The Taiko team is made up of 40 people working on different tasks, with one front dedicated to the engineering part and the other to the growth and support of the community and the crypto ecosystem.
Taiko may launch a token via airdrop after entering the mainnet
While Ethereum Taiko layer 2 completes the final network adjustments waiting to enter the mainnet, airdrop hunters are preparing to seize another profit opportunity.
The need to launch a native token within its ecosystem suggests that Taiko will use the opportunity to attract network traffic and new capital through an incentive systemriding the trend of airdrops on second-level chains.
With Starknet having made its STRK asset official just two weeks ago by distributing the token to its community, and with other large players on the horizon such as ZkSync, Scroll and Linea ready to follow in the same footsteps, the market’s attention is becoming increasingly understood in this context.
The airdrop itself does not in fact exclusively represent a way to decentralize one’s cryptographic currency for a layer-2, but rather it is seen as one marketing tool capable of attracting data flow and capital.
Furthermore, this process allows the same VCs who financed the project to be rewarded (and who allow a token launch with attached liquidity) by offering their token as an exit, which is in any case subjected to a vesting period to prevent it from being dumped on the market at listing.
Currently, to participate in the airdrop of this Ethereum scaling solution it is possible to move only in the testnet, carrying out social campaigns on Galxe, becoming active members on Discord and offering your support on Github commits.
However, the most important phase for farming the Taiko airdrop is yet to come: the launch of the mainnet in this sense represents a more concrete opportunity to qualify for the distribution of coins.
Many of these layer-2s that offer to launch a token with this type of initiative, in fact, try to stimulate network traffic as much as possible on the main network, where the project collects fees.
Therefore, as in the cases of similar projects, for Taiko too airdrop eligibility will likely be guaranteed by actions such as bridging funds on the chain, executing transactions over several different months, interacting with a vast range of protocols and generating a good trading volume.
Source: https://cryptonomist.ch/2024/03/04/taiko-possibile-airdrop-early-user-layer-2-ethereum/
