Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum saw daily revenue soar to a record $3.4 million (in ETH) on Thursday, benefiting from increased activity related to the opening of LayerZero’s ZRO token claims, for which it was the coordination chain.

Arbitrum had witnessed just $20,000 in revenue on June 19. This shows the daily revenue spiked more than 16,500% on Thursday in comparison, according to a Dune dashboard aggregated by datawarlock.

“One of the biggest winners from the LayerZero airdrop — Arbitrum,” Austin Marrazza, product manager at Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, said. “DAO raked in $3 million in congestion fees from claiming traffic today.”

Arbitrum revenue. Image: Dune Analytics.

The LayerZero Foundation, the organization that supports the cross-chain interoperability platform LayerZero, opened airdrop claims for its native ZRO token at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, which will remain open until Sept. 20.

Some 85 million ZRO tokens, representing 8.5% of the 1 billion total supply, are claimable by eligible participants, with the remaining tokens reserved for future distribution programs, ecosystem growth, strategic partners and core contributors. LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino previously identified a total of 1.28 million wallets eligible for the airdrop.

LayerZero asks eligible users to pay 10 cents per ZRO to claim airdrop

However, the foundation subsequently announced that to claim ZRO, users must make a $0.10 donation per ZRO token in USDC, USDT or ETH to support Protocol Guild, a non-profit funding collective for Ethereum core researchers and developers.

The new "Proof-of-Donation" claims mechanism is designed to generate up to $18.5 million for Protocol Guild, with LayerZero Foundation matching donations up to $10 million and the donated funds vested over four years.

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The new claim mechanism faced criticism from some in the crypto community, who view the mandatory donations as a disguised form of funding or a tax rather than a true airdrop — typically intended as a reward for user contributions and to decentralize the protocol.

"There is no forced donation, if you don't want to donate... simply don't claim. This is not something you own, it's something being offered," Pellegrino responded on Thursday.

Arbitrum fees spike

Arbitrum benefitted as it is used as the coordination chain for the LayerZero token claims contract, processing claims atomically without needing additional LayerZero messaging.

Eligible users can also claim ZRO from Ethereum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, BNB Chain and Avalanche, but this requires a LayerZero cross-chain message to facilitate the claim on these networks. 

As a result, median gas prices on Arbitrum spiked from 0.01 gwei to 34.7 gwei before falling back to similar levels as the activity subsided.

Arbitrum median gas price. Image: Dune Analytics.

The jump in gas price equated to average daily transaction fees on Arbitrum soaring to $0.89 on Thursday, compared to a sub-cent typical fee. They have since returned to that baseline.

LayerZero’s ZRO token is currently trading for $3.15, according to CoinGecko data. It has a market cap of $796 million and a fully diluted valuation of $3.2 billion, with nearly $1 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours.