LayerZero’s multi-chain ecosystem grows as airdrop hunters ramp up their efforts

cointelegraph.com:

LayerZero is a communication method that facilitates cross-chain applications. Its low-level messaging capabilities enable the development of omni-chain functionalities on top of it, such as decentralized exchanges, money market protocols and numerous other DeFi applications that can benefit from cross-chain liquidity provisions.

The LayerZero platform was launched in September 2021 with Stargate Finance, a cross-chain bridge, as the first application built on it. The project raised $261 million in three funding rounds, doubling its valuation from $1 billion to $2 billionfrom March 2022 to March 2023.

Data analytics firm Nansen reported that decentralized applications (Dapps) built on LayerZero are some of the top-used entities across blockchain platforms like Aribtrum, Optimism, Ethereum, Binance Chain and Polygon.

In the first week of April, LayerZero-powered applications like Stargate and Radiant Finance were most used on Arbitrum and Optimism. On Polygon, Binance Chain and Ethereum, LayerZero and its applications ranked between 7th and 30th concerning user activity.

@LayerZero_Labs raised $120M at a $3B valuation$ZRO airdrop tweets going viral (again)Data shows that LayerZero is among the top entities on Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, BNB Chain, FantomSharing some of the multi-chain stats below (with free/public dashboards) pic.twitter.com/HZwc4J4vuG

The primary motivation for the increasing adoption is the speculation around the native token airdrop of LayerZero. The team has included a mention of the ZRO token in their source code on Github, which makes an airdrop toward early users likely.

Stargate Finance is the building block of the LayerZero ecosystem. The cross-chain bridge enables transfers between Ethereum,