Wormhole, a cross-chain communication protocol enabling the transfer of assets between blockchains, recently launched an airdrop campaign for its newly issued governance token, W. Early users were rewarded with 617 million W tokens, and the protocol also released a roadmap outlining its plans.
Wormhole Protocol Unveils Roadmap
According to the protocol’s roadmap, W aims to become a native multi-chain token, leveraging the advantages of both the Solana and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains.
Initially launched as a native SPL token on Solana, W will reportedly leverage Solana’s performance, offering increased performance, scalability, low transaction costs, and fast settlement times.
After the Solana debut, W will be extended to all Wormhole-connected EVM chains using Wormhole Native Token Transfers (NTT). This framework allows W to continuously roll out across Solana, the Ethereum mainnet, and Layer 2 (L2s) without liquidity fragmentation.
The open-source NTT framework allows projects to control token behavior on each chain, including token standards, metadata, ownership/upgradability, and custom features.
Cross-Chain Governance System
Wormhole also introduces a governance system where token holders on any supported chain can create, vote on, and implement governance proposals. This approach allows maximum participation in the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) by providing a frictionless user experience for token holders distributed across multiple chains.
As announced, W holders can lock and delegate their tokens on Solana and EVM chains, allowing them to participate in governance decisions. The Wormhole DAO, composed of W token holders, will oversee the Solana, Ethereum mainnet, and EVM L2s governance system.
Wormhole, developed by Jump Crypto, a division of Jump Trading Group, has been under development for several years. Despite encountering challenges, including a significant hack in February 2022 resulting in a loss of approximately $320 million, the protocol has continued to evolve.
Furthermore, the recent listing of the W token on major exchanges such as Crypto.com and the future support planned by Coinbase on April 4 further validate its progress.
W’s Debut On OpenBook
The W token debuted on the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) OpenBook at $1.66, with a market capitalization of $2.98 billion and a fully diluted value of $16.5 billion.
However, the token’s market capitalization and fully diluted value have since fallen to $2.2 billion and $12.5 billion, respectively, according to updated data from CoinGecko. Trading volume for W has remarkably increased, reaching $555,937,593 in the last 24 hours, representing a staggering 25,732,359.60% surge.
Following the airdrop, some users openly shared their sell-offs of the W token on social media platforms, resulting in a 23% price drop. At the time of writing, the token is trading at $1.32.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com
Disclaimer: The article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.