Blast Secures $1.1B in Deposits Ahead of Launch
The native BLUR token has also seen positive price movements.
2024 is only a few days away and we already have many highly anticipated blockchain projects in the works. Even though it is the holidays, crypto lovers are still engaging with these projects and many of them seem very promising. Take Blast, a layer-2 blockchain that is being launched by the creators of Blur. The blockchain will not be fully live until February 2024 but has already reported an impressive $1.1 billion in deposits.
Blast Makes a Splash
According to publicly available data, users have deposited $1 billion worth of wrapped Ether and $103 million worth of DAI so far. This is a very encouraging sign as it shows that the community is invested in the project and is putting their money where their mouth is.
And with all the investment they are putting in Blast, users have a lot of rewards to look forward to. More specifically, there is a 5% yield on staked assets that will be released in May 2024 via airdrop after the platform has been live for a few months. On top of that, Blast offers a referral program that rewards those who refer others to it. This is similar to what Blur, the creators of Blast, did when they launched an NFT platform.
While this has clearly been effective in bringing in new users, it has not been without controversy. Some people have compared it to a multi-level marketing scheme (MLM) and have expressed concern that only the first crop of users will get any tangible benefits.
But clearly, Blur is unphased by this criticism since this same tactic was applied to Blast. Interestingly enough, one of the vocal critics of this strategy was Dan Robinson, the head of research at Paradigm, which is one of Blur’s biggest backers. He said in a tweet that while he is excited about certain aspects of Blast, he did not agree with the marketing tactics used.
On Twitter/X, he said:
“We don’t agree with the decision to launch the bridge before the L2, or not to allow withdrawals for three months, since we think it sets a bad precedent for other projects. We also think much of the marketing cheapens the work of a serious team.”
This pushback has also not stopped users from depositing funds on the platform and referring others. The native BLUR token has also seen positive price movements as a result of this. All this success could very well prompt more high-profile projects to adopt the same marketing model, which will only add to the controversy surrounding it.
But with only a few months away from its launch date, it will be interesting to see how Blast is received once it is fully live.
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