Following its airdrop, the ERC-20 token OMNI from The Omni Network experienced a significant drop of over 55%, causing its market capitalization to be reduced by more than half. At the same time, a fraudulent token with the same name executed a “rug pull,” resulting in a 100% price dump.
The layer-1 testnet blockchain, which aims to connect Ethereum rollups, distributed 3 million OMNI tokens (equivalent to 3% of its total token supply of 100 million) to its community contributors on April 17. The distribution began at 11 am UTC. Prior to the airdrop, OMNI had a market capitalization of $560 million.
Within just thirty minutes, the price of OMNI plummeted by nearly 30%, dropping from $53.80 to below $39. Since then, it has continued to decline and currently sits at around $24, representing a drop of over 55%. According to CoinGecko, the current market capitalization stands at $267.5 million, resulting in a fully diluted valuation of approximately $2.57 billion.
The decline in OMNI’s price has persisted since the airdrop took place over 16 hours ago.
During the airdrop, early testnet users, builders, and community participants received 50% (1.5 million OMNI) of the latest airdrop, valued at around $36.2 million. Eligibility for the airdrop was determined through a snapshot taken on April 3.
The remaining tokens were divided among EigenLayer restakers and various nonfungible token (NFT) projects, including Pudgy Penguins.
On April 15, Omni Network announced that 9.27 million OMNI tokens (9.27% of the total supply) were allocated as public launch tokens for “launch pools and liquidity.”
The largest portion of OMNI tokens (29.5 million, representing 29.5% of the supply) will be reserved for “ecosystem development” and distributed initially at the discretion of the Omni Foundation, the blockchain’s supporting organization. About a quarter of all OMNI tokens (23.3 million) were designated for investors and advisers.
As of today, advisers have received 625,000 OMNI tokens worth $15 million, and an additional 875,000 OMNI tokens will be distributed after one year. After that, 437,500 OMNI tokens will be distributed every six months for two years.
Investors’ tokens are subject to a three-year unlock schedule. Approximately 6.7 million tokens, valued at nearly $161 million, will be released after 12 months, with the remaining tokens being unlocked every six months until all allocated tokens are distributed.
In the meantime, the creators of a fake OMNI token using the same ticker executed an exit scam, resulting in a loss of $398,000. PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, reported that the fraudulent token experienced a 100% drop in price after the smart contract deployed dumped over 1.7 quadrillion tokens for 132 Wrapped Ether (WETH).