What Is Arbitrum?
Arbitrum is a layer-2 scaling solution, and its purpose is to process transactions off-chain in an attempt to make the leading Ethereum network less congested and, therefore, more operable. It works by processing a portion of transactions on the Ethereum network outside of the blockchain (off-chain), only to send the result back to the main Ethereum network to be stored. This approach lowers the gas fees and allows more users to hop on a network without paying extra fees.
So, Arbitrum doesn’t keep track of transactions that occur within the Ethereum ecosystem. Instead, this scaling solution is responsible for only processing a chuck of network activity. The records of these activities, aka transactions, have only ever existed on the primary public Ethereum production blockchain, otherwise known as the Mainnet.
Photo illustration: Freepik
The Arbitrum network came to life in August 2021. Like any other Ethereum project or any other crypto project for that matter, Arbitrum should have been a decentralized project from the start. Still, Offchain Labs had the ultimate control over the network since its inception, excluding the users from any decision-making process regarding Arbitrum’s development.
However, the change is already coming to an end, as Arbitrum has finally launched its governance token, ARB. The ARB token went live on 23 March 2023, and its max supply in circulation won’t exceed 10 billion ARB units.
Most members of the Ethereum community highly anticipated the coin launch. Now that it’s finally here, it will allow the holders to have a say on changes made to the Arbitrum, the leading layer-2 network in the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
The Long-Awaited Token Launch and the ARB Airdrop
In partnership with Offchain Labs and Nansen, The Arbiturm Foundation has recently announced an ARB airdrop and confirmed the distribution of the governance ARB tokens to the Arbitrum community. The token launched on March 23, when, according to CoinDesk, eligible users claimed over two million ARB tokens within the first hour of the token airdrop.
Users didn’t really plan to miss this opportunity to gather the long-anticipated Arbitrum token, which the report curated by Dune only confirms. At the time of writing, 86.22% of eligible users have already claimed their prize. The percentage of claimers is equivalent to 535,416 wallets, and the same data shows that, so far, 1,001,967,000 ARB tokens have found their way to new owners. In less than a few days, the majority of eligible owners claimed their tokens, and more importantly, the trade-off began.
Where to Buy ARB and How Much Does It Cost?
According to the CoinGecko Arbitrum price chart, the ARB price on the day of its release was $5.04 with a volume of $55.45. Only one hour later, the price dropped to $1.19. However, this time, the ARB trading volume amounted to $57,340,606. It didn’t take long for the trading volume to exceed one million.
The number of coins circulating the market shortly after the initial release only confirms the hype around the ARB token. Arbitrum price is, for now, stable, as it doesn’t exceed $1.53 or goes below $1.10. The same goes for volume, meaning the continuous interest from market enthusiasts could eventually drive its price up.
Source: CoinGecko
Another interesting fact is that the Arbitrum token has settled into the top 40 coins by market cap. Although it has been switching between 38th and 39th place so far, the token has only been on the market for a few days now. Such demand after the ARB airdrop is interpreted as an excellent success for Ethereum’s chief layer-2 network.
The major crypto exchanges also confirmed the ARB token listing. So, if you end up wanting to get your share of ARB, you could do it via Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, or, most likely, your other preferred exchanges.
Note: This is not in any way investment advice and shouldn’t be interpreted as such.
