Eigen Labs team reportedly requested airdrops from EigenLayer ecosystem projects
- Eigen Labs is accused of sharing its employees' wallet addresses to receive airdrops, raising conflict of interest concerns.
- Eigen Labs has banned employees from receiving airdrops since May, seeking to prevent conflicts of interest and protect the company's neutrality.
- A CoinDesk investigation reveals that Eigen Labs employees received the equivalent of $5 million in tokens via airdrops from projects in the EigenLayer ecosystem.
Eigen Labsa leading startup in the Ethereum ecosystem, finds itself at the center of a controversy regarding the distribution of tokens during airdrops to its employees.
According to a CoinDesk investigationthe company would have shared its employees' wallet addresses with various ecosystem projects OwnLayerthus facilitating (or forcing?) the reception of tokens by the latter. These airdrops, the value of which has reached nearly $5 million at their peakraise concerns about potential conflicts of interest within the company.
Eigen Labs requested that its employees be rewarded with an airdrop. It was hard to ignore this request given Eigen Labs' influence.
Developer of a project who preferred to remain anonymous.
The practice of airdrops within EigenLayer
Several projects using EigenLayer technology received lists of wallets from Eigen Labs employees, often at their request, in order to distribute tokens as a token of appreciation. Indeed, one team told CoinDesk that she had sent to Each Eigen Labs employee receives an $80,000 stipend in tokens.
However, at least one team has revealed that they have received this list without requesting itfeeling this way under pressure to distribute tokens to employees from Eigen Labs. This kind of situation highlights the influential position that Eigen Labs occupies in the ecosystem, capable of making or breaking the success of third-party projects.
Reactions and actions taken by Eigen Labs
Faced with the controversy, Eigen Labs and the Eigen Foundationwhich is overseeing the project, have taken steps to prohibit these token distributions to employees. In May, the company announced that it would no longer allow its employees to receive airdrops from ecosystem projects, seeking to prevent any conflicts of interest or the appearance of such conflicts. Additionally, Eigen Labs introduced a policy to prevent any employee from influencing transactions for personal gain.
Broader context in the crypto sector
The case Own Labs is part of a broader context where transparency and governance standards are still developing in the cryptocurrency sector. Unlike regulated public companies, crypto startups have greater freedom in the management and disclosure of information criticisms, such as the token distributionThis situation sometimes leaves investors with incomplete or even misleading information about digital assets.
The practices from Eigen Labs have sparked mixed reactions. While some consider these airdrops as a common practice in the crypto industryothers see it as a form abuse of power. A crypto protocol founder, who requested anonymity, described the payments as “out of the ordinary“, even for the cryptocurrency sector. Other voices, such as that of Cessiah Lopez, a researcher affiliated with the University of Cambridge, have warned of the risks that these actions could represent for the credibility and neutrality proclaimed by Eigen Labs.
CoinDesk Transaction Tracking and Disclosures
An in-depth investigation conducted by CoinDesk allowed to trace transactions associated with employees from Eigen Labs.
The identified wallets received the same number of tokens from three different airdrops : Ether.Fi, RenzoAnd AltLayer. After having reconstituted this list, CoinDesk was able to verify a majority of these addresses with internal sources close to Eigen Labs' activities.
According to the analysis, Each Eigen Labs employee received 46,512 ALT tokens from AltLayer, 10,490.9 ETHFI tokens of Ether.Fi, and 66,667 REZ tokens At their peak value, these airdrops were worth around $30,000 for AltLayer, $80,000 for Ether.Fi, and $16,666 for Renzo per employee.
On-chain data indicates that between late January and mid-June 2024, Eigen Labs employees claimed a total of 487,928 ETHFI tokens (maximum value of $3.5 million), 1,733,342 REZ tokens (maximum value of $433,300), and 1,539,563 ALT tokens (maximum value of $1.02 million). These figures illustrate the scale of airdrops received by employees, reinforcing concerns about potential conflicts of interest within the company.
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