Babylon Foundation Unveils Airdrop for BABY Tokens, Future Plans in the Works

The Babylon Foundation announced a 600 million BABY token airdrop aimed at early adopters, specifically Bitcoin stakers, NFT holders, and developers. The tokens will be distributed through Cuneiform Assets during the Babylon Genesis blockchain launch, with future airdrops also planned. The tokenomics includes inflation and incentives linked to staking.

The Babylon Foundation has made headlines with the recent announcement of an airdrop totalling 600 million BABY tokens, accounting for 6% of the overall supply, which has yet to hit exchanges. This initiative focuses on rewarding early adopters of the Babylon ecosystem, particularly Bitcoin stakers from Phase 1, Pioneer Pass NFT holders, and developers contributing to the project.

Eligible recipients will receive their BABY tokens via Cuneiform Assets, a subsidiary of the Babylon Foundation. In fact, of those 600 million tokens, 30 million are earmarked for staking participants, 335 million as staking rewards, and 200 million for bonuses tied to the Phase 2 Transition of staking. Additionally, there are distributions of 30 million to NFT Pioneer Pass holders and another 5 million for developers recognised on GitHub.

Coinciding with the Babylon Genesis blockchain’s official launch, these tokens will be distributed, with the only exception being the bonus tokens, which are set for release six months later. To clarify any questions, the Foundation has introduced a FAQ page addressing the nuances of the airdrop.

Looking ahead, more airdrops of the BABY token are on the horizon. A specific airdrop is planned for social media contributors between August 22, 2024, and February 19, 2025. Other future drops may involve wallet campaigns and incentives for liquid staking, but full details will only come post-Network Launch of Babylon Genesis.

As for the tokenomics, when the Network Launch occurs, 10 billion BABY tokens will be created, and an annual inflation rate of 8% is projected. Half of these newly minted tokens will reward staking in BTC, while the other half will focus on BABY staking. Being the native currency of the Babylon Genesis blockchain, BABY is set to facilitate transaction fees and smart contract executions while also providing governance rights to holders and delegated validators.

From the initial 10 billion, 15% is allocated for community incentives and another 15% for key Babylon team members. Additionally, 18% is aimed at ecosystem development, 18% for research, and 30.5% for initial investors. Finally, there’s a 3.5% slice for consultants involved in the project.

Interestingly, although the Babylon Foundation aims to create native Bitcoin use cases, their blockchain won’t rely on Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work model. Instead, it is transitioning to Proof-of-Stake. Created just two years ago, the project has stirred some questions, particularly about their Bitcoin staking claims, since Bitcoin’s blockchain does not allow for staking in a traditional sense. Rather, the Foundation proposes a “staking” model through their decentralized protocol, leveraging Bitcoin’s unspent transaction output model to incentivise users with BABY tokens.

Behind the scenes, Babylon Labs operates the Babylon project. The company aims for a decentralised approach managed by the Babylon Foundation and BABY token holders. As of now, they report having over 51,000 BTC engaged in staking, worth around $4.3 billion per Defillama data. It’s worth noting that from late October to early December, the staked BTC saw a decline from nearly 24,000 down to about 22,700. However, a swift surge in December pushed the number above 57,000, before ultimately settling back to roughly 51,400 currently.