Solana-enabled NFT marketplace Zora — an Ethereum NFT platform — is all set to release its token, ZORA on April 23. ZORA will be deployed on Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 network. This release on Base is meant to improve accessibility and make onboarding easier for new users. ZORA is meant to be of, by, and for the community with no governance rights or equity ownerships associated with ZORA.
Base has quickly become a hotbed for onchain social apps and memecoins. This combination arguably makes Miami the most appropriate place in the world for the launch of ZORA. The ZORA token was launched with a total supply that is capped at 10 billion tokens.
The community Team members will get 18.9% of the total ZORA token. The tokens will be released from a smart contract and vest monthly over three years (with a three-month initial delay). Strategic contributors such as early investors and advisors will receive 26.1% of the ZORA token. Another 20% of the ZORA token will eventually fund future community incentives such as grants and hackathons.
The distribution of ZORA tokens will occur over two snapshots of user activity. The initial snapshot includes the reported contributions from January 1, 2020-March 3, 2025. The second snapshot covers activity through April 20, 2025. These snapshots will be used to verify, retroactively, whether users will be eligible for a retroactive airdrop.
10% of the ZORA total supply will be distributed via a retroactive airdrop. Furthermore, 5% of the ZORA token will be used to provide liquidity. The remaining 20% of the ZORA token will go to the Zora treasury. This share will be released over four years, beginning with a six-month lag.
