Wormhole to airdrop 617M W token to past users

Token bridging service Wormhole confirmed its plans to release a W token on Wednesday, pledging to distribute 617 million tokens, or 6% of the token's total supply, to past users.

The W token is set to become a governance asset the holders of which will vote within Wormhole DAO, a yet-to-launch entity that will make decisions for the platform, like how much to charge in fees. Wormhole is a cross-chain messaging platform that acts as a way to move money across blockchains, including Solana, Ethereum, Aptos and others.

W will launch natively on the Solana and Ethereum networks, according to a webpage released Wednesday, which did not include a date.

The upcoming airdrop appears to mirror that of Pyth – a fellow Jump Capital-linked crypto project that acts as a data bridge for blockchains – in many respects, including, most plainly, in website design. That airdrop debuted at a $500 million valuation.

Wormhole officially parted ways with Jump last November and subsequently announced that the service had raised $225 million. Its financial backers are set to receive over 11% of the W token's circulating supply.