Linea Airdrop countdown: When L2 begins to feed back L1

Linea has completed the Snapshot, 9% is allocated for Airdrop (fully unlocked at TGE).

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

With the strong rise of Ethereum, users' expectations for the Linea Airdrop have also increased.

As a zkEVM Rollup incubated by Consensys, Linea released a "Linea is Ethereum" declaration before its TGE, announcing its token economics and several key Ethereum-first decisions. This is not just simple preheating, but a paradigmatic revolution about how L2 can benefit L1.

Linea clearly states that every decision in its architecture, including the Gas mechanism, token economics, and governance, is dedicated to returning value to the Ethereum mainnet.

Linea is trying to prove that L2 can not only scale Ethereum but should also become a catalyst for its value growth.

Ethereum Priority

1. On the Linea network, ETH is used as the exclusive method of Gas payment.

2. ETH Deflationary Mechanism and LINEA Value Capture

20% of the net income from each transaction's Gas fee (paid in ETH, after deducting L1 costs) will be burned, while the remaining 80% will be used to burn LINEA tokens, with both deflationary curves taking effect simultaneously. This design establishes a direct economic link between network usage and the accumulation of value in ETH and LINEA, making ETH not just a Gas fee in Linea's network design, but also a core asset that generates yield and possesses deflationary properties. Additionally, the burning of LINEA tokens further reinforces LINEA's deflationary characteristics.

3. ETH Native Staking - Capital Efficiency Improvement

Users cross-chain ETH to Linea will be automatically staked, generating staking rewards that will be allocated to LPs, thereby powering Linea's DeFi ecosystem. Linea LPs will accumulate native rewards based on the returns from Linea DeFi activities.

LINEA Token Utility and Economics

Linea Token Utility

• LINEA is not a Gas token.
• LINEA currently does not have on-chain governance rights, and the protocol can operate without a DAO. Linea states that this governance structure avoids the pitfalls of token-based voting while still providing a reliable collaborative model for ecosystem oversight.
• 80% of the net ETH revenue on the Linea network (defined as L2 fees after Layer 1 costs) is used to buy and burn LINEA.
• LINEA is used to fund builders, users, liquidity providers, and Ethereum public goods.

Tokenomics: 85% allocated to the ecosystem

The total supply of Linea tokens is 72,009,990,000, which is equivalent to 1000 times the initial circulation of ETH.

85% of the LINEA token supply is allocated to the ecosystem, of which 10% is allocated to early users (9%) and contributors (1%); 75% is dedicated to ecosystem development, public goods funding, and Ethereum R&D through the Ethereum ecosystem fund (managed by the Linea Consortium). The remaining 15% is held by Consensys, with a complete lock-up period of 5 years. During the lock-up period, these tokens can be deployed within the ecosystem, such as for liquidity or staking purposes. LINEA tokens have not yet been allocated or sold to any employees or investors.

The 9% allocated to early users will be airdropped and fully unlocked at TGE. A snapshot has been completed, and witch filtering has been done. Airdrop eligibility is assessed based on a series of activity-based metrics, including LXP and on-chain metrics, which are designed to recognize genuine usage and meaningful ecosystem participation.

At the TGE, approximately 22% of the token supply (15.8 billion LINEA) will be in circulation, which includes Airdrops for early contributors, ecosystem activation programs, and liquidity supply allocations. All other categories of tokens will remain locked or be gradually unlocked.

Establishing Linea Consortium: Handing the ecological fund over to those who understand Ethereum the best.

The Linea Consortium is a committee composed of several Ethereum-native organizations, with initial members including Consensys, Eigen Labs, ENS, Status, and Sharplink Gaming, which will be responsible for managing the allocation of most LINEA tokens. More members are expected to join the Linea Consortium in the future. Builders and the community of Ethereum will receive direct support to create public goods, build transformative applications, conduct research, and fundamentally strengthen the protocol stack.

The ecosystem fund will be established as a non-stock entity headquartered in the United States, which will apply for non-profit organization status.

A portion of the ecosystem fund is specifically allocated for the recent activation of the ecosystem, including support for liquidity provision, exchange readiness, strategic partnerships, future Airdrops, and early builder participation. The majority of the remaining funds will be used to support the long-term development of the Ethereum ecosystem and public goods. Funds will be distributed according to a decreasing release schedule over 10 years. Initially, the release amount will be increased to accelerate adoption, and later it will be reduced to maintain sustainability.

It is expected that approximately 25% of the funds will be used to support the launch of the ecosystem in the first 12-18 months, while the remaining 50% of the funds will be gradually released over 10 years. These funds will be used to finance protocol development, share infrastructure, develop open-source tools, and establish strategic partnerships with developers aligned with the goals.

Why is Linea's initiative to push value back to L1 significant?

In the past, L2 was often criticized for "siphoning" from L1, but now, Linea has turned the situation around with a dual deflationary engine, a native staking bridge, and an economic model.

• ETH is no longer just Gas, but a direct beneficiary of L2 network revenue;
• ETH has become a core asset capable of generating returns on Linea, and its deflationary properties have also been strengthened. Liquidity remains on L2, but value is continuously pumped back to L1 through burning and staking;
• The community fund supports public goods, with long-term research and development no longer in opposition to short-term incentives.

The ETH destruction and automatic staking mechanism of Linea directly enhances the deflationary nature and productivity of ETH, preventing Layer 2 from becoming a "vampire" that siphons off the value of Ethereum, but instead becoming a positive cycle within its economic model.

In addition, 85% of the tokens are allocated to the community and ecosystem, far exceeding the incentive ratios of most L2 projects, reflecting a commitment to decentralized governance and long-term development.

While other L2s are still competing on TPS, Linea has brought the battlefield back to ETH itself. For users waiting for the Airdrop, this is not just a possible wealth effect, but also a vote for the "orthodoxy of Ethereum."

The uniqueness of Linea lies in the fact that it is not only a scaling solution on the technical level but also attempts to feed back the success of Layer 2 to Ethereum itself through economic design. In the current context where L2 competition is becoming increasingly homogenized, this "Ethereum-first" value proposition may become the key to its differentiated advantage.

More importantly, the initial members of the Linea Consortium include not only Consensys, Ethereum domain service provider ENS, and the pioneer of restaking, EigenLayer, but also Sharplink Gaming (currently holding 438,200 ETH), which is the Ethereum treasury company, and Status, which deals with wallets, messaging, and L2 infrastructure (currently holding 18,100 ETH).

This also reassures community users that the ETH liquidity from Sharplink Gaming and an increasing number of Ethereum treasury companies will flow into Linea, and the community speculates that most of the liquidity may flow into Etherex.

Additionally, leveraging Consensys's resources and reputation, Linea could become a bridge between traditional finance and the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, accelerating mass adoption. Consensys's background (MetaMask with over 100 million monthly active users, Infura servicing multiple banks) also gives Linea a unique advantage. Linea states that it has already gained the trust of global financial platforms including Mastercard, Visa, JPMorgan, and several sovereign banks, and has seamlessly integrated with leading DeFi protocols, custodians, and tokenization platforms.

According to DefiLlama data, as of now, the Linea cross-chain TVL is around 500 million USD, and the ecosystem DeFi TVL is around 160 million USD. The TVL scale is far from reaching mature L2 levels, and there is still a significant gap to large-scale adoption.

The success or failure of this experiment will redefine the market's perception of L2 value - it should not just be a pipeline for transaction execution, but rather an added value layer of the Ethereum economic system. In other words, it proves that L2 can be an amplifier of Ethereum's value rather than a diverter. If successful, this model could become the standard for future L2s, driving the long-term prosperity of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Recommended reading: 《Can Etherex fire the first shot before Linea issues its token?》