Arbitrum DAO Treasury Gains $57 Million from Unclaimed ARB Tokens

In a strategic move, the Arbitrum DAO has chosen to transfer a substantial stash of 69.5 million unclaimed Arbitrum (ARB) tokens, valued at approximately $57 million, into its treasury. This decision comes as an alternative to allowing these tokens to remain indefinitely locked as part of the Arbitrum Improvement Proposal AIP-7. The Arbitrum airdrop, which took place in March, was a highly anticipated event within the blockchain industry. Early adopters were given the opportunity to claim ARB tokens as rewards based on various factors, including the duration of their platform usage, engagement, and the total value of assets they had bridged onto Arbitrum chains. Eligible users had until Ethereum block 18208000, reached on September 24th, to claim their tokens. Impressively, over the course of six months, 583,138 addresses, constituting 93.3% of those eligible, successfully claimed their ARB tokens, according to data from Dune Analytics. However, the remaining unclaimed tokens, as per the proposal outlined in AIP-7, have now found a new home within the Arbitrum DAO treasury. The Arbitrum Foundation officially confirmed this transfer in a tweet, stating: "The 69,448,385 unclaimed ARB remaining in the token claim contract has officially been moved to the Arbitrum DAO treasury as outlined in AIP-7. You cannot claim those tokens anywhere. Please be safe out there." Following this move, data from Arbiscan revealed that the DAO Treasury currently holds ARB tokens valued at more than $2.9 billion, solidifying its financial position within the crypto space. This development diverges from the recent approach of Optimism, a competing Ethereum layer-2 solution utilizing optimistic roll-up technology. Optimism recently announced plans to directly distribute unclaimed funds from its initial June 2022 airdrop to eligible users. In the case of Optimism, approximately 49 million OP tokens, equivalent to $61.7 million, remained unclaimed out of a total airdrop of 215 million tokens valued at $271 million. Additionally, Optimism unveiled a third OP token airdrop, specifically targeting governance members, allocating 19.4 million OP tokens, valued at $24 million, to a total of 31,870 addresses. These differing approaches taken by Arbitrum and Optimism regarding unclaimed tokens highlight the flexibility and strategic choices available to blockchain projects in managing their token distribution and treasury management as they navigate the evolving crypto landscape.