Mode is the latest Ethereum Layer 2 network to boast surging growth after announcing incentives for early adopters.

On Jan. 31, Mode announced it will airdrop 550M MODE or 5.5% of the upcoming token’s supply to early users in its first airdrop campaign. The event will reward users for bridging assets onto the network, using Mode-native decentralized applications, referrals, participating in future quests, and previous activity on networks and dApps within the Ethereum ecosystem.

The announcement has quickly driven up Mode adoption as airdrop hunters race to collect points qualifying them for the upcoming token drop.

More than $64M worth of assets have already been bridged onto the network, according to L2beat, with five native DeFi dApps amassing $24.4M, according to DeFi Llama. Roughly $21M has been deposited to Ionic Protocol, a Mode-native money market protocol, followed by $3.3M taken in by the Kim decentralized exchange.

Mode is built on top of Optimism’s OP Stack, an open-source codebase for launching Ethereum Layer 2s. The project was supported by a 2M OP ($6M) grant from the Optimism Foundation.

Airdrop season rages on

Mode’s growth is the latest example of a successful airdrop campaign allocating points to early users. Airdrops have become a popular method for distributing tokens that is unlikely to attract regulatory scrutiny as retail users do not purchase the tokens from issuers in exchange for other assets.

Points campaigns have proliferated as a popular mechanism for formalizing airdrop qualification. While past airdrops such as those from Arbitrum and Optimism were revealed in surprise announcements following long-term speculation, points campaigns give early adopters confidence that they will qualify for future token drops and rewards for contributing to the growth of a network or protocol.

Recent examples include Manta — which now ranks as the third-largest Layer 2 network with a $1.5B total value locked (TVL) following its points campaign and airdrop, Blast — which boasts a $1.4B TVL as it continues to distribute points to early depositors, and EtherFi — the leading liquid restaking token provider currently distributing points for both itself and the EigenLayer restaking protocol.

MODE airdrop

Mode’s airdrop will progressively distribute tokens to users, with 400M MODE tokens unlocking in April. Two allotments of 50M MODE will also be unlocked when the network’s TVL tags $100M and $200M respectively. Finally, a third sum of 50M MODE will be shared among 500 of the network’s top 20% most active campaign participants through a lottery mechanism.

In addition to early Mode users, the campaign will allocate tokens to past users of 140 protocols within the Ethereum, Optimism, and Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystems.

Tokens will be earmarked wallets that have interacted with 11 Layer 2 networks, holders of 31 NFT collections, and a vast number of DeFi dApp users including yield protocols, leveraged decentralized exchanges, and “OG DeFi apps.”

“Mode focuses on rewarding those who enhance the Mode, Optimism, and Ethereum ecosystems without locking up tokens for months,” the team said.