According to DefiLlama data, Blast’s TVL is currently at $2.1 billion, up over 2,200% since its initial launch on November 22
It’s worth noting that this figure was achieved just a few days before the announcement of its new mainnet – expected at the end of this month (February 29, 2024).
Most of the locked value comes from hopeful airdrop hunters, who have locked their Ethereum in the protocol to earn a future airdrop of Blast tokens in May 2024.
However, there is still controversy surrounding the fact that once the money is locked in the platform, users cannot withdraw it until its mainnet is launched.
This is not the only reason for contention, as on February 26, a gambling project called “Risk on Blast” was accused of conducting a rug pull. The project raised 420 Ether (ETH) – worth $1.35 million at current prices – for a pre-sale token called RISK, which started on February 22 and ended the next day.
Since then, the team has transferred the money to the algorithmic stablecoin Dai (DAI) to the unsupervised cryptocurrency exchange ChangeNOW and proceeded to delete their relevant social media accounts.
Launched in mid-November, Blast is a scaled solution for the Ethereum network and provides native profit sharing in ETH and stablecoin for users who bet their money on the project.
Notably, Blast’s founder Tieshun Roquerre – also known by the pen name “PacMan” – is also the founder of the NFT platform Blur.
In a post on November 23 sent to X, Roquerre defended Blast against criticisms of “too good to be true” output, arguing that Blast’s output is being generated by Lido and MakerDAO.
