The Layer 2 blockchain unveiled plans to release ARB tokens last week as part of a push to become more decentralized.
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Arbitrum had a shaky start to its airdrop on Thursday, with the foundation's website temporarily crashing because of an influx of traffic.
The Layer 2 blockchain unveiled plans to release ARB tokens last week as part of a push to become more decentralized.
CoinMarketCap data shows ARB was trading at about $1.27 at 3pm London time on Thursday, with volatility to be expected as prices settle down.
The token has already become the 37th largest in CMC's rankings, with a market cap of about $1.6 billion.
Data from Nansen suggests that 1.16 billion tokens have been airdropped — and of those, 27% have already been claimed. A total of 615,000 addresses were in line for a windfall.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the Arbitrum airdrop
ARB is designed to put governance power in the hands of a decentralized autonomous organization, but there have been fears that opportunistic fraudsters may attempt to deceive crypto enthusiasts with scam tokens.
The project argues that self-executing governance is critical for decentralization — and that it is the first Layer 2 network to achieve this, adding:
"Arbitrum's DAO governance is self-executing, meaning that the DAO's votes about on-chain actions will directly have the power to effect and execute its on-chain decisions, without relying on an intermediary to carry out those decisions."
One potential downside to this approach relates to how votes on proposals can take up to 37 days to be finalized — a timeline that would be much too slow in the event of an emergency such as a security vulnerability.
To this end, Arbitrum has established a security council that will be able to act quickly on time-sensitive matters — consisting of 12 highly regarded members from the community. Nine would need to participate in order for action to be taken.
