How To Get Started With the Manta Network Airdrop

Do you have some unused ETH or ERC-20 stablecoins lying around? You can bridge them to a new Ethereum L2 under development—Manta Network—to earn an upcoming airdrop in March 2024. You’ll need to act fast, as the window for bridging over will close in January.

What’s Manta?

Manta Network, funded by well-known web3 investors, including Binance Labs and Layer Zero, is an L2 under development. Like Arbitrum or Optimism, Manta is a layer built on top of the Ethereum Virtual Machine that enables lower fees and speedier transactions.

On Dec. 14, Manta Network launched New Paradigm—a campaign to bring users to their already-up L2. It offers multiple ways to earn rewards when you bridge ETH and USDC to their network.

How To Get Started Earning Yield

First, you’ll need an invitation: search #mantanewparadigm on X, or ask some of your degen friends—you’ll likely find an invite code floating around. Then, go to the website, connect your wallet, and follow the instructions to bridge over some ETH or USDC. You’ll need to bridge over a minimum of .25 to start earning rewards, but don’t worry if you have less—if you invite friends to the protocol, you’ll also get benefits from achieving goals together as a team.

What exactly are you earning? Boxes—a piece at a time. For example, if you bridge one ETH (or the equivalent amount of USDC) into the network, you’ll earn 25 box pieces every seven days. These boxes will be able to be opened for Manta Network NFTs, which will be redeemable for financial rewards on the network and will unlock additional privileges, according to a Dec. 14 article on Medium by the team.

Immediate Liquidity—And More Yield

Alongside earning towards these boxes and the NFTs inside, Manta Network gives you immediate liquidity on their network for the assets you bridge 24 hours after sending them there. This is through a partnership between Manta and StakeStone, who make an omnichain token called STONE.

While your bridged ETH is locked up until March, meaning it’s stuck in Manta’s network for the 69 days of the airdrop-earning period, with STONE, you can still reap even more rewards. For any USDC you decide to deposit from the ETH mainnet, you’ll receive an equivalent amount of wUSDM, made possible by Manta’s partnership with Mountain Protocol. Once you add Manta’s network to your wallet—instructions are here—you can then add the STONE and wUSDM tokens to your wallet, and you’ll see an amount of STONE equivalent to the ETH you bridged and an amount of wUSDM equivalent to the USDC you bridged.

These tokens are liquid and usable within Manta’s network. One thing to do with them is lend against them or stake them—LayerBank and Shoebill Finance offer good options. You’ll still be earning your boxes, of course, while you do this.

Yields within yields! But it all starts with bridging into Manta Network and referring your friends to the protocol. As your friends bridge and refer others in turn, your box pieces will begin to add up.

This intricate campaign makes a clear challenge to Blast, which holds assets (over $1 billion total value locked, as of this writing) in a multi-sig wallet while its L2 is under development and achieves yield by directly staking ETH and stables. With its L2 already underway and multiple ways at once to earn, Manta Network’s approach is likely to interest people with idle money. It will incentivize airdrop hopefuls to explore their growing ecosystem while they wait. With $262 million TVL as of Dec. 26—most of which entered the system after New Paradigm launched—Manta is a challenger to watch.