Major Token Presale on zkSync Tomorrow!

Arbitrum airdropped over $1 billion worth of $ARB tokens to early adopters and chain supporters last week. Hopefully, you got your piece of the generous airdrop. On the back of Arbitrum’s heavy momentum, zkSync has launched its era mainnet. And savvy investors are looking to get involved early to take full advantage of massive growth and a future (potential) zkSync airdrop.

As of writing, there is less than $50 million in total value locked on zkSync, according to Defillama. This figure will grow by many orders of magnitude. As a result, I’ve identified a tremendous opportunity to be a part of this story and dip your toes into the zkSync ecosystem.

In this piece, I will share what Velocore is, how you can participate in the Presale on April 4, and why I am investing the max allocation in this project.

What is zkSync?

I don’t want to bore you with technical terms like multi-sig, transaction validation time, or account abstraction. Just typing these terms gives me the urge to yawn. So instead, if you are into tech, I’ll point you to a good technical article discussing what zkSync is and how it competes with other smart chains: zkSync Review: Layer 2 Is More Capable Than Arbitrum.

If you want a quicker summary, zkSync is a solution that allows for cheaper and faster transactions than Ethereum. In addition, it’s supposed to offer greater security than Layer 2’s like Arbitrum and Optimism. zkSync is four years in the making.

What is Velocore?

On Defillama today, only seven zkSync-exclusive platforms live on the era mainnet. Velocore is easily the one I am most excited about. Why am I so excited:

• We are early on this project and zkSync

• The tokenomics are fair and enticing

• Velocore is a fork of Velodrome (which is a Solidly fork). Velodrome has proven the Solidly model is effective and that low transaction fees make it inclusive for investors large and small.

• There are two airdrop opportunities (explained later)

• The team and community are active and responsive

If you aren’t familiar with Velodrome or Solidly, Velocore is a decentralized exchange that helps build liquidity for partner projects and rewards fees and bribes to Velocore token holders.

I won’t dive too deeply into the mechanics because that would require an entirely separate article. Put simply, Velocore’s native token, $VC, is issued as a reward to liquidity pool providers. $VC can be locked into veVC, an NFT that gives the holder voting power and platform fees.

Long-term Velocore investors benefit from a consistent earning model from fees and bribes. Partner platforms benefit by increasing their liquidity without requiring massive inflation on their tokens. And platform users benefit by getting better swap fees. It’s a win-win-win benefitting everyone!

Details on the Velocore $VC presale and how to participate

The public Presale will last 24 hours, starting at 9 pm UTC on April 4. This is 2 pm PST where I live. The private presale price is 0.00002 ETH per $VC, raising 90 ETH. The public Presale is 0.0000229 ETH with a minimum investment of 0.01 ETH. The public Presale will raise 450 ETH. Combined, these presales represent 40% of the initial supply.

Below is a breakdown of the initial 60 million $VC supply at launch

Most of the remaining $VC is locked up or used for liquidity. You will notice no investors, partners, bootstrappers, advisors, or other venture capital firms. Everyone gets in on even ground (*private presale investors pay approximately 15% less).

The Solidly model relies on inflation and token locking via NFT creation. If you aren’t familiar with the model, you may want to learn more about it by reading the whitepaper.

I love that it will initially have a $1 million circulating market cap. Velodrome is around seven months old and has a $27 million circulating market cap. Satin exchange, a Solidly fork on Polygon, launched in February, and it has over a $13 million market cap.

Considering that zkSync has so few platforms on the mainnet and this opportunity has such attractive and compelling launch features, it can draw much attention. But, more importantly, it will also attract a lot of liquidity and partnerships meaning long-term yields and sustainability!

How to participate in the $VC presale

First, you need to have funds on zkSync. The easiest way to do this is to use the official zkSync bridge: https://bridge.zksync.io/. It cost me around $6 worth of ETH gas to transfer my ETH over, and it took 5 minutes. So I recommend only bridging ETH right now. Additionally, ETH will be used for taking part in the Presale. Keep in mind that Rabby wallet isn’t compatible with zkSync.

https://docs.velocore.xyz/launch-details/usdvc-presale

This model is superior to auctions or first come, first served. It allows everyone to participate and doesn’t unfairly punish any group. More importantly, it keeps us regular investors from getting gouged by platforms that over-raise.

Twenty-four hours later, the $VC tokens should arrive in your wallet with no unlocking period!

Two Airdrop Opportunities

Matter labs raised $468 million (three times what Arbitrum foundation raised) for zkSync. They have already stated they want zkSync to be decentralized. However, they haven’t stated when they will launch a token. Nevertheless, I won’t be surprised if they take notes from Arbitrum’s successful airdrop and reward early adopters and platforms.

If I am correct, it will benefit us to be involved early and consistently with zkSync. I hope that bridging, interacting, and using zkSync platforms will equate to an airdrop for me in the future. However, this isn’t guaranteed and is speculation.

But there is an opportunity to get a guaranteed Velocore airdrop. If you read this before the Presale ends, you can do four different things to receive an NFT airdrop from Velocore. According to their whitepaper: “We will offer benefits for POAP (NFT) holders such as participation in private presales in the near future.”

Here’s a link to more information about the airdrop requirements: https://velocorexyz.medium.com/velocore-launches-swap-liquidity-pools-join-the-poap-airdrop-event-1bceb9e16383

Key Takeaways

Investing in crypto during a bear market is tough. However, you must be vigilant and grasp good opportunities when they come. The best chains and projects will experience the greatest upside when large amounts of liquidity return to the crypto market.

Velocore is run by five developers who have worked on various yield protocols and vaults. But, based on the fair Presale and tokenomics, they aren’t interested in a fast cash grab. Instead, they developed on zkZync to be on the DeFi frontier.

As I write, the private sale has raised 131% of its goal in less than an hour. I was lucky enough to participate in the private sale, but I will have the overflow to invest Tomorrow. This is a good sign for the protocol and warrants any DeFi investor to take a closer look.

Velocore Discord Link: https://discord.com/invite/velocorexyz

Velocore Twitter: https://twitter.com/velocorexyz

I have not been paid or sponsored to write this article. I am investing in $VC in the private and public Presale. I am also trying to qualify for the POAP NFT airdrops.

_{This information should not be taken as investment advice. Digital assets like crypto and NFTs involve risk, so you should always perform due diligence before investing.}