Crypto Wallet Firm Blockchain to Airdrop $125 Million in Stellar

Crypto wallet provider Blockchain says it's about to stage what it's calling the "largest crypto giveaway in history."

The company will distribute $125 million in Stellar lumens (XLM), nearly half a billion tokens, to Blockchain wallet holders who sign up for the airdrop. The first batch of recipients will see their tokens arrive within the week, according to an announcement Tuesday. The amount of XLM being dropped to each wallet was not disclosed by the firm.

With the news, Stellar becomes the first partner for Blockchain's airdrop program and guiding framework announced last month.

Blockchain CEO Peter Smith said the Stellar network was chosen as it's "built for scalability" and has "an active and growing ecosystem."

While to outsiders it might seem an effective way to boost the firm's customer growth and wallet usage, Smith said the airdrop is part of an effort to put "users first" and allow them "to test, try, trade, and transact with new, trusted cryptoassets in a safe and easy way."

Smith told CoinDesk:

"Looking back at the last five years of crypto, one of my favourite things has been giving users their first $20 of crypto and watching them realize the power of a new financial system in their hand as they saw their first transaction. But you can only do this for so many people in that fashion. The genesis of this project was; how do we help millions of people make their first transaction?"

Blockchain is also working with charity:water, Stanford d.school's emerging tech initiative, code.org and Network for Good to boost adoption of XLM.

Stellar Development Foundation co-founder Jed McCaleb said in the release that the foundation believes airdrops are key to building a "more inclusive digital economy."

"Giving away lumens for free is an invitation to communities to design the services they need," McCaleb continued. "By working with Blockchain to increase the availability and active use of lumens on the network, leveraging their almost [30 million] wallets, we will increase the network's utility by many orders of magnitude."

Editor's note: Following the publication of this story, a representative for Blockchain clarified that IBM is not part of the airdrop project as was originally stated in press statements.

XLM image via Shutterstock