From decrypt by Ryan S. Gladwin

The ME Foundation launched the ME token for users of leading NFT marketplace Magic Eden on Tuesday, with demand for the token driving complaints of issues with the claim process as the size of the airdrop topped $700 million.

The ME airdrop was hotly anticipated, with users of Magic Eden hoping to be handsomely rewarded for their NFT marketplace activity. November pre-market trading anticipated a token price of $4.50, which would have seen $562 million handed out, with the pre-market price on Whales Market surging to $5.82 late Monday ahead of the drop.

Those estimates appeared to be in the right ballpark, with the ME token’s price bouncing between a range of approximately $4.40 and $6.00 following initial volatility.

As of this writing, the token sits at a price of $5.64 per CoinMarketCap, resulting in a current market cap of $738 million. The value of the 125 million tokens available via the airdrop claim is currently over $705 million, with major exchanges including Coinbase and Binance listing it Tuesday.

Sizable demand right out of the gate drove the opening price to $17 per CoinGecko, while CoinMarketCap shows a peak of $13.24, but those spikes were short-lived as more and more traders were eventually able to get their hands on the token via the claim process through the Magic Eden Wallet app.

Some users struggled with the claim process, with one prominent trader calling it the “worst airdrop claim” process they’d ever faced—and others echoing the statement.

To claim, users had to download a mobile app for the Magic Eden Wallet, scan a QR code, link it to their desktop, and then claim via the mobile app—while also having up to $10 in the wallet to successfully claim. This process, many users said, was confusing and overcomplicated.

Numerous users were also met with a “something went wrong” error when looking to claim their ME tokens, while others reported that the site said they’d already claimed their tokens when they said they hadn’t.

Not only was this frustrating, but it also meant that some users missed the small window when the token sat above a $1 billion market cap. After ME’s 9am ET token launch, according to CoinMarketCap, the token spiked to a market cap of $1.6 billion and then sharply fell below $1 billion, all within 20 minutes.

Asked about the claim issues, an ME Foundation representative told Decrypt that there was “higher traffic to the Magic Eden mobile app than usual,” and that over 70,000 traders had collectively claimed nearly 69 million ME within the first hour.

Traders that were able to get in and out quickest had the most to gain. According to DEX Screener, which displays a slightly higher peak price than CoinMarketCap, the top trader profited $586,800 by selling their airdropped ME in three clips within minutes. This wallet immediately swapped the earned Solana into stablecoins and split it amongst wallets.

It is a similar story for the second and third top traders that profited $415,800 and $241,900, respectively. Since the early frenzy, the token’s price action has stabilized, and it currently ranks as the 138th cryptocurrency by market cap per CoinMarketCap.

“If you're with us for the long term, we welcome you to the ME community,” Magic Eden co-founder and CEO Jack Lu posted on X (formerly known as Twitter). “If you’re not, thank you for using Magic Eden.”