Why is IOST Surging 50% Today?

IOST, a blockchain project building on the layer-1 BNB Chain, saw a sharp price uptrend in its native token by as much as 50% within minutes.

Source: CoinGecko

IOST’s price surge followed the project’s announcement of an incoming airdrop for its community. The announcement added that users would also access the native token through notable cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Upbit, BitKub, CoinTrade, and Coincheck. A snapshot of eligible wallets for the airdrop will occur on March 15th.

What is IOST?

Founded in 2017, IOST is a blockchain project that brings various services into the Binance-affiliated blockchain, BNB Chain. These services include real-world assets (RWAs), a layer-2 scaling solution, payment infrastructure, and digital identity.

Through a private token sale in December 2017, IOST raised approximately $35 million in ETH. In 2019, the project launched its mainnet, paving the way for decentralized applications (dApps) to build on the layer-2 blockchain.

IOST’s sophisticated technology allows it to onboard institutions, developers, asset issuers, and end users. According to its official website, the L2 network has aided the creation of over 14 million digital wallets, processed over one billion transactions, and welcomed over 200 projects. Over two billion assets have been tokenized on the network. Among the project’s top supporters are prominent figures in companies like Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, and Citigroup.

IOST is the project’s lifeblood, serving as an ecosystem token and transaction settlement asset. Around its inception, its tokenomics revealed that the token has a total supply of over 21 billion, where block distributions are dispensed via an annual halving event, similar to Bitcoin’s four-year halving mechanics.

On January 14, 2025, the IOST team revealed plans to double the token’s supply from 21.32 billion to 42.64 billion within 60 months. This tokenomics modification is part of the project’s “IOST3.0 Era,” a new economic model that aims to “address the core pain points faced by traditional blockchain economies” and create “long-term sustainable value for ecosystem participants.”

Today, IOST has a market capitalization of $109.2 million and a daily traded volume of $236.6 million.

IOST Pumps Ahead of Airdrop

In today’s announcement, the IOST Foundation, a non-profit organization aiding the project’s growth, revealed the details about the incoming airdrop.

📢 IOST is excited to announce the initial list of exchanges that will support our upcoming airdrop campaign

⏱️ Snapshot time: March 15, 2025, at 00:00 (UTC +0)
🤝 This marks a key milestone in IOST’s strategic rebrandinghttps://t.co/4rs4oYZPf7

— IOST (@IOST_Official) March 10, 2025

It explained that 852.8 million IOST tokens (4% of the total supply) were earmarked for the event. Only those holding a minimum of 1,000 IOST tokens in the participating exchanges as of the time of the snapshot are eligible for airdrop. Depending on the crypto exchange, the distribution process will occur monthly, every three months, or every six months for 48 months.

The participating crypto exchanges are Binance, Upbit, BitKub, Coincheck, OKJ, BITPOINT, and CoinTrade. The IOST Foundation explained that more exchanges will likely be included soon.

Although the token surged massively shortly after the airdrop announcement, its trading price has now rebalanced at $0.005243 at press time, representing over a 30% surge at the time of writing.

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