What to do with your Manta Airdrop: Stake it or Sell it?

Few days back I had written a post about what were the eligibility criteria for getting the much publicised airdrop from Manta Network. I had highlighted that I had decided not to grind by bridging large amounts of ETH to the network. It was mainly due to the fact that I always avoid such airdrops that needs high amount of capital from the airdrop hunters. Other equally important factor was that I was running very low on liquidity, which has become a recurring pattern for me now.

Anyways I did receive a small allocation of 21 $MANTA tokens and the next question in front of me was what to do with these tokens.

Usually my decision is quite straightforward and quick- If it’s a small project which I don’t see growing in the future I immediately sell it off completely like I recently did with my zkFair and LFG (Less Fees n Gas) airdrops. If it’s a big project which is promising to grow even more in the future I hold it, at least partially like 40-50% of it like I did for Arbitrum.

Now with Manta I was in a bit of dilemma that despite it’s huge publicity I was really disappointed with the way it’s airdrop was held. First the network crashed when Airdrop was launched. Many people lost quite a bit of $$ on failed transactions. Many users were complaining on Twitter that despite grinding a lot and spending substantial ETH they did not get any tokens.

With this sentiment at launch it not a surprise that the token launched at a very low $2 mark which was nowhere close to the $6 - $9 mark that people were considering it’s fair value.

Why Didn’t I sell my $MANTA?

The main reason why I didn’t sell my tokens was that at $2 I would have got $42 by selling my 21 tokens. After netting the bridging, transaction, conversion etc that I had already spent on it, I would be left with about $30 which is not a big deal from any standard.

On the other hand if the project is able to establish itself as a successful implementation use case for leveraging Celestia for making it more efficient than other blockchains then it is possible that it’s value will go up in the coming months specially once the bull market sentiment kicks in with full force.

It might to some extent replicate the success story of Celestia’s TIA token which also was around $2 but was touching $20 a few days back and is strong at $17 now.

What are the Good Options to HODL the Token?

As the project is still quite new I could find 2 practical options to stake it and earn additional rewards while HODLing the $MANTA tokens - ZeroLend and LayerBank.

ZeroLend- Zero Gravity Campaign

ZeroLend platform is running a campaign where you are rewarded points for staking Manta tokens. So if you stake the tokens besides the staking APY you will also earn these native ZeroLend points which will help you improve your eligibility for the future ZeroLend airdrop. There is already a narrative building on Crypto-Twitter/X about the next big airdrops will be centred around the Manta and Celestia combo. So this staking will give you an edge for those rewards.

LayerBank- Earn Lab.M Rewards

If I had to choose between ZeroLend and LayerBank then ZeroLend is a clear winner as transaction fees is low and LayerBank on the other hand charges more for each transaction and I also had to face a lot of failed transactions. However it is good to diversify across multiple platforms and also LayerBank is going to do an airdrop in the future and it has already made an announcement that Manta stakes will get a higher allocation.

Of the all the staking pools only Manta shakers are being rewarded Lab.m tokens.

What if you Want to Sell Manta?

If you have a high amount of Manta tokens and just want to sell it off then also it’s a valid decision and currently the 2 best sites to swap in or out of Manta are iZumi Finance and ApertureSwap. Both platforms have good liquidity and I will recommend to try Aperture as it is going to do an airdrop in the future so will be good to have a few transactions done on it.

Let me know in the comments section if you see any other good use case for $MANTA tokens.

Cheers,

Sam