Linea Token Launch: L2 Gamechanger with Dual Burns

TGE Overview

Linea, an Ethereum Layer-2 developed by ConsenSys, is launching its token after nearly two years of testnets and community engagement.

CEO Joseph Lubin called Linea “the first project with a token” in their lineup, underscoring its significance.

Product lead Declan Fox confirmed the team waited for better market conditions to launch, aligning the TGE with a market upswing.

Over 400 campaigns ran during the "Voyage" phase, spanning testnets, DeFi quests, and Linea Park. This extensive participation built a strong user base. Rather than a fundraising event, Linea’s TGE is the result of a community-first, Ethereum-aligned development effort.

Tokenomics & Dual Burn Model

Linea plans to release 72 billion tokens. Most of them—85%—are set aside for the community: users, developers, and funding the ecosystem. Only 15% will go to ConsenSys, and those tokens will be locked for five years. There are no tokens reserved for early investors or VCs, which helps keep things more fair and decentralized.

At the time of the token launch, 22% of the total supply (around 15.8 billion tokens) will be available. Out of that, 9% will go to users who earned rewards through past participation, and 1% will go to developers who built on Linea. The other 75% will unlock slowly over time—25% after 12–18 months, and the rest over 10 years. This helps fund the project over time without flooding the market with too many tokens at once.

Linea also uses a unique dual burn model. When people pay gas fees on Linea (in ETH), 20% of those ETH fees are burned, reducing the ETH supply. The remaining 80% is used to buy LINEA tokens, which are also burned. This means both ETH and LINEA become more scarce as more people use the network. Experts say this system could help keep token prices stable and connected to how much the network is used.

As Linea puts it, this is about “building the Layer 2 where Ethereum wins” — with protocol-level ETH burns, native yield, and a governance structure led by Ethereum-native builders.

The launch of MetaMask USD (mUSD) further highlights Linea’s growing role in Ethereum’s financial stack. The stablecoin — built by Bridge and powered by the M0 protocol — debuted on both Ethereum and Linea, with MetaMask integrating it for wallet-native payments and card usage.

Airdrop Campaign, Sybil Filtering & Wallet Stats

Linea’s airdrop was built over 744 days of on-chain activity — from early 2023 to mid-2025 — through phases like Testnet Voyage, DeFi Voyage, and Linea Park.

They gave out free tokens (an airdrop) to users who helped test its network. These users earned Linea Experience Points (LXP) by doing tasks like using apps, bridging assets, and completing quests. In total, over 1.24 million wallets participated.

To keep it fair, Linea worked with Nansen to find fake or duplicate wallets (Sybil accounts). Out of 1.29 million wallets, 516,960 were flagged as Sybil and excluded, leaving 780,243 real users. This number exceeds Arbitrum’s 2023 airdrop.

Compared to other zkEVM airdrop campaigns, Linea’s final eligible user base was both large and well-distributed.

For context, Scroll’s incentivized campaign reached 2.93M wallets (530M Marks), while Linea’s campaign involved 1.24M wallets earning 2.08B LXP.

Linea will distribute 9% of its tokens (~6.48B) to those eligible users at launch, fully unlocked. Another 1% is allocated to builders who supported Linea early on. This makes it one of the fairest and most decentralized airdrops among Layer-2 projects.

Declan Fox, Linea’s product director, confirmed:

“9% to users who participated in the Linea voyages and earned LXP. There will be additional criteria applied (thresholds, multipliers), and an eligibility checker with those details...”
— @DeclanFox14 on X, July 30, 2025

Backing from ConsenSys and Ethereum-Aligned Entities

Linea was created by ConsenSys, the same team behind Ethereum tools like MetaMask and Infura. Joseph Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of ConsenSys, strongly supports the project. Thanks to raising over $725 million, ConsenSys was able to fund Linea without selling tokens early.

In 2024, ConsenSys backed many DeFi projects to help Linea grow. The network is guided by the Linea Consortium, a group of trusted Ethereum-based teams like EigenLayer, ENS, Status, and SharpLink Gaming. This helps share decision-making and keeps the project aligned with Ethereum’s values.

By mid-2025, Linea had already passed $1 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), even before launching its token. This came from early support by DeFi apps, rewards programs, and token bridges. Well-known Ethereum apps joined early. In July 2025, Linea and ConsenSys were even featured at the Nasdaq closing bell. With strong backers and Ethereum roots, Linea has entered the market with real momentum and trust.

Competitive Landscape: Arbitrum, Optimism, StarkNet, Scroll

Linea is entering a busy market of Ethereum Layer-2 networks, the backbone of Ethereum’s current expansion. As explored in our latest market outlook, Ethereum in 2025 is scaling through Layer-2s—boosting DeFi, NFTs, and real-world assets while facing rising competition and regulatory pressure.

Arbitrum and Optimism are the biggest players right now. Arbitrum gave out 11.6% of its tokens to around 625,000 users in 2023 and now holds over $2.5 billion in value. Optimism, which started in 2022, has grown fast thanks to reward programs and is valued near $10 billion.

Other new projects include StarkNet and zkSync, which use newer zero-knowledge technology. StarkNet launched its STRK token with a high starting price, but it dropped after launch. Scroll, another zkEVM project, had over 2.9 million testnet wallets join—but many were likely fake or duplicated accounts.

Linea stands out for giving 85% of its tokens to the community, not to early investors. It also uses a special fee system that burns ETH and LINEA as the network is used, making the token supply smaller over time. With 780,000 real users getting the airdrop, Linea starts off with one of the largest token holder groups among L2s. It also already has over $1 billion locked in its ecosystem.

If many of these users stick around, Linea could see big growth in transactions and network activity. If the token price hits $0.10, its total value would be about $7.2 billion, similar to the top Layer-2s. Many L2 tokens drop after launch, but Linea's slow and careful rollout may help it avoid that.

Thanks to Ethereum-based support, smart token rules, and lots of real users, Linea is aiming to become more than just another L2—it wants to help power the next generation of Ethereum apps.

Key Takeaways

Linea is focused on its community. It’s giving out 85% of its 72 billion tokens to users and builders. About 9% of those tokens are being sent to around 780,000 early users through an airdrop. This means a lot of people will hold tokens from day one. The other 15% of tokens goes to ConsenSys but is locked for 5 years, so they can’t be sold early.

Linea also uses a dual burn system to reduce the total number of tokens. When users pay fees, 20% of the ETH is burned, and 80% is used to buy and burn LINEA tokens. This helps make both tokens more scarce over time. The project is backed by ConsenSys and trusted Ethereum-based groups like EigenLayer and ENS. With more than $1 billion already locked in the network and a large number of users, Linea is ready to compete with top Layer-2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism.