Linea whales crash price as airdrop tokens lead to sell pressure

The LINEA token immediately lost over 21% of its price as whales rushed to sell their holdings after its TGE and airdrop event.  

Linea is no longer a tokenless L2 protocol, after finally launching its native LINEA token. The long-awaited asset immediately gained centralized markets, with listings on OKX and KuCoin. However, this did not stop the initial selling. 

LINEA launched with losses of over 33% in the first hours of trading. LINEA sank to lows of $0.023 as trading started with an inital 15B tokens. In total, LINEA will unleash 72B tokens into the ecosystem over an 11-year vesting schedule.

The LINEA token launched after months of waiting, as the network wanted to avoid releasing the asset during a bear market. However, this did not save the asset from the initial slump. As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, the airdrop happened on a day when Linea briefly stopped producing blocks due to a problem with its centralized sequencer.

Whales sell off LINEA token

As with other airdrops, LINEA fell after the initial selling from top recipients. While airdrop tokens can recover, the initial price shock is seen as a negative for projects. 

LINEA token is still mostly trading on centralized markets, but some whales are cashing out through its DEX pairs. The airdrop is starting to create some disappointment, after some of the early point farmers had to wait up to two years for the actual airdrop. 

For now, the biggest trader has cashed out around $225K through the Etherex market. Selling LINEA remains unpredictable, though on-chain analysis shows the asset is clustered in the hands of top recipients. 

Centralization in all its glory.

Consensys = 70.8 mln $linea
Izumi Finance = 252.6 mln $linea
Cluster 0x2420 + 0xf61e = 112.9 mln $Linea
Cluster 0xd820 + 0xdc85 = 24 mln $linea
Cluster 0x41bc + 0xbdde = 16.8 mln $linea
Cluster 0x9CBF + 0x139c = 8.2 mln $linea
Cluster 0x0C88 +… pic.twitter.com/ZvIsopZ3Ay

— Andrew 10 GWEI (@Andrey_10gwei) September 8, 2025

Currently, there is enough LINEA supply for selling pressure. The token is also directly heading into daily linear unlocks, suggesting price discovery may bring the asset to a lower range. The LINEA launch with a small free float resembles previous TGE, where the asset faced selling pressure over the years. 

LINEA token sees limited buying on opening day

Even after a dip to a lower range, LINEA saw relatively limited buying volumes. The new token still mostly relies on spot trading. The chain carried around 49K daily active users after the airdrop, enough to move tokens for selling. Additionally, some of the airdrops have happened through exchange tokens, accelerating the crash. 

LINEA holders can also keep selling until a much lower range before buying resumes. Currently, demand for LINEA tokens may be limited, as the L2 chain still grows its ecosystem. However, the presence of a native token boosted the chain’s DeFi with more trading demand. 

Linea now carries a record $1.36B in value locked when accounting for the new native token’s value. Formerly, the L2 chain had a relatively small DeFi sector, with under $200M in value. 

Currently, Linea carries around 1% of the market share of all L2 chains. The economic activity on those chains accelerated in the past months, but was concentrated on Arbitrum and Base. 

Linea was shortly competing with the top chains, during its most active point farming season. After the airdrop, Linea is back on the map among L2 chains based on value secured.

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