The only zkSync Airdrop Guide you’ll ever need, a 6 Part Guide. Part 1 — Bridges.

18 min readJan 25, 2024

This is a 6 part (with bonus part at the end!) article that covers all the key ecosystem protocols that can be interacted with to support you in airdrop farming zkSync.

This article was originally supposed to be just one large article, however there is so much information to share it had to be cut up into 5 separate parts!

This article was born out of my own need to be a clear understanding of the zkSync ecosystem so I could farm it more effectively and efficiently so I hope sharing it with you helps you in some way.

This article is not intended to be financial advice but rather what I am working through and I am sharing this in case you may find it useful to your own airdrop efforts.

UPDATE ADDED 22/02/2024 — Paymaster sites added to article. Paymaster has been getting a fair amount of attention recently so I have updated this article to flag those protocols that have Paymaster functionality.

What is zkSync?

According to zkSync:

zkSync is a Layer-2 protocol that scales Ethereum with cutting-edge ZK tech. Our mission is not only to merely increase Ethereum’s throughput, but to fully preserve its foundational values — freedom, self-sovereignty, decentralization — at scale.

Basically zkSync is designed to make Ethereum better, faster and stronger. This can only be a good thing!

💬 Socials: Website — Twitter — Discord

Funding

zkSync has received $458m in funding since 2019 from some high profile VCs such as a16z, DragonFly Capital, OKX Ventures, Concensus (the parent company of Metamask).

What will it cost to run this airdrop?

You don’t need to action everything you read in this article but if you do expect to spend around $120-$150 on fees, especially if you bridge from Ethereum. However, you can spend whatever you are comfortable by reducing the number of protocols that you interact with.

You will however need an airdrop fund to complete actions like bridges and swaps or lending. Again allocate what you can afford but consider at least $150-$200 dollars to help you achieving some reasonable volume. We want to achieve at least $1,000 in volume to put us into a decent position for an airdrop. Aiming for $10,000 is even better but $1,000 is a great place to start.

What do I need to take part in this airdrop?

Nothing more than an internet connected device and a crypto wallet like Metamask, Rabby or Trustwallet.

I tend to farm via a laptop so you’ll notice I use screenshots of sites that may not look quite the same as you might see on a mobile device.

The following guide outlines the key actions you could take across the zkSync ecosystem in order to put yourself in a great position for any potential airdrop. It’s covered later in the article but just following and interacting with the protocols listed in this part of the article series will at the date of writing put you in the top 2.75% of zkSync users!

This article although comprehensive will assume at least a basic level of experience in airdrop farming like confirming wallet transactions, bridging and swapping so as to keep the article from being excessively long going through basic explanations.

To make this article more digestible its split it into a number of parts::

Part 1 — Bridges
Part 2 — Defi (Swaps and Liquidity Pools)
Part 3 — Lending/Borrowing
Part 4— Gaming
Part 5— NFT & Marketplaces
Part 6— Social, Domains & Quests

Lastly, there is a “bonus part” for getting to the end we’ll cover a simple “Bridge & Swap” approach that will not only drive up your zkSync transactions and volumes but also on multiple other chains as well.

Learning from the Arbitrum Airdrop

Our overall objective here is to generate unique contracts, $ volume and transactions over time to improve our position for any potential airdrop. To help us do this we’ll look at the Arbitrum eligibility playbook to help guide our interactions with zkSync.

As a recap Arbitrum’s qualifying criteria points were awarded for the following:

Bridged funds into Arbitrum One
Conducted transactions during two distinct months
Conducted transactions during six distinct months
Conducted transactions during nine months
Conducted more than four transactions or interacted with more than four different smart contracts
Conducted more than ten transactions or interacted with more than ten different smart contracts
Conducted more than 25 transactions or interacted with more than 25 different smart contracts
Conducted more than 100 transactions or interacted with more than 100 different smart contracts
Conducted transactions exceeding in the aggregate $10,000 in value
Conducted transactions exceeding in the aggregate $50,000 in value
Conducted transactions exceeding in the aggregate $250,000 in value
Bridged more than $10,000 of assets into Arbitrum One
Bridged more than $50,000 of assets into Arbitrum One
Bridged more than $250,000 of assets into Arbitrum One

A further 4 points were awarded for interacting with Arbitrum Nova, Arbitrum’s second chain:

Bridged funds into Arbitrum Nova
Conducted more than three transactions
Conducted more than five transactions
Conducted more than ten transactions

Source: https://docs.arbitrum.foundation/airdrop-eligibility-distribution

As we progress through this article we will reference the Arbitrum criteria from time to time to gauge how we are progressing with our zkSync activities.

For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume zkSync will run something similar to Arbitrum. Arbitrum rewarded some users that achieved at least 12 out of the 18 points on offer with the maximum allocation of points which was 10,750 $ARB. We’ll aim to achieve through this article series an equivalent level in zkSync.

There is a lot in this first part to go through so let’s get started!

Bridges

Before we do anything else we need to get funds into the zkSync ecosystem, the best way to do that is using a bridge. A bridge is a way of getting our funds from one chain to another, and in this case the “another” is zkSync.

The “official” bridge is always the best place to start as some projects have rewarded for using the official bridge so it makes sense to use that first. Other bridges can always be used afterwards if non-ETH transfers are needed.

Arbitrum awarded up to 5 points for bridging actions so we should take into consideration for farming zkSync:

Bridged funds into Arbitrum One
Bridged more than $10,000 of assets into Arbitrum One
Bridged more than $50,000 of assets into Arbitrum One
Bridged more than $250,000 of assets into Arbitrum One
Bridging funds into Arbitrum Nova

Please note that bridging is cumulative so even if you have a low budget by making multiple bridges over time you can build up to the numbers above.

If you bridged just $100 one hundred times you would qualify for 2 of the 5 bridging points on offer.

So how do we start bridging?

Before we start its worth noting that there are in fact two zkSync networks. “zkSync Era Mainnent” which is zkSync’s primary network, and a second called “zkSync Lite” which is their older but more stripped down simpler network designed to process faster payments — this article by default will mostly focus on the “zkSync Era” ecosystem however any “zkSync Lite” specific actions will be called out specifically.

You may find reference to https://portal.zksync.io/bridge/ which was the official bridge for some time however this seems to have been replaced with:

https://portal.txsync.io/bridge/

Here you can transfer ETH from Ethereum mainnet to the zkSync Mainnet chain and it take approximately 15 minutes to complete the transfer. Please note that you can only bridge ETH via the official bridge.

The official bridge is between Ethereum and zkSync, and we know that Ethereum gas fees can be painful but it’s necessary. You just have to bite the bullet once. Try and do it early in the morning on a weekend when gas fees are typically much lower. Aim to do it when gas fees are lower than 20 and the pain will be limited!

This protocol also utises the paymaster features so feel free to bridge and select another gas token than ETH.

Possible bridge options:

FROM $ETH on Ethereum
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

You can also send funds back by selecting the withdraw option (located next to the deposit button).

2. zkSync Lite Bridge — https://lite.zysync.io

Arbitrum also rewarded users for interacting with Arbitrum Nova their version of the zkSync Lite chain. So it makes sense to bridge to this also so you can then make transactions on this chain too.

For context there were 4 reward points available using Arbitrum Nova, they were earned by:

Bridging funds into Arbitrum Nova
Conducting more than three transactions
Conducting more than five transactions
Conducting more than ten transactions

Source: https://docs.arbitrum.foundation/airdrop-eligibility-distribution

To capture that bridging reward point for zkSync Lite you will need to connect your wallet and click on Transfer:

This will then give you the option to send to zkSync Lite chain or Ethereum:

In terms of ETH budget for zkSync Lite it can be much lower as we ultimately need to do less transactions to qualify. Maybe look to bridge $10-$20.

If you have already bridged from Ethereum to zkSync Era you can just bridge from zkSync Era to zkSync Lite to save on Ethereum gas fees.

Possible bridge option:

FROM $ETH on zkSync Era
TO $ETH on zkSync Lite

Now that we have covered the official bridge, let’s look at other bridges that will allow us to bridge tokens into the zkSync ecosystem.

3. L2Scan — https://zksync-era.l2scan.co/bridge/official

L2Scan essentially utlises the official or native zkSync bridge so you have to bridge from Ethereum, however you can bridge other tokens than just ETH.

Currently you can bridge around 87 different tokens from ETH to zkSync! So plenty of choice with this bridge.

Possible bridge option:

FROM $ETH on Ethereum
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

One point to note is that as it’s powered by the native zkSync bridge it may utlise the same smart contract as the native bridge so may not count as a unique contract, however it will of course count towards your bridging volume and an additional transaction.

4. Rhino.Fi — https://app.rhino.fi/bridge/

With Rhino.Fi multiple tokens can be bridged across 16 different chains of which zkSync is one of them.

Rhino.Fi is currently tokenless and has received over $5m in funding from various investors so there is also an opportunity to farm this platform at the same time.

Possible bridge option:

FROM $USDC on Scroll
TO $USDC on zkSync Era

Rhino.Fi also has a zkSync tracker that you can checker your progress on. It’s worth a look: https://app.rhino.fi/trackers/ZKSYNC

5. Pheasant Network — https://pheasant.network

Pheasant Network is an ETH only bridge for now. There are two good things about bridging using Pheasant Network:

It allows you to bridge between a number of major airdrop opportunities (Linea, Base, Polygon zkEVM and Scroll)
It doesn’t have a token yet. So possible opportunity for an airdrop at a later date.

Possible bridge option:

FROM $ETH on Ethereum
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

6. Interport Finance — https://app.interport.fi/

Currently #21 on the DappRadar DEFI protocols list on zkSync, Interport Finance has a simple enough bridge function to generate a unique tx on zksync. It also doesnt have a token.

You can bridge between 13 chains including airdrop opportunity chains such as zkSync (obviously), Scroll, Base, Polygon zkEVM, Linea and opBNB. So make sure you prioritise bridging from those chains over others to improve your overall airdrop farming position.

Possible bridge option:

FROM $USDC on Polygon
TO $USDC on zkSync Era

7. Stargate Finance — https://stargate.finance/

Stargate doesn’t need any introduction to any airdrop farmer who has been farming layerZero. This is a good way to “double up” on your airdrop farming efforts — by transacting on LayerZero you benefit from both LayerZero AND zkSync airdrop opportunities.

You can only bridge from Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Base, however you can’t bridge the usual tokens like ETH, USDC or USDT to zkSync chain.

You can only bridge MAV or WAGMI tokens.

I recommend bridging MAV tokens which you can get via swapping on Maverick Protocol which is also covered later in this article.

Head to https://app.mav.xyz/ and do a swap to get the MAV tokens, connect to Binance Smart Chain or Base to do the swap (and subsequent bridge) as gas fees will be much lower than using Ethereum.

Remember if you Swap and Bridge from Base and not Binance Smart Chain you’ll also generate transactions towards Base’s possible airdrop.

Possible Stargate bridge option:

SWAP $USDC to $MAV on Base

Bridge $MAV on Base
TO $MAV on zkSync Era

8. Symbiosis — https://app.symbiosis.finance/

Although with Symbiosis you can bridge from around 20 different chains, its slim pickings for those farming zkSync. You can only bridge USDC from the Boba BNB network to zkSync.

You’ll need to bridge some USDC from the Binance Smart Chain for sUSDC on the Boba BNB Chain to then bridge that sUSDC for USDC on zkSync.

Not the simplest way to get a zkSync bridge transaction but a transaction is a transaction so we’ll take it!

Only bridge option:

Bridge $sUSDC on Bob BNB Chain
TO $USDC on zkSync Era

9. Metamask — https://portfolio.metamask.io/bridge

Those that only use Metamask mobile wallet could be forgiven that Metamask just swaps, sends and receives crypto. However using by Metamask Portfolio you can also Bridge and Stake your assets.

Metamask doesn't bridge the assets itself but rather acts as an aggregator, showing the optimal routes for your asset bridge.

In the example below to bridge from Base to zkSync Metamask has identified Across Protocol as the best option.

One benefit you get from an aggregator like Metamask is you get both the Metamask transaction and the proposed bridge transaction too. So you can essentially get 2 transactions for the price of one.

Metamask has a lot of assets that you can bridge using Metamask, but to keep it simple:

FROM $ETH on Base
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

Let’s not forget Metamask doesnt have a token as yet, so no harm adding another transaction just in case!

10. Layerswap — https://www.layerswap.io/app

Layerswap offers a little more than just standard chain to chain bridging. With Layerswap you can bridge 6 tokens from 18 CEXs, 27 blockchains and 3 Fiat on-ramps.

The challenge is the Layerswap fees are more expensive than many other bridges, with the average fee being between $2-$3 each.

It’s a suck it up situation, just do the transaction and move on!

As mentioned earlier Arbitrum Nova is Arbitrum’s smaller chain and given there hasn’t been airdrop for that chain as yet, it’s worth interacting with that also.

Possible bridge option:

FROM $ETH on Arbitrum Nova
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

Alternative bridge option:

Layerswap supports zksync Lite to Era bridges so you can also use this route to get double points!

FROM $ETH on zkSync Lite
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

11. Owlto Finance — https://owlto.finance/

Owlto boosts one of the largest bridges on linea, but we can also use it to bridge to zkSync. It has a limited number of assets so you’ll have to keep to bridging ETH, USDT or USDC at this time.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on Linea
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

12. OmniBTC — https://app.omnibtc.finance/swap

Omniswap from Omnibtc.finance allows you to bridge from 13 different chains, however only about 6 of those allow you to bridge to zksync.

Keep it simpe and bridge ETH, USDC or USDT to zkSync.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on Polygon zkEVM
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

13. Across Protocol — https://across.to/bridge

Across Protocol is a little limited but can bridge to zkSync via around 6 chains; Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon and zkSync. However its cheap and fast. Once Across expands its asset list it could easily become a massive player in the space.

For the purposes of being an efficient airdrop farmer select Base as the sending chain:

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on Base
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

14. Pancakeswap Finance — https://bridge.pancakeswap.finance/

This bridge is very limited as you can only bridge $CAKE to zkSync, but its still a bridge transaction to zkSync.

To access the bridge select Trade on the top left menu and then select Bridges. You’ll then see a page like below:

Only bridge option:

Bridge $CAKE on BNB Chain
TO $CAKE on zkSync Era

15. ZigZag Bridge — https://trade.zigzag.exchange/bridge

To improve your zkSync Lite transactions you can use Zig Zag bridge. It only allows bridging between Ethereum and zkSync Lite, however you can bridge quite the selection of assets.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on Ethereum
TO $ETH on zkSync Lite

16. Orbiter Finance — https://www.orbiter.finance/

One of the better known and more popular bridges on this list Orbiter allows the bridging of funds across multiple chains.

Currently running their O-Points campaign bridging through Orbiter will help you increase your O-Points tally which is believed to be one of the primary ways you might get rewarded via an airdrop at some point in the future.

This protocol also utises the paymaster features so feel free to bridge and select another gas token than ETH.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on zkSync Lite
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

17. Layer3 — https://www.layer3.xyz/bridge

Best known for its crypto related quests Layer3 also has a decent bridge. You can bridge from 12 chains, of which 2 are not that common being Gnosis and Aurora.

You can access the bridge option at the top right hand corner of the site.

Layer3 bridge is similar to Metamask in that it doesn't do the bridging itself but rather aggregates other bridges and offers you the best option for your chosen route.

For me to bridge ETH from Polygon to zkSync Layer3 has identfied the Celer bridge as the best option.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on Polygon
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

18. Celer Network — https://cbridge.celer.network/

Celer network offers 12 chains to bridge to zkSync, however both Canto and Conflux have very little liquidity so bridging from those 2 chains is a challenge.

However you can bridge from Ethereum, Scroll, Astar, BSC, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Linea and Polygon zkEVM.

Having reviewed the various routes bridging USDC or ETH seems to be the best options across the available chains. If using ETH Optinism fees were just 0.00017 ETH ($0.37 at the time of this article), or if bridging USDC then AVAX or Polygon were around $0.40 in fees.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $ETH on Optimism
TO $ETH on zkSync Era

19. Jumper Exchange — https://jumper.exchange/

Hailed as “Crypto’s Everything Exchange” Jumper Exchange 18 chains, 14 bridges & 34 DEX & DEX Aggregators, so it’s not an exchange to be ignored.

Powered by Li.Fi, Jumper Exchange offers you the best routes for your assets. Simpy select what and where you wish to bridge from and to and it will go find you the best routes available.

Not only does Jumper Exchange offer lots of routes for your assets, its one of the more low cost bridges so worth book marking this for future reference!

Also as its an aggregator you’ll get 2 transactions for the price of one!

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $USDC.e on Optimism
TO $USDC on zkSync Era

20. Rubic Exchange — https://app.rubic.exchange/

Rubic Exchange aggregates 40 major blockchains, 90+ DEXs and bridges, and enables swapping of 15,500+ assets so its a decent enough bridge to use!

Simply select the chain and the asset you wish to bridge from and select zkSync as the receiving channel and it will show the available routes that you can take on the right hand side.

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $USC+ on Arbitrum
TO $USD+ on zkSync Era

21. XY Finance — https://alpha.xy.finance/

XY Finance use they “yBridge” bridge feature to move your assets cross-chain.

You have the ability to bridge from around 20 chains to zksync with XY so there is plenty of options for variety including lesser known chains.

As long as you bridge ETH, USDC or USDT you can pretty much bridge from any of the following chains to zkSync.

If you are feeling adventurous then why not bridge from Mantle or Astar!

Possible bridge option:

Bridge $USDC on Mantle
TO $USDC on zkSync Era

22. Openocean.Finance — https://app.openocean.finance/classic

Openocean is the the last bridge on this is list and is another aggregator, with 7 chains available to bridge to zkSync. However these chains are well established such as Arbitrum, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche and Fantom.

Openocean works like any other aggregator in that it will highlight the best route, so in the case below if I wanted to swap ETH from Optimism to zkSync then its identified that Symbiosis Bridge is my best option.

UPDATED SECTION — 4th Feb ‘24

I received some feedback that although I had a solid bridge list I had missed out some important bridges that related to ONFTs, OFTs and Gas Refuel.

This section will put that right!

23. Merkly — https://minter.merkly.com/

Mint & Bridge an ONFT

If you have done any LayerZero farming then you wont be a stranger to Merkly, which really help farmers achieve some of those more niche transactions.

With Merkly you can mint an ONFT on one chain and then bridge it to another. It registers as a unique transaction on the zkSync chain so its worth doing.

However at the time of writing this section of the article although zkSync is listed as a chain you can bridge your ONFT to, currently the bridge is disabled.

Once its back up and operational you can do the following:

Connect to a chain that will allow bridging to zkSync e.g. Base, Ethereum or BSC.
Mint an ONFT by clicking the Mint button
Confirm the mint in your wallet and then click on the Bridge button to start the bridging the ONFT to zkSync.

By completing this transaction you’ll then have a unique transaction on the zkSync chain.

Claim MERK & Bridge

To use the OFT bridge

Connect to a chain that will allow bridging to zkSync e.g. Base, Ethereum or BSC.
Mint an ONFT by clicking the Mint button
Confirm the mint in your wallet and then click on the Bridge button to start the bridging the ONFT to zkSync.

24. L2Marathon — https://l2marathon.com/

25. Mintly — https://www.mintly.lol/

In Summary

If you use all these bridges not only would you have generated 28 transactions (the 6 aggregators listed are double points remember!) on the zkSync network plus whatever $ volume you were able to bridge into the network also, but you’d also interact with a number of tokenless protocols.

For context, if you just bridged $50 once from each of these bridges listed above this would generate enough activity for you to be in the 2.7% of zkSync wallets, and we haven’t even started the DEFI activity yet!

From a volume standpoint aim to create at least $1,000 bridging volume into zkSync and use the official bridge at least once (this is a must!). Remember, volume is accumulative so even if you only had have $100 for example and you bridge it 10 times that will create $1,000 in volume.

This covers the key bridges that you can use to farm zkSync. In Part 2 of the zkSync airdrop series we will look at driving further volume and transactions through DEFI platforms.

Part 2 — Coming soon. If you want to get an email notification once the new part is released simply subscribe to receive the latest instalments.

So that’s it — an entire zkSync ecosystem review for you to follow and work through to improve your zkSync standing for any possible airdrop!

Thanks for reading and I hope it was useful, feel free to let me know what you thought in the comments.

Thank you for your time, if this article was helpful please give it some claps and/or share it with others so they can successfully get involved with the zkSync airdrop opportunity!

Socials:

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/trialsincrypto

Cryptonairz Discord: https://discord.gg/Cryptonairz

The only zkSync Airdrop Guide you’ll ever need, a 6 Part Guide. Part 1 — Bridges.

Thank you for your time, if this article was helpful please give it some claps and/or share it with others so they can successfully get involved with the zkSync airdrop opportunity!

Written by TrialsInCrypto