Founders Fund-backed Caldera to launch native ERA token along with community airdrop

Rollup-as-a-service infrastructure provider Caldera is launching its native token, ERA, which is set to serve as its main asset for gas fees, staking, and governance.

The token has a total supply of 1 billion, 7% of which is reserved for distribution to community members and ecosystem participants.

In a blog post, users have been asked to register through the claim site before the token launch to be eligible.

The ERA token will serve three core purposes: powering network transactions as a standard omnichain gas token, enabling staking to secure cross-chain message validation, and facilitating decentralized governance through onchain voting.

The Caldera Foundation, based in the Cayman Islands, oversees the ecosystem's growth and decentralization. Governance will be progressively decentralized, with token holders eventually electing members to sub-councils such as a technical security council.

Caldera operates a modular operating system used to launch custom chains on platforms like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and ZKsync.

An interoperability protocol called Metalayer connects these chains into a unified network, enabling shared liquidity and intent-based bridging.

Founded in 2022, the provider now powers over 50 rollups with a combined total value locked of more than $400 million. The team has raised a total of $25 million in funding to date, including a $15 million Series A last year led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.