When DeRace (DERC) became zkRace (ZERC) in May 2024, it wasn’t just a name change. It was a full blockchain upgrade with real consequences for every holder. If you owned DERC before May 13, 2024, you got ZERC automatically-no action needed. But if you missed the snapshot, you missed out. This isn’t a typical airdrop where you sign up and wait. This was a forced migration, and here’s exactly how it worked.
What Was the DeRace to zkRace Swap?
DeRace started as a play-to-earn NFT horse racing game. Players bought digital racehorses, bred them, built hippodromes, and raced them for rewards. The native token, DERC, powered everything: buying horses, entering races, earning rewards. But by early 2024, the team decided to rebuild the whole system on a new blockchain foundation. The old contract had limits. The new one, zkRace, was designed to be faster, cheaper, and more secure. The switch wasn’t optional. If you held DERC, you got ZERC. No exceptions.The Snapshot That Mattered
The entire swap hinged on one moment: May 13, 2024, at 16:00:00 UTC. That’s when the blockchain took a snapshot of every wallet holding DERC. If you had 100 DERC in your wallet at that exact second, you got 100 ZERC after the swap. It didn’t matter if you moved your tokens five minutes later. It didn’t matter if you bought DERC the day before. If you weren’t holding it at that snapshot, you didn’t qualify. This wasn’t a giveaway. It was a one-time, automatic transfer. No forms. No KYC. No claiming. The system did it for you. Exchanges like KuCoin and Gate.io handled the swap on behalf of their users. If you kept your DERC on one of those platforms before the snapshot, you got ZERC in your exchange account without lifting a finger.How the Token Swap Actually Happened
The swap wasn’t just a label change. The old DERC token contract was permanently frozen. A new ZERC contract was deployed on the Base blockchain, with the address 0xa3a2...f049815. Every DERC held at the snapshot was mapped 1:1 to ZERC. So 1 DERC = 1 ZERC. No discount. No bonus. No dilution. Your holdings kept their value. KuCoin and Gate.io announced the swap months in advance. They gave users clear deadlines: deposit DERC before May 13, 2024, to qualify. After that, no more DERC deposits were accepted. On May 28, 2024, KuCoin began trading ZERC/USDT at 10:00 UTC. The next day, at 09:00 UTC, users could withdraw ZERC. By then, DERC was dead. No trading. No deposits. No support.
What You Got: ZERC Tokenomics
The zkRace team didn’t just swap tokens-they reset the entire supply. The total supply of ZERC is fixed at 120,000,000 tokens. And here’s the key: 100% of those tokens are already in circulation. That means there’s no future unlocking. No team tokens locked up. No venture capital reserves waiting to dump. Every single ZERC is out in the market. As of February 2026, ZERC trades around $0.0258. That gives it a market cap of roughly $3.1 million. Daily volume hovers near $123,000, which is solid for a niche GameFi token. The price has stayed relatively stable since the swap, with minor swings between $0.0257 and $0.0262 over the last 24 hours. The token is audited by Hacken, adding a layer of trust. It’s not a giant, but it’s not a ghost either.How ZERC Powers the zkRace Metaverse
ZERC isn’t just a trading asset. It’s the engine of the zkRace ecosystem. You need ZERC to:- Buy and sell NFT racehorses on the marketplace
- Enter races and claim winnings
- Breed new horses (each breeding costs ZERC)
- Build and upgrade your own hippodrome
- Participate in referral programs
- Submit bug reports and get rewarded
Is There Still an Airdrop?
The big swap is over. But zkRace isn’t done. The team still runs occasional community airdrops-usually tied to challenges. For example, if you predict race outcomes correctly for a week, you might get bonus ZERC. Or if you help find a bug in the game, you could earn a reward. These aren’t massive distributions like the original swap. They’re small, targeted, and designed to keep players active. If you didn’t hold DERC before May 13, 2024, you can’t get the original ZERC allocation. But you can still earn ZERC by playing. The game is live. The NFTs are still being bred. The races still happen. The token is still used. The airdrop phase ended. The gameplay phase began.Where to Find ZERC Today
You can trade ZERC on KuCoin, Gate.io, and Bitget. The main trading pair is ZERC/USDT. Withdrawals are fully supported. The token contract is live on Base, so you can also hold it in any wallet that supports Base, like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet. Just make sure you’re using the correct contract: 0xa3a2...f049815. Any other address is fake.What You Should Know Now
If you held DERC before May 13, 2024: you got ZERC. You’re covered. Check your wallet or exchange balance. If you didn’t hold it: you missed the boat. But you can still join the game. Buy ZERC on an exchange, start racing, breed horses, and earn rewards. The ecosystem is active. The token is live. The metaverse is still growing. The zkRace swap was clean. It was transparent. It was final. There’s no second chance for the original airdrop. But there’s still plenty of opportunity to earn ZERC by playing.Did everyone who held DERC get ZERC automatically?
Yes. If you held DERC in your personal wallet or on a supported exchange like KuCoin or Gate.io before the snapshot on May 13, 2024, at 16:00 UTC, you received an equal amount of ZERC. No action was required. The swap was automatic and irreversible.
Can I still claim DERC tokens or get more ZERC from the original airdrop?
No. The DERC token was permanently retired after the swap. The snapshot was a one-time event. If you didn’t hold DERC before May 13, 2024, you cannot receive ZERC from that migration. Any website or service claiming to offer original airdrops is fake.
Why did DeRace become zkRace?
The team moved from the old DeRace blockchain to the Base network to reduce transaction fees, improve speed, and enhance security. The zkRace upgrade also allowed for better scalability and integration with future GameFi features. The rebranding signaled a technical reset, not just a name change.
Is ZERC still being used today?
Yes. ZERC is the only token used in the zkRace metaverse. You need it to race, breed, build hippodromes, and earn rewards. The game is active, with daily trades and new NFT horses being bred. The token remains central to all in-game actions.
Can I buy ZERC on any exchange?
ZERC is available on KuCoin, Gate.io, and Bitget. It trades primarily against USDT. You can also store it in any Base-compatible wallet like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet. Always verify the contract address: 0xa3a2...f049815. Never send funds to any other address.
Is the zkRace project still active?
Yes. The zkRace metaverse continues to operate with active horse racing, breeding, and hippodrome construction. The team still runs community challenges and small airdrops for active players. Development is ongoing, and new features are being added regularly.
2 Comments
Vishakha Singh
It's rare to see a project execute a token migration this cleanly. No drama, no confusion, just clear deadlines and automatic transfers. Kudos to the team for prioritizing transparency over convenience. For new users, this is a textbook example of how to handle a blockchain upgrade - no hand-wringing, no promises, just facts. And the fact that 100% of ZERC is in circulation? That’s a breath of fresh air in a space full of locked tokens and delayed unlocks. The ecosystem is alive because the foundation was solid.
Keep building.
Jan Czuchaj
One can’t help but reflect on the philosophical underpinnings of this transition - the notion that ownership, in a decentralized context, is not merely a matter of possession but of temporal alignment. The snapshot, in its cold, algorithmic precision, becomes a kind of digital oracle: it does not care about your intentions, your regrets, or your timing. It simply records. This is the essence of blockchain - a metaphysical ledger that enforces consequence without judgment. The value of ZERC, then, is not just economic, but existential. Those who held at the moment were granted continuity; those who did not, were granted only the opportunity to rejoin, not reclaim. A quiet lesson in impermanence.
Perhaps the most radical act in crypto is not speculation, but patience.