Next Hot Trend + Airdrop Expectations? Reviewing 6 Ethereum Re-Staking Protocols

In 2024, the field of restaking has experienced explosive growth, emerging as a major trend in the DeFi sector. Currently, the amount of ETH staked on the beacon chain has surpassed 29 million, with a total value exceeding 8 billion USD.

In the re-staking sector, EigenLayer takes a central role by expanding its application scenarios, opening up narrative possibilities. EigenLayer directly interfaces with Ethereum's security and liquidity through its Actively Validated Services (AVS). AVS essentially delegates the security validation of its token model directly to Ethereum nodes (which can be understood as node operators). The EigenLayer team has developed the first AVS project called EigenDA.

Restakers can delegate their staking to EigenDA, which performs validation tasks executed by node operators. In return, restakers receive service fees. Rollups can publish data to EigenDA, reducing transaction cost and achieving higher transaction throughput, thereby enhancing the overall security of the EigenLayer ecosystem.

This article outlines six mainstream restaking protocols:

EigenLayer

EigenLayer is a re-staking protocol based on Ethereum, providing Ethereum-level security for the entire

Ethereum crypto

-economic system in the future. It allows users to re-stake native ETH, LSDETH, and LP Tokens through EigenLayer smart contracts and receive validation rewards. This enables third-party projects to enjoy the security of the Ethereum mainnet while earning additional rewards, creating a mutually beneficial scenario.

On August 1, 2022, EigenLayer's developer, EigenLabs, completed a $14.5 million seed funding round with Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures co-leading.

On March 29, 2023, EigenLabs completed a $50 million Series A funding round, with Blockchain Capital leading the investment. Other participants included Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partner, Coinbase Ventures, IOSG Venture, among others.

ether.fi

ether.fi is a non-custodial liquidity staking platform that launched the liquidity staking token eETH on the mainnet on November 12, 2023. Users staking ETH on ether.fi receive protocol LST (eETH), which can be used to generate more income across the entire DeFi ecosystem, including re-staking on EigenLayer. Throughout the process, users retain control of their private keys while delegating Ethereum validator operations to node operators. Each validator generated through their protocol is represented as an NFT. Ethereum stakers with a minimum of 32 ETH will hold an NFT representing the economic interests of the validator.

Ether.fi has announced its roadmap for the first half of 2024. The team plans to conduct the Token Generation Event (TGE) in April, with other key dates including the release of the DAO framework in February and the token economics documentation in March. Additionally, Mainnet v3 is scheduled for an early Q2 release.

On February 28, 2023, ether.fi completed a $5.3 million funding round, with North Island Ventures, Chapter One, and Node Capital leading the investment. Notable participants include BitMex founder Arthur Hayes.

Swell Network

Swell Network is an Ethereum liquidity re-staking protocol where users can stake swETH and provide liquidity to earn Pearls. Later this year, they can exchange Pearls for SWELL tokens during the Token Generation Event, with a total distribution of 50 million SWELL (5%). On January 30, Swell Network introduced the restaking token rswETH (Restaked Swell Ether), allowing users to earn Pearls, EigenLayer points, and future restaking rewards. This provides users with unrestricted access to EigenLayer restaking, usable in DeFi, while continuing to accumulate restaking rewards.

On March 14, 2022, Swell Network successfully raised $3.75 million in a seed funding round led by Framework Ventures. Other participants included IOSG Ventures, Apollo Capital, Maven 11, as well as notable angel investors such as Mark Cuban, Kain Warwick (Co-founder of Synthetix), Jordan Momtazi, Fernando Martinelli (Founder of Balancer), Ryan Sean Adams, David Hoffman (Co-founder of Bankless), Loong Wang (Co-founder of Ren Protocol), and Suji Yan (Founder of Mask Network).

Kelp DAO

Kelp DAO, a re-staking project under the multi-chain LSD platform Stader Lab, has developed the Liquid Restaked Token (LRT) solution based on EigenLayer and constructed with rsETH.

Users staking in Kelp DAO can earn Kelp points, while the Ethereum held in the project treasury is staked on EigenLayer. Simultaneously, the earned points are shared with the community. On December 19, 2023, just six days after its launch, Kelp DAO attracted approximately 38,000 ETH in deposits.

On October 7, 2021, Stader Labs announced the completion of a $4 million seed funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Jump Capital, Proof Group, Hypersphere, and others.

On January 20, 2022, Stader Labs announced a private funding round of $12.5 million, valuing the company at $450 million. This round was led by Three Arrows Capital, with participation from Blockchain.com, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4 RC, Figment, and several angel investors.

Renzo

Renzo is a liquidity re-staking protocol that is currently operational on EigenLayer's mainnet. At the core of Renzo is ezETH, a Liquid Restaking Token (LRT). Users can mint this token by depositing Ethereum or LST into Renzo. ezETH can be further utilized in other DeFi protocols to gain compounded returns. Renzo abstracts away all the complexities for end-users, enabling them to participate in EigenLayer's restaking ecosystem with low barriers. As a native restaking product, its advantage lies in the ability for ample staking, unaffected by EigenLayer LST deposit limits.

On January 15, Renzo, the liquidity restaking protocol in the EigenLayer ecosystem, announced the completion of a $3 million seed funding round. Maven 11 led this funding round, with participation from SevenX Ventures, Figment Capital, IOSG, and others.

Eigenpie

EigenLayer is a re-staking protocol based on Ethereum, allowing users to restake native ETH, LSDETH, and LP Tokens through EigenLayer smart contracts to earn validation rewards. It is jointly launched by the decentralized liquidity aggregation protocol Magpie and EigenLayer. Eigenpie, based on EigenLayer smart contract technology, provides users with Liquid Restaking Token (LRT) services. Users can earn passive income from both Ethereum staking and EigenLayer without a lock-up period.

Isolated Liquid Restaking (ILR) tokens are restaking certificates generated by Eigenpie, which can only be minted by depositing specific LST, not a diverse basket of LST. Users can deposit their LST into Eigenpie to obtain the LRT version of their specific assets. The ILR tokens received when depositing LST into Eigenpie will retain their original names and have the prefix “m” added.

On September 8, 2022, Magpie Protocol announced the completion of a $3 million seed funding round. Jump Crypto, ArkStream Capital, Sandeep Nailwal, GSR Markets, Parafi Capital, Republic Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Serafund, Faculty Group, MH Ventures, D1 Ventures, Apollo Capital, and others participated in this funding round.