Even in 2024, Ethereum will still face challenges from other public chains, as well as the threat from the DA platform to the Ethereum main network. Ethereum remains the most developers and most innovative crypto platform. If the Bitcoin spot ETF passes, then the smart money in the market will vote with their feet to select the next spot ETF potential stock, and Restaking is a rising star in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Although EigenLayer, one of the protagonists of this article, also poses a threat to the L2 DA adoption of the Ethereum main network. But protocols born in Ethereum and longer than Ethereum will undoubtedly bring some help to Ethereum - and even rely on a protocol to directly give birth to a new narrative, Restaking.

At the same time, the market is also optimistic about this narrative. The deadline for publication is based onOfficial website dataIt shows that there are 634,000 Ethereums pledged on EigenLayer, worth more than 1 billion US dollars, and TVL exceeds that of many mainstream public chains.

Regarding EigenLayer, this article quotes from Mint VenturesA Quick Look at Restaking Leaders: EigenLayers Business Logic and Valuation DeductionTo introduce:

EigenLayer, as a platform, on the one hand raises assets from holders of LSD (Liquid Staking Derivatives) assets, and on the other hand uses the raised LSD assets as collateral to provide middleware, side chains, and rollups with AVS needs. Providing convenient and low-cost AVS (Actively Validated Services) services, it itself provides demand matching services between LSD providers and AVS demanders, and a specialized pledge service provider is responsible for specific pledge security services.

Just like Brc 20 does to the Bitcoin ecosystem and new platforms. To a certain extent, in the era of one-click chain issuance, DA has also become the wealth code for the project side to start a second venture. Currently, in addition to the Ethereum mainnet, Celestia is the most adopted and sought after by developers. According to reports, EigenLayer’s much-anticipated DA service EigenDA is also supported by Restaking, providing low-cost, ultra-large-scale data services for L2. The market generally believes that there will be greater competition between EigenDA and Celestia.

Just as protocols such as yearn, Convex and StakeDAO started the Curve War; protocols such as Lido and Rocket Protocol started the LSD matryoshka doll of Ethereum, facing the matryoshka doll behavior of Restaking, more than 1 billion US dollars of assets and new products have been superimposed at the same time. With the narrative, the Ethereum community’s specialty can be played - the matryoshka doll within the matryoshka doll. Previously, EigenLayer started the LST War, and various Ethereum liquidity staking protocols are vying to join EigenLayers Liquid Restaking pool. It is foreseeable that in the near future, a new round of war surrounding EigenLayer tokens will continue.

At present, the EigenLayer hard cap has reached the upper limit. It is recommended that users carefully check the rights and interests obtained by the account when participating in the Restaking protocol. This article tries to collect projects from various Restaking tracks as much as possible. Considering that EigenLayer is still in the development stage, the quality of the projects is uneven, and the Restaking behavior itself has no technical barriers; at the same time, LSDfi and Restaking have overlapping tracks, and users also need to carry out their own research on the projects. Screening.

Kelp DAO

The founders of Kelp Dao are Amitej G and Dheeraj B, who previously founded the multi-chain liquidity staking platform Stader Labs. Kelp DAO is an LRT (Liquid Restaked Token) solution built with rsETH based on EigenLayer.

The working principle of rsETH (also the core working principle of most Restaking projects) is:

1. Pledge LST (i.e. liquid pledged tokens such as stETH) tokens and mint rsETH tokens;

2. The rsETH contract will distribute the deposited LST to the node operators that Kelp Dao cooperates with;

3.reETH will receive various rewards for participating in the protocol, such as the LST protocol itself, and the participating Restaking protocol, etc.

At the same time, rsETH holders can exchange their rsETH for other supported tokens through AMM, or choose to redeem the underlying assets through the rsETH contract. Finally, and most interestingly and most commonly, rsETH holders can further leverage their rsETH tokens in DeFi.

If you think the logic of Kelp DAO is too simple and not sexy. Kelp DAO also has two features. The first is that users who pledge through Kelp can obtain Kelp points, which means that Kelp is likely to issue its own tokens. Second, the Kelp team also pledged the Ethereum in its vault to EigenLayer and distributed the points to community members. In this way, even if the same amount of Ethereum is pledged, the Ethereum via Kelp will receive a small amount more EigenLayer points and Kelp DAO itself.

This also explains why deposits to EigenLayer through Kelp account for more than 10% of all EigenLayer deposits.

Swell

Swell was originally an Ethereum staking protocol similar to Lido, and is now gradually moving closer to Restaking. By combining token distribution with Restaking, its derivative LST token swETH is the third largest TVL token on EigenLayer after stETH (Lido) and ETH, with a pledged amount of over 110,000. The Restake version of swETH is called rswETH and focuses on the Restaking track. The Liquid Restaking Committee established by it has already been joined by projects such as AltLayer and InfStones.

The Swell protocol currently has more than 140,000 Ethereums.

ether.fi

ether.fi is also a project that has moved from the LSD protocol to Restaking. But unlike Swell, todays ether.fi focuses on the development of eETH - eETH is a token that directly pledges Ethereum to EigenLayer and does not accept other LSD tokens.

According to the official statement of ether.fi, because eETH itself is restakted using EigenLayer, this means that there is no hard cap on the ETH staking on the platform. The eETH obtained by staking can be used to obtain ETH staking rewards, ether.fi points and EigenLayer points.

As of the time of publishing, the ether.fi platform has more than 47,000 Ethereums.

Restake Finance

According to the official introduction, Restake Finance is the first protocol to launch modular liquidity staking for EigenLayer.

Restakes rstETH is a decentralized 1:1 stETH-pegged rebase token. As a yield token, rstETH remortgages the holders stETH through EigenLayer. The modular infrastructure allows holders to select specific modules (AVS) from which they want to receive rewards. Currently Restake Finance has 2073 rstETH.

It is worth noting that Restake Finance is one of the few projects that has released a token. Previously, Restake Finance conducted an LBP IDO through Fjord Foundry. During the period, the lowest price of the RSTK token was approximately US$0.21, and the highest price was US$0.55. As of the publication of the article, the RSTK price was US$1.79.

LBP data from Restake Finance RenzoProtocol

According to official information, Renzo is EigenLayers LRT and strategy management platform. As one of the entrances to the EigenLayer ecosystem, it is used for the security of AVS (Actively Validated Services) and provides higher returns than ETH staking.

The working principle is similar to that of Kelp DAO above, but Renzo supports more LSD tokens. And Renzo, like other projects, provides native ETH rewards, EigenLayer points and ezPoints rewards.

In involution tracks such as LSD and Restaking, which value safety audits and business cooperation, Renzo has partners such as Figment, Gauntlet, Biconomy, Balancer and Wormhole. This may also be a reason for the recent surge in Renzos pledge volume.

other

In addition to the projects mentioned above, the Restaking track also includes Puffer Finance, which has been favored by Bankless Lianchuang and has raised US$5.5 million, exocore, which focuses on multi-chain Restaking, and even a lending platform that serves Staked and Restked assets. Projects such as Ion Protocol and Astrid, many of which are still in beta.

Summarize

At present, the working principle of most Restaking projects is to provide users with Ethereum base interest rate, EigenLayer points and project native tokens by pledging LSD or Ethereum to EigenLayer.

On a larger scale, Restaking is a new track, a new model, and a new narrative; on a smaller scale, it is more like a new model and new path of financial management for giant whales. There are countless Restaking protocols, which are more or less like anti-aircraft guns swatting mosquitoes. It’s just that the Ethereum in the hands of the community still has to find an outlet to vent.

Since the EigenLayer product is still in its early stages, it is still unclear whether restake under AVS is a panacea or a redundant move for PoS, and the specific economic model still needs to be verified by the market. The current market seems to be unleashing its enthusiasm for EigenLayer through the pursuit of Restaking track ecological projects.

Looking forward to EigenLayer’s development in 2024.