Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer TVL surges amid rising ETH staking

EigenLayer, an Ethereum-essentially based entirely restaking protocol, has surged previous Uniswap, the main decentralized change (DEX) on the Ethereum network, relating to whole locked value (TVL).

Data from DeFillama presentations that EigenLayer has emerged as the tip-performing decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol over the last month. Its TVL skyrocketed by 171% in the last seven days alone, reaching $5.67 billion, positioning it as the fifth-excellent DeFi protocol.

In inequity, Uniswap noticed a modest 6% manufacture bigger in TVL, reaching $4.31 billion all over the same duration. Other prominent DeFi protocols, comparable to Lido, Aave, and Maker, also experienced comparatively modest increase rates of now no longer up to 10%.

Within the intervening time, EigenLayer’s rapid manufacture bigger follows staked ETH increase to an all-time high of extra than 29 million tokens despite the latest selloff by the defunct crypto lender Celsius, per Nansen knowledge shared with CryptoSlate.

Why is EigenLayer TVL surging?

EigenLayer’s surge may per chance also even be attributed to the reopening of its vault for deposits on Feb. 5.

Since then, ETH holdings on the platform delight in skyrocketed from 941,000 to 2.3 million inside of every week, marking a main manufacture bigger. This influx represents approximately 2% of Ethereum’s whole circulating present now staked thru this platform.

Blockchain analytics firm SpotOnChain reported that the tip four restakers on EigenLayer are Puffer Finance, Tron’s network founder Justin Solar, Eigenpie, and Kelp DAO. Puffer Finance leads the community with 233,600 ETH restaked, followed by Solar with round 109,300 ETH — Eigenpie and Kelp DAO path carefully, having restaked 88,600 ETH and 75,300 ETH, respectively.

What is EigenLayer?

EigenLayer dominates the restaking market, attracting main consideration from the crypto community. Since June 2023, this DeFi protocol has progressively elevated its deposit restrict thru a phased delivery technique.

ETH restaking has emerged as one amongst the leading narratives in the crypto market as it permits patrons to to find further rewards on their staked ETH. The protocol supports standard liquid staking tokens comparable to lido-staked ETH (stETH) and rocket pool ETH (RETH) restaking through its platform.

Murathan, a contributor to DeFi collective, identified the increasing recognition of native restaking among ETH validators. He stated:

“1 in every 4 validators entering the Ethereum validator queue are surroundings their withdrawal credentials to an EigenPod.”

Alternatively, some community contributors delight in warned that the mannequin may per chance also invent a Ponzi scheme that may per chance well attain crashing quickly.