The Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer has surged to become the fourth-largest protocol by Total Value Locked (TVL), surpassing the cryptocurrency lending protocol JustLend.
EigenLayer Surpasses JustLend to Secure Fourth Spot in TVL Rankings
According to DefiLlama, EigenLayer’s TVL has risen by 5.73% to $7.57 billion.
The restaking protocol’s TVL has surged by 47.95% over the past seven days and by an impressive 327% over the last month. EigenLayer’s TVL began to soar on February 5th after temporarily lifting staking restrictions to stimulate organic growth. During this period, EigenLayer’s restaking TVL surged by over 181%, from $2.15 billion on February 5th to $6.05 billion by February 10th.
Despite the application of new staking limits, the project plans to permanently remove these limits in the future.
Growing Interest in Staking Protocols Amidst Rising DeFi Landscape
Restaking protocols like EigenLayer enable validators and stakers to deposit tokens into liquid staking pools, such as Lido Staked ETH (stETH) and RocketPool‘s rETH, to secure and validate other networks. These assets can also be utilized in other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to generate additional returns.
While liquid staking currently stands as the largest category of protocols with $42.69 billion in TVL, staking protocols rank sixth with $6.99 billion in aggregate TVL, according to DefiLlama.
According to a post by Brianne Montgomery, Head of Strategy at EigenLayer, every fourth Ethereum validator set their withdrawal credentials to EigenPod in the 30 days leading up to February 9th.
In the past 30 days, 1 out of every 4 Ethereum validators joining the queue have set their withdrawal credentials to an EigenPod…. probably nothing 👀 ♾ pic.twitter.com/5Znwewcxdh
— Brianna (bri.eth/acc) 🦇🔊 (@zkBri) February 8, 2024
Interest in staking protocols began to surge in January, shortly after EigenLayer surpassed $1 billion in TVL on December 28, 2023. According to Dune, as of February 18th, a total of 108,271 depositors are participating in the protocol. EigenLayer has accumulated over 1.68 million ETH tokens in total.
EigenLayer plans to launch its network for operators soon, allowing investors to manage a staking node. According to an announcement on February 9th, the protocol is also gearing up to launch EigenDA, a decentralized data availability service built on Ethereum.
Restaking LSTs has been paused as we gear up for the Operator & @eigen_da mainnet launch, with an impressive 2.45+ million ETH restaked and ready.
We're excited to further our collaboration with our vibrant community, driving forward Infinite Sum Games. Stay tuned! ♾️
— EigenLayer (@eigenlayer) February 9, 2024
