EigenLayer, an Ethereum-based restaking protocol, has surged previous Uniswap, the foremost decentralized alternate (DEX) on the Ethereum community, concerning complete locked worth (TVL).
Data from DeFillama exhibits that EigenLayer has emerged because the top-performing decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol over the previous month. Its TVL skyrocketed by 171% within the final seven days alone, reaching $5.67 billion, positioning it because the fifth-largest DeFi protocol.
In distinction, Uniswap noticed a modest 6% enhance in TVL, reaching $4.31 billion throughout the identical interval. Different outstanding DeFi protocols, equivalent to Lido, Aave, and Maker, additionally skilled comparatively modest development charges of lower than 10%.
In the meantime, EigenLayer’s speedy enhance follows staked ETH development to an all-time excessive of greater than 29 million tokens regardless of the current selloff by the defunct crypto lender Celsius, based on Nansen information shared with CryptoSlate.
Why is EigenLayer TVL surging?
EigenLayer’s surge will be attributed to the reopening of its vault for deposits on Feb. 5.
Since then, ETH holdings on the platform have skyrocketed from 941,000 to 2.3 million inside every week, marking a major enhance. This inflow represents roughly 2% of Ethereum’s complete circulating provide now staked by this platform.
Blockchain analytics agency SpotOnChain reported that the highest 4 restakers on EigenLayer are Puffer Finance, Tron’s community founder Justin Solar, Eigenpie, and Kelp DAO. Puffer Finance leads the group with 233,600 ETH restaked, adopted by Solar with round 109,300 ETH — Eigenpie and Kelp DAO path intently, having restaked 88,600 ETH and 75,300 ETH, respectively.
What’s EigenLayer?
EigenLayer dominates the restaking market, attracting vital consideration from the crypto neighborhood. Since June 2023, this DeFi protocol has steadily elevated its deposit restrict by a phased launch technique.
ETH restaking has emerged as one of many main narratives within the crypto market because it permits traders to earn additional rewards on their staked ETH. The protocol helps common liquid staking tokens equivalent to lido-staked ETH (stETH) and rocket pool ETH (RETH) restaking through its platform.
Murathan, a contributor to DeFi collective, identified the rising reputation of native restaking amongst ETH validators. He said:
“1 in each 4 validators coming into the Ethereum validator queue are setting their withdrawal credentials to an EigenPod.”
Nonetheless, some neighborhood members have warned that the mannequin would possibly create a Ponzi scheme that would come crashing quickly.