Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer has surpassed the cryptocurrency lending protocol JustLend, becoming the fourth largest protocol in terms of total value locked (TVL). On February 15th, EigenLayer’s TVL value increased by 5.73%, reaching $6.99 billion. According to data from the blockchain data analytics platform DefiLlama, the restaking protocol’s TVL value has increased by 47.95% over the last seven days and by 307% over the last month.
Notable Growth in EigenLayer
According to an official announcement, EigenLayer’s TVL began to rise on February 5th after the protocol temporarily removed the staking limit to encourage organic growth. During this restaking window, EigenLayer’s TVL jumped from $2.15 billion on February 5th to over $6.05 billion on February 10th, an increase of over 181%. While a new staking limit is being implemented, the project plans to permanently remove this limit in the future.
Restaking protocols like EigenLayer enable validators and stakers to restake liquid staking assets such as Lido Staked ETH and RocketPool’s rETH to secure and validate other networks. These assets can also be used in other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to earn additional returns.
According to DefiLlama, while liquid staking is currently the largest protocol category with a TVL of $42.69 billion, restaking protocols rank sixth with a combined TVL of $6.99 billion. According to a post by Brianna Montgomery, strategy leader at EigenLayer, one in four Ethereum validators had set their withdrawal credentials to EigenPod within the 30 days leading up to February 9th.
Intense Interest in Staking Protocols
Interest in staking protocols began to increase shortly after EigenLayer’s TVL surpassed $1 billion on December 28, 2023. As of February 15th, according to data from blockchain data analytics platform Dune Analytics, there are a total of 108,574 depositors in the protocol. EigenLayer currently holds more than 1.52 million Ethereum.
EigenLayer is planning to launch its mainnet for operators soon and will allow investors to run a staking node. The protocol is also preparing to launch EigenDA, a decentralized data availability service built on Ethereum, according to an announcement made on February 9th.
