The restaking protocol, EigenLayer, has recently faced intense interest. According to current data, the total value of assets locked in the protocol (TVL) has increased by over 170% in the last 7 days, surpassing the TVL of the largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap (UNI). This serious increase in TVL seems to be fueled by the expectation of an AirDrop.
EigenLayer’s TVL Increases Rapidly
EigenLayer, which announced the removal of the 200,000 ETH staking limit per protocol on February 5th, saw great interest in the following days, and the TVL of the protocol increased significantly.
According to data from the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) data platform DeFiLlama, EigenLayer’s TVL has increased by 171% in the last 7 days, reaching $5.66 billion. It is worth noting that before the staking limit was lifted, the protocol’s TVL was $2 billion.
With this amount of TVL, EigenLayer has now surpassed the largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap in terms of TVL. EigenLayer is currently in the position of the fifth-largest protocol. Deposits into the EigenLayer protocol are still ongoing, which means the TVL could rise to much higher levels.
Protocol’s TVL Rises with AirDrop Expectations
EigenLayer, which transitioned to its mainnet in June 2023, is expected to conduct an AirDrop. With this expectation, users are actively transacting on the network and staking their assets in the protocol to maximize potential AirDrop gains. This directly increases both the number of transactions carried out on the protocol and the TVL.
As is known, EigenLayer allows users to earn additional income by staking tokens obtained from liquid staking protocols. Currently, the most restaked asset in the protocol is stETH from Lido DAO or Swell’s swETH, supporting the staking of such tokens.
