EigenLayer Restaking: the next yield opportunity on Ethereum

From district0x Updates by Henri.M

(Any views expressed below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.)

DeFi is back and new primitives are popping up like wild mushrooms. Over the past few months total DeFi TVL has finally reclaimed over 100B. We’re back!

In the dynamic landscape of decentralized finance where innovation unfolds at lightning speed, a new source of yield has appeared bringing with it a plethora of new protocols and strategies. Eigen Layer Restaking emerged as a compelling strategy for optimizing yields and maximizing returns on your staked ETH. Its technique leverages the power of network effect and the principles of decentralization to enhance the efficiency of liquid derivative staking protocols. Giga brain stuff.

We’re back!

So let’s dive into the intricacies of Eigen Layer, EL Restaking, AVS, and the effect this has on Defi and L2s, exploring its mechanics, benefits, and potential implications.

Let's look at Eigen Layer — what is it?

EigenLayer is a transformative protocol on Ethereum that introduces “restaking,” allowing ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) holders to extend their crypto-economic security to more applications via smart contracts, thereby earning additional rewards. This mechanism not only lowers capital costs for end-user participants but also enhances trust in services by pooling Ethereum’s staked security. It addresses the fragmentation of security in decentralized services by enabling any service to leverage Ethereum’s collective security, promoting permissionless innovation.

Through its architecture, EigenLayer facilitates greater security for ‘Actively Validated Services’ (AVSs) by allowing stakers to delegate their ETH to operators or become operators themselves, validating AVSs.

This ecosystem fosters a secure, efficient, and interconnected DeFi landscape with new yield opportunities.

EL Architecture

Understanding Eigen Layer Restaking

Let’s delve a little deeper into what ‘restaking’ is all about. To put it simply, restaking allows users to stake the same ETH on both Ethereum and other protocols, securing all of these networks simultaneously. Hence, restaking allows for the leverage of existing trust networks.

However, when users opt-in to restake their ETH, they are being exposed to increased slashing risk. As a result, restakers are compensated with higher staking rewards for undertaking more risk.

How to Restake

There are multiple restaking methods offered by EigenLayer (risk level from least to most):

Native Restaking: Validators restake their staked ETH
LSD Restaking: Validators restake assets that are already staked via liquid staking providers, including Lido, Rocket Pool etc.
LSD LP Restaking: Validators restake the LP token of a pair which includes a liquid staking ETH token
ETH LP Restaking: Validators restake the LP token of a pair which includes ETH

3 strategies via Messari

Eigen Layer Restaking builds upon the fundamental premise of staking, where users lock up their ETH or LSTs to support the operations of a blockchain network and earn rewards in return. However, instead of passively accumulating rewards, Eigen Layer Restaking introduces a process whereby staked assets are effectively magnified to secure an exponentially growing amount of AVS, accelerating the yields of the staked assets exponentially.

Mechanics of Eigen Layer Restaking

The mechanics of Eigen Layer Restaking vary depending on the specific blockchain protocol and staking mechanism employed. However, the basic workflow typically involves the following steps:

Initial Staking: Users initiate the process by staking their ETH on Ethereum or a native staking protocol.
Accumulation of Rewards: As the staked assets participate in the network’s consensus mechanism, they generate rewards in the form of additional ETH.
LSTs: Instead of withdrawing the rewards, users opt to mint derivative ETH instead, making their initial stake liquid again while still earning yield on the staked ETH.
Restaking: Users restake their LSTs into Eigen Layer or other Restakign protocols to generate compounding returns.
Monitoring and Adjustments: Users monitor the performance of their staking activities and adjust their strategies as needed to optimize returns and mitigate risks.
End Rewards: Double or triple rewards on your initial ETH print you money — via exponentially growing validated services!

Restake now on https://app.eigenlayer.xyz/restake

Benefits of Eigen Layer Restaking

Eigen Layer Restaking offers several advantages over traditional staking approaches, including:

Maximized Yield: By harnessing the power of exponential growth, Eigen Layer Restaking enables users to exponentially increase their staking rewards over time, resulting in higher overall yields.
Risk Diversification: By diversifying staking activities across multiple protocols or networks, users can mitigate the impact of potential vulnerabilities or fluctuations in market conditions.
Long-Term Sustainability: By continually staking multiple networks, Eigen Layer Restaking fosters the long-term sustainability of blockchain networks by incentivizing active participation and contribution.

Enhancing Security and Stability with AVS

In addition to maximizing yields, Eigen Layer Restaking plays a crucial role in enhancing the security and stability of decentralized networks through the implementation of an Advanced Validation System (AVS).

AVS leverages cutting-edge mechanisms to validate and verify transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, ensuring the integrity and immutability of the network’s ledger. By actively participating in the validation process and contributing to the network’s security, Eigen Layer Restaking incentivizes users to become stakeholders in the decentralized ecosystem, fostering a robust and resilient infrastructure that is resistant to censorship and tampering and allows DeFI to scale both vertically and horizontally to achieve mass adoption while narrowing in on and improving transaction and network security.

Ultimately, this collaborative approach to network validation reinforces trust and confidence among participants, laying the foundation for a more inclusive and decentralized system.

Is Eigen Layer the next Ethereum?

Potential Impact on DeFi and L2 Solutions

As Eigen Layer Restaking gains traction within the DeFi community, its impact on the broader ecosystem is poised to be significant. By optimizing yield generation and enhancing capital efficiency, Eigen Layer Restaking has the potential to attract a new wave of investors and liquidity providers to DeFi platforms, thereby fueling innovation and driving further growth in the space.

Moreover, Eigen Layer Restaking could serve as a catalyst for the development of novel financial instruments and decentralized applications (dApps) that leverage the power of shared security to unlock value and create new opportunities for developers and end users.

Opt-in DeFi made easy

Eigen Layer Restaking can also have a profound impact on Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions such as Blast and Base, by incentivizing liquidity provision and participation in their respective ecosystems. L2 solutions are designed to alleviate the scalability constraints of blockchain networks by processing transactions off-chain while maintaining the security and trustlessness of the underlying blockchain. By integrating Eigen Layer Restaking into their protocols, projects like Blast and Base can offer enhanced incentives for users to stake their assets, thereby increasing the liquidity and efficiency of the network. This influx of liquidity fosters a vibrant ecosystem of decentralized applications (dApps) and financial instruments built on top of these Layer 2 solutions, helping them to reach traction faster.

Moreover, Eigen Layer Restaking incentivizes active participation in the validation and governance mechanisms of L2 networks, reinforcing their security and resilience against potential attacks or disruptions.

Finally, Eigen Layer and EL Restaking represent a paradigm shift in DeFi, offering a sophisticated yet accessible strategy for optimizing yields and amplifying the returns on staked assets. Recently it was reported that Restaking Protocol Eigen Layer Raised $100M from Andreessen Horowitz, so we can be sure that we will see further innovation from the team behind the Protocol.

As the DeFi ecosystem continues to evolve and innovate, Eigen Layer is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of crypto finance, and we’re here for it! LFG.