EigenLayer Finally Launches Its Token, with Listings on Major Exchanges
The project will distribute approximately 12% of its supply to early users.
EigenLayer is set to lift transfer restrictions on its $EIGEN token starting September 30. Big names like Binance, Bybit, and Kraken are gearing up to list the token, showing solid support for EigenLayer’s contributions to the DeFi space.
Having launched its mainnet over a year ago, EigenLayer introduced the novel concept of “restaking.” This mechanism allowed Ethereum holders to reinvest their staked Ether to support additional protocols. The idea quickly caught on, propelling the protocol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) to second place among DeFi projects. At its peak, EigenLayer’s TVL surpassed $20 billion. However, the TVL has since declined to around $12 billion amid increased competition and a generally weak market, though it remains in the top three DeFi protocols by TVL.
The significant TVL growth was mainly due to the $EIGEN token airdrop for users depositing in EigenLayer vaults. Before the exchange listing, EigenLayer announced the distribution of 86 million EIGEN tokens during the second “stakedrop” season from March 15 to August 15, 2024. Tokens from this and the previous April stakedrop were non-transferable.
Out of the 86 million tokens, 70 million are reserved for stakers and node operators, 10 million will head to ecosystem partners, and 6 million are for the wider EigenLayer community. In total, the project will distribute 11.85% of its tokens to its early users.
In pre-market trading, the token is currently priced at around $4, with a fully diluted valuation of $7 billion. However, the token launch could significantly impact the project’s TVL. Many users were attracted to the protocol because of the airdrop and are likely to unstake their tokens once they receive the airdrop.
So far, the demand for EigenLayer’s restaking has been modest. Currently, project has 17 Actively Validated Services, meaning 17 projects are using its restaking services to validate their networks. Among these projects are various rollups, oracles, and other initiatives that actively use restaked assets for validation.
Notably, out of these 17 projects, only EigenLayer’s own data storage and management protocol, EigenDA, is currently paying rewards. More projects are expected to start soon. The more rewards paid by users of EigenLayer’s restaking services, the more TVL EigenLayer will acquire. Without these incentives, there will be little motivation to restake assets with EigenLayer.
Even with the modest use of its services, EigenLayer is ambitious about expanding its Actively Validated Services, bringing on more projects, and ramping up demand for restaked assets.
There is a clear need for these services, and it is expected that with time, the demand for restaking will meet the supply of restaked assets, further bolstering the protocol’s position in the DeFi space.
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