The extremely anticipated Ethereum restaking protocol is DeFi’s fourth-largest, with almost $8B in TVL.
a16z, one of many largest enterprise capital corporations within the crypto area, has led a $100 million Sequence B funding spherical for EigenLayer, the red-hot Ethereum restaking protocol.
EigenLayer goals to increase Ethereum’s cryptoeconomic safety to different tasks.
The concept is that this can make it simpler for brand spanking new crypto tasks to begin as a result of they received’t have to bootstrap a blockchain or validator set. Customers who restake ETH by EigenLayer stand to earn yield from validating these new providers.
a16z’s funding attests to an elevated perception in EigenLayer’s potential impression on the crypto area. The protocol has already attracted $7.8 billion in complete worth locked (TVL), making it the fourth largest protocol in DeFi.
Ali Yahya, basic companion at a16z crypto, praised Sreeram Kannan, EigenLayer’s founder, in a put up saying the elevate — “[he is] not solely good, but additionally essentially motivated by a imaginative and prescient of the longer term so crisp and compelling that it momentarily turns into actual if you speak to him.”
EigenLayer isn’t with out its skeptics. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, has warned that if Ethereum’s safety turns into overextended, it might threaten the protocol’s credible neutrality.
EigenLayer beforehand raised a $50 million Sequence A in 2023 after a $14.4 million seed spherical in 2022.
