The extremely anticipated Ethereum restaking protocol is DeFi’s fourth-largest, with practically $8B in TVL.
a16z, one of many largest enterprise capital corporations within the crypto house, has led a $100 million Collection B funding spherical for EigenLayer, the red-hot Ethereum restaking protocol.
EigenLayer goals to increase Ethereum’s cryptoeconomic safety to different initiatives.
The thought is that this can make it simpler for brand spanking new crypto initiatives to begin as a result of they gained’t have to bootstrap a blockchain or validator set. Customers who restake ETH by means of EigenLayer stand to earn yield from validating these new companies.
a16z’s funding attests to an elevated perception in EigenLayer’s potential influence on the crypto house. The protocol has already attracted $7.8 billion in complete worth locked (TVL), making it the fourth largest protocol in DeFi.
Ali Yahya, normal companion at a16z crypto, praised Sreeram Kannan, EigenLayer’s founder, in a submit asserting the elevate — “[he is] not solely good, but in addition basically motivated by a imaginative and prescient of the long run so crisp and compelling that it momentarily turns into actual whenever you discuss 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 Collection A in 2023 after a $14.4 million seed spherical in 2022.
