Seattle-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform EigenLayer has deployed its restaking protocol on the Ethereum mainnet, according to a press release.

The protocol allows those staking ETH to restake on EigenLayer by depositing liquid staking tokens including Lido stETH (stETH), Rocket Pool ETH (rETH) and Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH).

EigenLabs, the developer of EigenLayer, raised a total of $64.5 million at a valuation of $500 million in a series of investment rounds, including a $50 million Series A in March.

The protocol has set participation parameters for liquid restaking and native restaking, with liquid restaking accepting a maximum of 3,200 of each liquid staking token and a maximum 32 token deposit per address. Native restaking, meanwhile, will be paused once 9,600 ETH has been added.

Liquid staking has been an emerging narrative since Ethereum switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in September. A total of $16.92 billion is currently staked on the top five liquid staking protocols on Ethereum, according to data by DefiLlama.

Restaking is a concept that allows staked ETH to be used on other protocols in exchange for protocol fees and rewards.

On-chain Data Liquid staking Ethereum

Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in April 2022. Before joining CoinDesk, Knight was the Chief Reporter at Coin Rivet for three years. Having graduated with a journalism degree from Birmingham City University, Knight went on to work at various sports publications before diving into the world of Bitcoin in 2014. He does not have any crypto holdings.