EigenLayer Deposits on Track to Hit New 500,000 ETH Cap

EigenLayer, which enables Ethereum stakers to validate third-party services for additional yield, has attracted deposits worth over $700 million after raising its deposit cap less than a day ago.

About 337,700 ETH, or $737 million, has flowed into the re-staking protocol after it raised its global deposit cap to 500,000 ETH, or about $1 billion, from 120,000 ETH, about 20 hours ago. It had been after running at full capacity for the past few months.

Users can now restake six additional liquid staking tokens – osETH from Stakewise, swETH by Swell Network, OETH from OriginProtocol, EthX issued by Stader Labs, Binance’s WBETH and AnkrETH.

swETH and ETHx account for the bulk of new deposits.

EigenLayer has seen substantial interest from DeFi users since launching in June, with previous deposit limits being reached within minutes of being raised. The surge in inflows is a sign crypto traders are eager to put their ETH to work.

While the concept of leveraging Ethereum’s security mechanism to secure other applications is interesting in and of itself, the protocol is also top of mind for airdrop hunters looking for a windfall when EigenLayer launches a native token.

EigenLayer is currently running a points program that rewards users based on the amount and duration of their restaked assets.