EigenLayer to Enable Mainnet Slashing on April 17

Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is set to begin holding the operators who run nodes and validate transactions responsible for their actions. On April 17, the protocol will turn on slashing on its mainnet, in which operators are penalized for providing poor service or for malicious actions.

EigenLayer enables tokenholders to restake their staked ETH, using it to provide security for third-party services to earn additional yield. This leaves restakers liable to being slashed in two ways — if the validator they staked their tokens with originally misbehaves, or if the EigenLayer operators with whom those tokens are restaked misbehave.

Last year, EigenLayer began distributing rewards, including its native EIGEN token, to restakers but only activated slashing on the testnets.

EigenLayer uses its pools of restaked cryptocurrencies to secure third-party protocols known as actively validated services (AVS) that are built on EigenLayer. EigenLayer has prioritized AVSs in areas like DeFi and gaming.

EigenLayer restakers will be slashed by the AVSs they help secure if they don’t meet the conditions set, EigenLayer said in a blog post. There are more than 30 AVSs live on EigenLayer, with many more in development.

“This is a major step forward in the EigenLayer protocol because it allows for a free marketplace where Operators can earn rewards for their work and AVSs can launch verifiable services,” it said.

Operators and stakers will not be automatically opted in to staking the AVSs they are currently running. Once slashing is enabled, users will need to wait 14 days before withdrawing restaked tokens, in order to give AVSs enough time to review and slash pending withdrawals if needed.

“It’s not just an update— it’s a marketplace unlocked,” EigenLayer said in the X post. “Operators earn rewards for service. AVSs launch verifiable services with accountability.”

EigenLayer is DeFi’s third-largest protocol with $8.3 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama.