February 7, 2024: Double the Stakes ππ°
Complete Guide to ETH Liquid Restaking Tokens on Curve
Perhaps you noticed that the newest narrative is no longer just ETH staking, but now ETH restaking.
With Eigenlayer cracking $4 billion in deposits, a variety of services are scrambling to dominate liquid Eigenlayer staking in the same manner that Lido dominated ETH staking. The only thing growing faster than the entire Liquid Restaking market is the number of new protocols trying to get into the game:
As part of all this, you may have noticed several of these tokens popping up onto Curveβs UI and governance. All but one of the protocols with >$10MM total supply have a presence on Curve, and several are actively seeking governance votes.
We donβt pretend to endorse or offer any testament to the security or utility of any of the following protocols. Everything weβve presented is simply so you may DYOR.
However, we can recommend the report by the team at Cobo, which describes smart contract and other risks for most of the following protocols:
Hereβs our quick guide to the field:
Ether.fi
TOKEN: $eETH and $weETH
TVL: $795.33MM
The current leader by TVL, Ether.fi launched late in 2023. They tout a non-custodial approach, allowing users to retain control over their keys, as opposed to protocols where node operators manage the keys
Ether.fi was early to establish a Curve pool for liquidity:
The pool has pretty good liquidity. Hereβs an excerpt from their successful governance forum gauge request:
Theyβre presently seeking to incentivize a different pool with swETH (see below).
More Links:
Swell
TOKEN: $swETH (staking) and $rswETH (restaking)
TVL: $578.38MM (total), $30.81MM (restaking)
Swell Network has been around as an Ethereum staking token for almost a year, where we covered their launch.
More recently theyβve launched a restaking token rswETH, which they are pushing in part by marketing tie-ins to their ecosystem (Pearls and Points!) and waiving staking fees for the first 30 days.
Theyβve launched a Curve pool pairing rswETH with WETH, lightly seeded.
The pool is requesting a gauge, and per the governance forum they plan to use their protocol-owned CVX to incentivize the pool:
Notably, they also have a pool providing liquidity between Swellβs restaking token and ether.fiβs $weEETH, with a hefty amount of liquidity.
Interestingly, this is not the pool that the aforementioned ether.fi is looking to incentivize, but a different pool between weETH and swETH (yes, this can get a bit confusing).
Links
Puffer Finance
TOKEN: $pufETH
TVL: $530.22MM
Puffer Finance launched more recently. At its core, the Puffer protocol is a collection of RestakingModule contracts. Each module controls an EigenPod that functions as a single native restaker but is composed of many NoOp-controlled validators.
They recently launched a Curve pool with wstETH, currently unseeded.
Their proposal to receive a Curve gauge recently got posted to the governance forum. An excerpt:
More links:
Kelp
TOKEN: $rsETH
TVL: $329.91MM
Kelp DAO aims to be a comprehensive solution for liquid restaking, addressing the liquidity and management challenges faced by restakers in the DeFi ecosystem.
They have a Curve pool paired against sfrxETH, which has $3.5MM in liquidity. The pool has not yet pursued a gauge vote.
Links:
Renzo
TOKEN: $ezETH
TVL: $228.32MM
Renzo positions itself as a Liquid Restaking Token (LRT) and Strategy Manager within the EigenLayer ecosystem. It aims to secure Actively Validated Services (AVSs) and offer yields higher than traditional ETH staking by simplifying user interaction with the EigenLayer node operators.
Renzo may also be among the first protocols to push restaking onto L2s
Weβve not yet seen any posts to the governance forum requesting a gauge vote, but they do have a hearty Curve pool with $2.4MM in liquidity, suggesting it may be forthcoming.
Links:
Eigenpie
TOKEN: $mstETH
TVL: $211.01MM
A SubDAO of Magpie focused on restaking LSTs via Eigenlayer, their $mstETH serves as an isolated liquid restaking token that can only be minted by restaking Lido $stETH via Eigenpie. The protocol has no Curve presence at this time.
Links:
Bedrock
TOKEN: $uniETH
TVL: $72.8MM (total), $58.17MM (restaking)
Bedrock has been around crypto for a while, and appears to have found traction in their launch of uniETH. They tout security, and native restaking through Eigenpod to make their design βfuture-proof.β
Their Curve pool has $2.25MM in liquidity and is pursuing a gauge.
An excerpt from their governance request:
Links:
Prime Staked ETH
TOKEN: $primeETH
TVL: $20.26MM
A Kelp DAO fork, Prime Staked ETH is a new LRT designed to allow users to stack ETH staking yield, EigenLayer points, and primeETH XP all while remaining liquid.
They have a lightly seeded Curve pool against OETH, an effort to encourage Origin to drive rewards to the pool.
An excerpt from their governance post:
Links:
Honorable Mentions
The above represent the primary LRTs, but we know the game is in its infancy.
One up-and-coming player is Vector Reserveβs vETH, with a TVL of $7.8MM. Vector is positioning this as the first LPD, or Liquidity Position Derivative. As they describe it on their website:
βvETH is a tokenised asset/index of ETH denominated Liquidity Positions (LP) against LST's and LRT's and is engineered to closely track the value of Ethereum while offering the best returnsβ
Itβs worth flagging in part because of their extremely hefty rewards being issued in their Curve pool, which boasts $5MM in liquidity:
Also, a mention for YieldNest, founded by Llama Risks team member Amadeo Brands. He joined a Llama Party on Leviathan last week to discuss LRTs and plenty more updates around the Curve ecosystem:
One other related noteβ¦ thereβs active lobbying for a xETH / pxETH gauge. $pxETH should be familiar to readers as Pirex ETH, and $xETH is a new LSD aggregator using Curve stableswaps as part of its core mechanics. It doesnβt make the list as itβs not leaning into the LRT game, but interesting all the same.
In addition to LRTs, of course, thereβs a whole cottage industry of protocols launching to support the burgeoning ecosystem. We havenβt started into researching these, but DefiIgnas has the scoop: