Key Points
- Ethereum staking protocol EigenLayer surpasses Aave in total value locked (TVL) reaching $10.4 billion.
- EigenLayer has seen a 844.6% year-to-date growth, starting 2024 with $1.1 billion TVL.
EigenLayer, an Ethereum staking protocol, has exceeded Aave in its total value locked (TVL) with $10.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency committed to the protocol. This happened after a temporary removal of a limit on the amount users could stake.
On March 5, EigenLayer reached an all-time high TVL of $11 billion, surpassing Aave’s 21-month high of $10.7 billion TVL. This made EigenLayer the second-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by TVL, only behind staking giant Lido, according to data from DefiLlama.
Restaking Controversy
Restaking protocols like EigenLayer and its smaller competitor, Octopus Network, let users restake their tokens derived from staking such as Lido Staked ETH (stETH) — given to those staking Ether (ETH) on Lido. This practice has sparked debate, with some Ethereum developers cautioning it creates excessive leverage, while supporters argue it can offer extra rewards to those who have already staked their ETH.
EigenLayer’s TVL began to rise on Feb. 5 after it temporarily lifted its staking cap to encourage further growth. Since then, it has seen a 382.5% increase in TVL.
EigenLayer and Aave Statistics
Data from Dune Analytics shows that EigenLayer has over 115,000 unique depositors with DefiLlama stats showing 74% of staked tokens are Wrapped Ether (wETH) and stETH. wETH accounts for just over 41% of tokens locked on EigenLayer, while stETH is just over 30%.
On the other hand, Aave has over 5,700 daily active users while Lido has under 430, according to Token Terminal data. Aave has also faced challenges in the past two weeks as its long-term risk manager Gauntlet left it on Feb. 21 due to claimed difficulties navigating “inconsistent guidelines and unwritten objectives of the largest stakeholders.”
Liquid staking protocols, where users receive a token 1:1 for their staked funds, are the largest DeFi protocol category with nearly $55 billion in locked value across about 160 protocols — mostly supported by Lido, the largest protocol by locked value at $35 billion.
Restaking, with just two protocols, is the sixth-largest category behind the 125 projects that use collateralized lending to mint stablecoins.