EigenLayer
EigenLayer introduced restaking as a coordination primitive — a way for Ethereum stakers to opt into providing cryptoeconomic security to additional protocols in exchange for additional yield. The design has become a foundational layer for a new class of middleware services.
As of Q1 2026, $14.8B in ETH is restaked through EigenLayer, supporting 60+ actively validated services (AVSs) ranging from data availability layers to oracle networks to bridging protocols. The operator network numbers 310 professional infrastructure providers.
The category as a whole did not exist three years ago. Sreeram Kannan's academic research on cryptoeconomic security became the intellectual foundation for a market that is now central to how new protocols source security without launching their own consensus mechanisms.
Restaking as a new coordination primitive for cryptoeconomic security. We led the Series A on the conviction that this rewrites the security-sourcing model for the entire industry.
Sreeram Kannan
CEO & FounderSoubhik Deb
Head of ResearchCalvin Liu
Chief Strategy OfficerJeff Feng
VP Engineering- 2021Founded by Prof. Sreeram Kannan
- Q2 2022Oryon Series A
- Q2 2024Mainnet restaking live
- Q1 202660 AVSs, $14.8B TVL
AVS ecosystem crossed 60 active services. Restaked TVL at $14.8B.
“EigenLayer is the most consequential Ethereum-native design of the last three years.”
— Bankless, 2024