5 Can't-Miss Restaking Airdrops
Out of the 80+ individual airdrops supported in the Bankless Airdrop Hunter, you’d be hard-pressed to find any that present more bountiful hunting opportunities than those belonging to the restaking sector.
The opportunity is massive.
We've already seen Citizens bank thousands of dollars in tokens from new protocols just by getting in early.
Crypto users keen to get in on the restaking euphoria have the opportunity to score new tokens, retain their ETH upside, and earn staking yield – enviable features for investments, given the market’s current bullish bias.
For those denominating their portfolios in ETH, there is truly no better investment than hunting restaking airdrops from a risk-reward perspective. Today, we’re digging into our top 5 restaking airdrop opportunities to help you determine which projects best fit your needs 👇
1️⃣ EigenLayer
About:
Restaking represents a revolution for crypto-economic security, and EigenLayer is at the forefront of the effort to make it a reality.
The protocol creates a decentralized marketplace that allows ETH holders to “restake” their tokens to provide security for additional crypto applications beyond just the Ethereum network, presenting the opportunity for users to accrue additional rewards on their stake.
As a network for programmable trust, EigenLayer allows developers to create decentralized networks while allowing them to circumvent the difficulties associated with bootstrapping and operating their own trust network, lowering the barriers to entry for creating your own decentralized network and empowering the long tail of crypto-secured applications.
Protocols using EigenLayer are “renting” their economic security from Ethereum’s existing stakers, and this reuse of staked ETH to provide security across multiple applications brings capital efficiency to staking, effectively lowering the cost to secure additional networks while maintaining strong trust guarantees for individual services.
Users can easily restake whitelisted liquid staking tokens (i.e., rETH, stETH, cbETH) with EigenLayer or spin up an EigenPod to run their own validator while restaking.
Not only will restakers earn enhanced yields by securing additional networks, but they’ll also position themselves for an EigenLayer airdrop and may receive airdrops from the protocols building on EigenLayer.
Why we’re watching:
The EigenLayer team has not disclosed details about their airdrop or tokenomics strategy, however, the protocol currently operates a points program that tracks the contributions of early users, suggesting the possibility of future token rewards via airdrop for these participants.
With the promise to fundamentally revolutionize the market for crypto-economic security and over $12B in TVL already committed to frontrunning the opportunity, EigenLayer is poised to be one of the most lucrative crypto airdrops to date.
2️⃣ ether.fi
About:
First-mover advantages frequently become enduring differentiators in crypto, as exemplified by ether.fi, a protocol that emerged as the market's first liquid restaking solution and now governs nearly a quarter of all ETH deposited into EigenLayer.
All ETH staked through ether.fi is natively restaked to EigenLayer, meaning users begin earning points from EigenLayer points almost immediately after they deposit, a major advantage in comparison to protocols that can only restake LSTs to EigenLayer.
Users can interact with ether.fi in multiple ways, including by holding its liquid staking token (eETH/weETH) or running an ether.fi node with as little as no ETH down.
The ether.fi team recently launched “Liquid,” an automated DeFi strategy vault that allows the protocol’s LRT holders to easily earn diversified yield with immediate liquidity from one place, and intends to expand their offerings with “Cash,” a payments L2 that will enable users to spend and borrow against their ether.fi balances in the real world via credit card that is slated to launch sometime within the next 12 months.
Despite the fact that EigenLayer restaking services are not yet live, ether.fi is already making moves to delegate their capital, inking deals to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in Ether security to multiple EigenLayer-enabled projects in recent weeks.
Why we’re watching:
While ether.fi has already conducted an initial airdrop, distributing 60M tokens – or 6% of its token supply – to early users in Season 1, the protocol has committed to dropping an additional 50M tokens during Season 2, which began on March 15 and will continue until June 30.
3️⃣ Renzo
About:
Renzo is the second-largest liquid restaking protocol built on top of EigenLayer. The protocol aims to abstract away the complexities associated with managing the actively validated services (AVSs) you are participating in while optimizing yields for its users.
When users deposit their ETH into Renzo, it is held in a deposit contract until 32 ETH is accrued to spin up a new validator, at which point the ETH is sent directly to the Beacon Chain Deposit Contract and the withdrawal credentials are pointed at the EigenPod in EigenLayer, enabling depositors to begin earning EigenLayer points on their stake almost immediately.
Renzo integrates with Connext to accept native ETH deposits across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Binance, Mode, and Linea, making it the LRT with the best multichain support. Alternatively, users can deposit wBETH (Binance staked ETH) or stETH (Lido staked ETH) on Ethereum, which will be restaked with EigenLayer once LST deposit caps reopen.
Why we’re watching:
No formal indication has been provided that Renzo will pursue an airdrop, but they are currently rewarding depositors with ezPoints. Protocols often implement a points system as a precursor to an airdrop to help identify accounts contributing towards their success with the intention of making points redeemable for tokens at a later date.
4️⃣ Puffer
About:
Puffer aims to become one of the most decentralized native liquid restaking protocols built on EigenLayer and has ambitions to allow anyone to permissionlessly operate a node with as little as a 1 ETH bond.
To align incentives and ensure that node operators are performing, Puffer will require validators to also hold "Validator Tickets," a consumable item that expires every day and can be purchased from Puffer at a price equal to the expected daily income of a validator or on the secondary market.
Because validators are consuming validator tickets for every day they stake, they are entitled to 100% of the rewards they earn. Puffer generates income for LRT holders from the sale of Validator Tickets produces part yield for LST holders and the rewards from restaking.
Currently, Puffer does not offer native restaking, meaning users who restake stETH while EigenLayer LST deposits are capped will not earn EigenLayer points, however, the protocol is targeting a mainnet launch for later this month (April 2024), at which point user deposits will be natively restaked to EigenLayer.
Why we’re watching:
Protocols frequently adopt points systems to identify accounts contributing towards their success with the intention of rewarding them with tokens in the future and Puffer is currently running a points program, suggesting that it may airdrop tokens to early depositors in the future.
With Puffer’s mainnet launch imminent, there is no time to delay depositing to the protocol, considering the heightened likelihood that a token launch could occur shortly thereafter.
5️⃣ KelpDAO
About:
KelpDAO was founded by two former members of the Stader Labs liquid staking team who pivoted to restaking.
The protocol restakes your liquid staking tokens (currently restricted to ETH, stETH, ETHx, and sfrxETH) with EigenLayer and gives depositors rsETH in return. Because KelpDAO relies on LST restaking, users who deposit in a period when EigenLayer LST deposits are capped will have their deposits queued for the next increase.
While users with queued deposits do not earn points directly from EigenLayer, KelpDAO utilizes points generated from its treasury to reward users. The “Road to One Billion” campaign, for example, launched on April 2 and is set to distribute up to 5M EigenLayer points this month to KelpDAO restakers.
Aside from multichain support across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Blast, and Scroll, KelpDAO is differentiated from other liquid restaking protocols by the KEP token, the first tokenized representation of EigenLayer points. KelpDAO users who accrue EigenLayer points can mint these liquid tokens at a 1:1 ratio, minus a 0.5% fee retained to fund incentives for additional users to restake with the protocol.
Why we’re watching:
Depositors into KelpDAO are rewarded with "Miles," the protocol's equivalent of points. Projects often implement a points system as a precursor to an airdrop to help identify accounts contributing towards their success with the intention of rewarding them with tokens at a later date.
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