EigenLayer is at the heart of a new trend in the blockchain industry known as “restaking,” where ETH (Ethereum) tokens deposited or “pledged” as collateral for the main blockchain can be repurposed to secure additional networks and protocols.

Earlier this month, EigenLayer, which originally launched in June, temporarily lifted its deposit cap, citing growing interest in the protocol from new users. Since then, the total value locked (TVL) has risen to nearly $8 billion, according to DefiLlama.

EigenLayer has also benefited from new “liquid retaking” protocols built on top of it, such as Ether.fi and Puffer, which aim to make retaking easier for users and offer additional “points” rewards. Liquidity retaking platforms host assets using EigenLayer and transmit tradable receipts called “liquidity retaking tokens” (LRTs) to their users, which are becoming one of the most commonly used assets in decentralized finance (DeFi). Ether.fi, the largest liquidity restaging protocol, launched last year and boasts over $1.4 billion in TVL as of February 22. Puffer, which launched just over three weeks ago, has also surpassed $1 billion in deposits to date.

The increased focus on EigenLayer came even before the platform launched any of its Actively Verified Services (AVS) – third-party networks that will use EigenLayer to ensure their security and will ultimately pay a “redistribution of interest” to the platform.

The first AVS to launch later this year, EigenDA, will be a data accessibility blockchain created by Eigen Labs.

While the EigenLayer ecosystem has attracted many attention, some Ethereum developers have warned that its “shared security” model risks putting a strain on the Ethereum network. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote a blog post in May 2023 about the “high systemic risks to the ecosystem” that restaging poses.