EigenLayer to begin ‘slashing’ restakers in April

EigenLayer plans to start “slashing” restakers on April 17, resulting in the Ethereum restaking protocol’s “first feature-complete iteration,” it said in an April 2 announcement.
Implementing slashing will mark EigenLayer’s final step toward establishing the protocol as “infrastructure for a new generation of verifiable apps and services built on the Verifiable Cloud,” it said in a post on the X platform.
In 2024, EigenLayer started distributing rewards — including emissions of its native EIGEN token — to incentivize restakers. However, slashing has so far been limited to EigenLayer’s testnets.
Once slashing is live, node operators and restakers will be able to voluntarily “opt-in,” resulting in a gradual transition for users, EigenLayer said in a blog post.
Slashing starts on EigenLayer’s mainnet soon. Source: EigenLayer
Related: EigenLayer eyes consumer adoption post EIGEN unlock, founder says
Gradual roll-out
Launched in 2023, EigenLayer secures third-party protocols — dubbed actively validated services (AVSs) — against a pool of “restaked” cryptocurrencies used as collateral.
Restaking involves taking a token that has already been staked — posted as collateral with a validator in exchange for rewards — and using it to secure other protocols simultaneously.
Slashing is the primary method for securing proof-of-stake protocols — including Ethereum as well as “restaking” protocols such as EigenLayer — and involves penalizing a network’s node operators for poor performance or misbehavior.
“If Operators do not meet the conditions set, the AVS may penalize them. But, if the Operator runs the service successfully, AVSs can reward the Operator’s performance and incentivize specific activity,” EigenLayer said in an April 3 blog post.
This “allows for a free marketplace where Operators can earn rewards for their work and AVSs can launch verifiable services,” the post said.
EigenLayer’s total value locked (TVL) over time. Source: DeFILlama
Growing ecosystem
Upward of 30 AVSs are already live on EigenLayer’s mainnet, and dozens more are being developed.
They include EigenDA — run by EigenLayer developer Eigen Labs — and ARPA Network, a protocol specializing in trustless randomization.
In October, EigenLayer unlocked its native token, EIGEN. It is designed as a more flexible option for securing consensus-based protocols than other proof-of-stake tokens, such as Ether, according to EigenLayer.
EigenLayer is prioritizing onboarding crypto-native apps in segments such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming before expanding beyond Web3, founder Sreeram Kannan told Cointelegraph in October.
“We’re starting with the inside-out approach, focusing on high-throughput consumer apps like DeFi and gaming, but once we grow a little bigger and have critical mass, we’ll go outside and start targeting broader consumer markets,” Kannan said.
Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 118,057.00
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,771.00
XRP (XRP) $ 3.18
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00
BNB (BNB) $ 794.76
Solana (SOL) $ 186.66
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999901
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.235898
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,767.97
TRON (TRX) $ 0.322525
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.817190
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 118,037.00
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 4,555.83
Sui (SUI) $ 4.19
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 42.90
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.436554
Chainlink (LINK) $ 18.61
Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH) $ 4,049.81
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.282895
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 585.53
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 4,038.03
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 24.86
WETH (WETH) $ 3,772.43
Litecoin (LTC) $ 112.96
LEO Token (LEO) $ 8.97
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000014
Toncoin (TON) $ 3.29
USDS (USDS) $ 0.999913
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 1.00
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 44.17
Uniswap (UNI) $ 10.50
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.13
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 118,091.00
Monero (XMR) $ 325.97
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000012
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.59
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.140039
Aave (AAVE) $ 294.86
Ethena Staked USDe (SUSDE) $ 1.19
Bittensor (TAO) $ 423.15
Ethena (ENA) $ 0.610657
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999917
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.89
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 22.51
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.442890
Ondo (ONDO) $ 1.04
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 5.68
Aptos (APT) $ 4.78
Jito Staked SOL (JITOSOL) $ 227.55
OKB (OKB) $ 48.13
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.811146
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000034
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) $ 0.041857
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.099916
Algorand (ALGO) $ 0.278707
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.448386
Binance-Peg WETH (WETH) $ 3,774.58
USD1 (USD1) $ 1.00
VeChain (VET) $ 0.025664
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 4.76
Render (RENDER) $ 4.23
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.236494
Gate (GT) $ 17.82
Worldcoin (WLD) $ 1.16
Sky (SKY) $ 0.094791
Official Trump (TRUMP) $ 10.08
Fasttoken (FTN) $ 4.60
Sei (SEI) $ 0.337077
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 0.730043
Binance Staked SOL (BNSOL) $ 198.70
SPX6900 (SPX) $ 1.99
Filecoin (FIL) $ 2.68
Rocket Pool ETH (RETH) $ 4,296.65
Jupiter (JUP) $ 0.572284
Flare (FLR) $ 0.024229
Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) $ 118,046.00
Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (RSETH) $ 3,955.68
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.06
Story (IP) $ 5.48
Jupiter Perpetuals Liquidity Provider Token (JLP) $ 5.10
Curve DAO (CRV) $ 1.07
Injective (INJ) $ 15.11
KuCoin (KCS) $ 11.44
XDC Network (XDC) $ 0.089743
USDtb (USDTB) $ 1.00
StakeWise Staked ETH (OSETH) $ 3,965.76
Celestia (TIA) $ 1.95
Mantle Staked Ether (METH) $ 4,033.55
Liquid Staked ETH (LSETH) $ 4,077.08
USDT0 (USDT0) $ 0.999832
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.998868
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) $ 1.33
NEXO (NEXO) $ 1.30
Stacks (STX) $ 0.811324
Optimism (OP) $ 0.719226
Renzo Restaked ETH (EZETH) $ 3,960.96
FLOKI (FLOKI) $ 0.000130
Polygon Bridged USDT (Polygon) (USDT) $ 1.00