Quick take:
- Bullish Capital, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Consensys, Amber, Selini, Draper Dragon and Bankless Ventures also joined the Series A round.
- Ether.fi’s liquid staking protocol boasts over $1.6 billion in TVL with over 71,000 unique wallets holdings its restaked token eETH.
- The protocol has experienced a 1,500% growth in value since the beginning of 2024.
Ethe.fi, the Ethereum liquid restaking protocol powered by EigenLayer has announced a $27 million funding raised across two rounds. The first round, a simple agreement for future equity closed in late 2023, raising $4 million.
The $23 million Series A round announced on February 28, 2024, was co-led by Bullish Capital and CoinFund, with OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Consensys, Amber, Selini, Draper Dragon, Arrington Capital and Bankless Ventures also joining the round.
The fundraising also attracted participation from angel investors from leading Web3 companies including Avara (Aave)’s Stani Kulechov, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal, Mr. Block of Curve Finance, and Ethena’s Leptokurtic among others.
This announcement comes following Ether.fi’s impressive growth in 2024, which has seen its total value locked rise 15 times to $1.6 billion, with over 71,000 unique wallets holdings its restaked token eETH.
Commenting on the announcement, Mike Silagadze, CEO and Co-Founder of Ether.fi said he was thrilled to welcome the backing of leading crypto investors to support his company’s growth story.
“The funding round further cements Ether.fi not only as the first and largest liquid restaking protocol but the most trusted as the only protocol to allow redemptions and not just speculative one-way deposits,” Silagadze said.
According to Ether.fi, the rapid influx of ETH stakers is driven by the recent SEC approvals of Spot Bitcoin ETFs. “The global market participants are shifting their focus to the Ethereum ecosystem, where smart contracts power decentralized finance (DeFi) and its transition to proof of stake delivers staking and restaking rewards to those who participate.”
Ethereum-based liquid restaking protocol, which powers Ether.fi and several other DeFi protocols on the network recently raised $100 million from A16z.
Restaking protocols allow investors to earn additional rewards on their staked ETH by restaking native ETH on the EigenLayer protocol in return for eETH, a liquid token that is capable of earning additional rewards in other DeFi protocols on Ethereum and participating Layer-2s.
Alex Felix, Chief Investment Officer of CoinFund, said: “ether.fi is the future of crypto asset management. As an on-chain DeFi solution, the protocol bridges the realm of what is technologically helpful to Ethereum’s protocol decentralization and an opportunity to maximize value for holders of ETH.”
Alasdair Foster, President of Bullish Capital, added: “Restaking has the potential to solve the cold start challenge new projects face by leveraging the existing strength of the Ethereum validator set and become a central part of digital asset infrastructure for the long term.”
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