Restaking protocol EigenLayer closes $50 million raise
Restaking protocol EigenLayer closes $50 million raise
Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer has closed its $50 million Series A fundraising round. The Block first reported in February that EigenLabs, the team behind EigenLayer, was seeking to raise $50 million at a $250 million post-equity valuation and a $500 million token valuation. The round is led by Blockchain Capital and sees participation from other investors such as Coinbase Ventures. , Polychain Capital, Hack VC and Electric Capital.
The yet-to-launch restaking protocol previously raised $14.5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures. The startup was founded in 2021 by Sreeram Kannan, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. It enables users to restake their ether (ETH) and innovate at the consensus layer without needing to launch a whole new blockchain, the company said. “We started working on EigenLayer in the hopes of creating a new model, in which developers can easily consume trust, instead of needing to build trust, and design powerful systems of assurances that make the crypto ecosystem safer and more useful,” said Kannan in the release.
