The $600 million will be used to secure the Omni network and enhance security of the EigenLayer ecosystem as a whole.
Ether.Fi has more than $1.8 billion in total value locked (TVL).
Ether.Fi will roll out a “final countdown” campaign on Monday, which may be related to a potential token airdrop.
Liquid restaking protocol Ether.Fi said it will commit $600 million worth of ether (ETH) in a delegation deal to secure the Omni Network.
Omni Network is a blockchain designed to allow all Ethereum rollups, or scaling products, to communicate with each other with low latency and security. Both Omni and Ether.Fi have committed to the pooled security model of EigenLayer, and the ether will be restaked on EigenLayer.
Omni will then whitelist Ether.Fi’s liquid token eETH and will select Ether.Fi’s node operators to run its Actively Validated Service (AVS). The staked ether will act as security that will protect against security breaches and asset depegs.
The deal, which will see Ether.fi delegate a third of the $1.8 billion it has accumulated in total value locked, comes days after it completed a $23 million Series A fundraising round.
EigenLayer is a project at the heart of the Ethereum restaking ecosystem. Projects like Ether.Fi and Puffer, which simplify the process of restaking, are built on top of EigenLayer and offer additional rewards in the form of “loyalty points.”
Read more: Ethereum ‘Restaking’ Takes Shape as Next Big Trend in Blockchain Security
Liquid restaking involves securing additional yield, or rewards, on natively staked ether. Ether.fi currently offers 3.92% and loyalty points across EigenLayer. The points will eventually be convertible to token airdrops. The liquid restaking market has soared since December, with EigenLayer’s total value locked (TVL) rising to $10 billion from $250 million, data from DefiLlama shows.
Ether.fi is introducing a campaign on Monday called the “final countdown,” which may be linked to a governance token airdrop that will reward people who have been earning points through restaking.
“We are excited to see Omni gearing up to launch as an AVS on EigenLayer to provide super fast interoperability with the high cryptoeconomic integrity that the Ethereum ecosystem cares deeply about” said Sreeram Kannan, the founder of EigenLayer.
