EigenLayer Token Airdrop: Officially Confirmed

The most highly-anticipated airdrop of 2024 has finally been confirmed.

In late-April 2024, Eigen Foundation announced the launch of the EIGEN token. The token has unique properties designed to add another layer of security to the EigenLayer ecosystem.

But what is EigenLayer? How to become eligible for EIGEN airdrops? Let’s find out.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. What is EigenLayer?
3. What is EIGEN Token? 
4. EIGEN Tokenomics
5. Will There be an EigenLayer Airdrop?
6. How to Become Eligible for EigenLayer Token Airdrop?
7. How to Stake on EigenLayer?
8. The Bottom Line
9. FAQs

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. What is EigenLayer?
3. What is EIGEN Token? 
Show Full Guide
4. EIGEN Tokenomics
5. Will There be an EigenLayer Airdrop?
6. How to Become Eligible for EigenLayer Token Airdrop?
7. How to Stake on EigenLayer?
8. The Bottom Line
9. FAQs

What is EigenLayer?

EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that allows users to stake their liquid staking tokens (LST).

When users stake their Ether (ETH) tokens on liquid staking platforms like Lido, RocketPool, and Coinbase Earn, they receive LSTs, which act as receipt tokens. EigenLayer is a restaking protocol that allows users to stake LSTs, which is used to extend crypto-economic security to rollups and decentralized applications (dApp) secured by EigenLayer.

Anyone building a new rollup or dApp can simply tap into the pooled security provided by EigenLayer instead of bootstrapping a new trust network of validators to secure their system. The restaked cryptocurrencies act as collateral that ensures operators on EigenLayer act honestly or risk slashing of their collateral.

Operators are actors within the EigenLayer network responsible for validating rollups and dApps. An operator can choose to support any number of applications that use EigenLayer’s pool security.

Supporting more applications can potentially increase an operator’s restaking rewards; however, operators have to be aware of custom slashing conditions set by these applications.

EigenLayer restakers can choose the operator to whom they want to delegate their staked cryptocurrencies. Restakers must be aware of the risk of losing their deposits in the event of slashing, which can occur if their operator behaves maliciously or is absent from making their services available.

What is EIGEN Token? 

EIGEN is the native token of the EigenLayer ecosystem.

According to the Eigen Foundation, the EIGEN token is designed to address “intersubjective” faults that are not possible to address via ETH restaking alone.

“Intersubjective faults are instances of misbehavior that cannot be objectively identified on-chain, yet any two reasonable observers would agree that a penalty is deserved,” said the Eigen Foundation.

EIGEN token achieves this by providing a mechanism called intersubjective forking in which the EIGEN token can be forked without forking Ethereum mainnet consensus. Intersubjective forking occurs entirely within EigenLayer on the Ethereum blockchain without relying on Ethereum’s mainnet consensus.

Here is an example of how intersubjective forking works and how EIGEN will add an extra layer of security to the EigenLayer ecosystem.

Let’s say Adam identifies a malicious actor committing fraudulent activity on EigenLayer. Adam can propose creating a fork by committing a significant fraction of EIGEN tokens as collateral.

If the EigenLayer social consensus validates the fork, the EIGEN tokens belonging to malicious actors will be penalized in the valid fork chain, and Adam will recoup their collateral and earn a challenger reward.

However, if social consensus rejects the fork, Adam’s commitment will be burned.

EIGEN Tokenomics

Here is how the EIGEN token will be distributed:

Other important EIGEN tokenomics information:

• The total supply of EIGEN at launch is over 1.673 billion tokens.
• EIGEN token supply will be inflationary.
• EIGEN can be staked to Actively Validated Services (AVSs) to offer security against intersubjective faults

Will There be an EigenLayer Airdrop?

On April 29, 2024, Eigen Foundation — an independent and shareholder-less entity supporting growth of the EigenLayer ecosystem — announced that the EIGEN token will be airdropped to Eigen restakers.

Eigen Foundation said that 15% of EIGEN’s initial supply was allocated to Eigen restakers.

Season 1 of EIGEN airdrop will see 5% of initial EIGEN supply airdropped to users who had restaked their LSTs on EigenLayer on March 15, 2024.

Season 1 of EIGEN airdrop will take place over two phases:

• Phase 1 – 90% of Season 1 EIGEN airdrop will be airdropped to restakers. The claim window for the Phase 1 EIGEN airdrop starts on May 10, 2024, and ends on September 7, 2024.
• Phase 2 – The remaining 10% of Season 1 EIGEN airdrop allocation will be distributed to users who had complex interactions with their liquid restaking tokens (LRT). Phase 2 claiming will start in May-June 2024.

Eigen Foundation said that a minimum floor of 10 EIGEN is established for Season 1 EIGEN airdrop.

No single user or entity will receive more than 33% of the total allocation. Eigen Labs and Eigen Foundation core contributors are not eligible for the Season 1 EIGEN airdrop.

EIGEN tokens received via airdrop will initially be non-transferable.

How to Become Eligible for EigenLayer Token Airdrop?

According to the Eigen Foundation, EIGEN airdrop eligibility depends on:

• Restaking – EIGEN airdrops will be distributed to restakers and their allocation will be based on the amount, duration, earliness and loyalty (whether they maintained the stake) of their participation.
• Direct Native staking – Native restakers are allocated more EIGEN tokens.

How to Stake on EigenLayer?

At the time of writing, restaking on EigenLayer is the only way to become eligible for EIGEN airdrops. So how do you re=stake on EigenLayer?

1. Liquid Restaking

Liquid restaking refers to the process of depositing liquid staking tokens (LST) into EigenLayer restaking smart contracts. Users can visit LSTs on the EigenLayer website on the Ethereum Mainnet to re-stake their tokens.

As of May 2, 2024, EigenLayer supported the following LSTs:

1. stETH (Lido)
2. rETH (Rocket Pool)
3. cbETH (Coinbase)
4. wBETH (Binance)
5. osETH (Stakewise)
6. swETH (Swell)
7. AnkrETH (Ankr)
8. EthX (Stader)
9. OETH (Origin ETH)
10. sfrxETH (Frax Ether)
11. lsETH (Liquid Staked ETH)
12. mETH (Mantle Staked Ether)

2. Native Staking

Native staking on EigenLayer refers to the process of setting an Ethereum validator’s withdrawCredential to EigenLayer’s restaking smart contracts.

Only Ethereum validators can participate in native restaking.

3. Liquid restaking tokens (LRT)

Liquid restaking tokens allow users to automatically re-stake their ETH in EigenLayer. LRTs sidestep the process of obtaining LSTs to re-stake on EigenLayer.

LRT holders accrue staking rewards from ETH staking while gaining exposure to EigenLayer.

Here are examples of LRT protocols:

1. Ether.fi – Ether.fi allows users to stake their ETH to get a token called eETH. Ether.fi restakes ETH on EigenLayer on the holder’s behalf, accruing restaking points for eETH holders.
2. Swell – Swell is a platform that issues tokens called restaked Swell ether (rswETH) that represents ETH restaked on EigenLayer. rswETH earn EigenLayer restaked points for its holders, while remaining liquid and tradeable.
3. Kelp DAO – Kelp DAO issues rsETH tokens when users stake LSTs on its platform.

The Bottom Line

EigenLayer token airdrop was officially confirmed. EIGEN airdrops claims will start on May 10, 2024. You can check your eligibility here.

Always do your research before investing in cryptocurrencies or pursuing token airdrops. If you are looking to increase your chances of winning future EIGEN airdrops, keep in mind that market volatility can affect ETH, LST and LRT prices.

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