Symbiotic, a new restaking protocol on Ethereum, has achieved a total value locked (TVL) of $1 billion within its first month. The protocol’s growth puts it in a position to compete with EigenLayer, the leading restaking protocol.
Also read: EigenLayer enhances EigenDA security to counter Sybil and DDoS attacks
According to Defillama data, EigenLayer remains the dominant restaking protocol, holding $16.83 billion of the total $18.98 billion TVL for all restaking protocols. However, its TVL has declined by 5.29% in the past seven days and 13.62% in the past month.
Symbiotic’s TVL triples in 24 hours
Symbiotic has experienced rapid growth since its launch on June 11. Within the last 24 hours, the protocol’s TVL surged from $314 million on July 3 to $1.037 billion on July 4. Market analysts attribute this significant increase to the protocol’s decision to raise deposit limits for several restaking pools.
In response to growing demand, Symbiotic recently announced higher deposit limits for some restaking pools. Despite this adjustment, certain pools quickly hit their new caps. The wrapped Lido Staked Ether pool reached its 210,000 wstETH limit in just four hours. Similarly, the Ethena staked USDe pool reached its 50 million sUSDe cap, and the staked Frax Ether pool hit its 3,699 sfrxETH limit.
Currently, three out of Symbiotic’s nine pools have reached their deposit limits. However, six pools remain open for deposits. These are the swETH, cbETH, wBETH, rETH, mETH, and ENA pools. The swETH and mETH pools are also nearing their caps, with only 0.01% capacity remaining.
Symbiotic could be Lido’s answer to EigenLayer
The emergence of Symbiotic could signal a turning point for the dominant restaking platform, EigenLayer. Despite maintaining its position as the largest DeFi protocol, Lido has faced challenges from new restaking services like EigenLayer.
Symbiotic has strong ties to Lido, and it could be Lido’s answer to EigenLayer. Lido’s founders, through their venture arm Cyber Fund, are major backers of Symbiotic. Paradigm, another key Lido investor, also supports Symbiotic. Recently, Symbiotic raised $5.8 million in a funding round led by Paradigm and Cyber Fund.
Also read: Ethereum restaking presents opportunities and risks in DeFi landscape
The protocol allows the restaking of assets such as Lido’s stETH, similar to other restaking platforms, but with a significant edge. It supports more ERC-20 tokens than EigenLayer and offers a customizable design that lets users combine multiple tokens when restaking.
Since its launch, Symbiotic has grown its ecosystem through partnerships. Its major collaborators include platforms like Affine DeFi, CIAN protocol, Mitosis, and Tallyxyz.
