A contract worth $600 million in Ether has been reached between Omni Network and the Ether.Fi restaking protocol. The funds will be utilized to bolster the security measures of both the EigenLayer and Omni Network.
The $600 million will aid in the protection of both the Omni testnet and mainnet, Omni Network stated in a March 4 X post:
“Omni is proud to announce a commitment of $600M of staked ETH from @ether_fi to secure the Omni Network. This first-of-its-kind deal positions us at the forefront of the growing restaking ecosystem.”
Omni Network is a layer-1 interoperability blockchain that facilitates the secure connection of Ethereum rollups through restaking. Its primary objectives are to reduce latency and enhance ecosystem fragmentation.
The worth of Ether in the $600 million is equivalent to 33% of the total Ether.Fi supply.The locked-in total value (TVL) of Ether.Fi is $1.88 billion. DefiLlama data indicates that Ether.Fi is the largest liquid restaking protocol in the world at present, as its TVL increased by more than 163% in the past month.
EigenLayer, which currently is the largest Ethereum restaking protocol with a TVL exceeding $10.3 billion, will reset the $600 million worth of Ether.
EigenLayer received a $100 million financing round from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) approximately two weeks before forming the new strategic partnership. Blockchain Capital led a $50 million funding round in March that the protocol successfully concluded.
Established in 2021, EigenLayer facilitates the retaking of liquid-staking derivative tokens by stakers and validators, including Lido Staked Ether and RocketPool’s rETH, to validate and safeguard other networks. These assets have the potential to generate additional returns when utilized in other decentralized finance protocols.
With a total TVL of $54.7 billion, liquid staking is presently the most valuable protocol category on DefiLlama. Restaking protocols occupy the sixth position with a value of $10.305 billion. TVL secured in restaking protocols comprises $10.305 billion; EigenLayer’s TVL alone represents 99.96% of this total TVL.
On February 5, investor interest in EigenLayer began to soar after the protocol temporarily lifted its staking limit to encourage organic growth. EigenLayer’s TVL increased by more than 181% during this restaking period, from $2.15 billion on February 5 to $6.05 billion on February 10. Notwithstanding the implementation of a novel staking limitation, the undertaking intends to eliminate this restriction permanently.
