Last week we had a Dencun upgrade, and the price of ETH was hovering around $4,000. Are we about to witness an all-time high (ATH)?
Today, I would like to take you through an in-depth look at a high-profile LRT project with a total lock-up value of more than $2 billion, and their token will be officially launched on the Binance trading platform next week.
So, let’s start a deep dive into the Ether.Fi right away (transparent note: the author is an investor in the project).
1. Ether.FI – Seamless staking, easy profit
Ether.fi is a decentralized, non-custodial delegated staking protocol with Liquid Staking Token. A unique feature of Ether.fi is that stakers are in control of their own private keys. Anonymous users, so to speak.
Currently, about a quarter of the ETH circulating supply has been staked (a total of about 120 million ETH, with about 30 million ETH staked).
Ether.fi is a decentralized, non-custodial delegated staking protocol with Liquid Staking Token. With Ether.fi, you can stake ETH and earn eETH, a native, liquid staking token that drives the growth of DeFi and enables the decentralization of Ethereum. You can stake at any time.
Stake your ETH and receive eETH and you will be rewarded for staking. eETH is also automatically re-staked for additional rewards. You can use eETH for DeFi to maximize returns.
Ether.fi is unique in that stakers are in control of their own private keys. This reduces counterparty risk for node operators and protocols.
We are committed to further decentralizing Ethereum and achieving this by launching nodes in different geographic regions. Ether.fi runs Operation Solo Staker, which further drives the decentralization of Ethereum.
eETH is designed to be used in DeFi and works with multiple DeFi protocols to increase the utility of eETH.
If you want to become an operator of a Ether.fi node, we offer two ways:
Path 1 is to allow permissionless users with existing hardware to stake 2 ETH and run validators,
Path 2 is to allow users with limited permissions to use their own hardware and use DVT without providing a stake of 2 ETH.
Ether.fi works with a range of excellent DeFi protocols, including EigenLayer. Through our partnership with EigenLayer, our staking protocol gains access to a robust re-staking collective embedded in the Ethereum network. EigenLayer’s smart contracts enable ETH stakers to opt in to participate in the process of validating various software modules built on Ethereum.
Ether.fi have been audited by leading audit firms, including Certik, Omniscia, Nethermind, and Solidified.
The total staking value is $27.9 billion, with 819,000 ETH being staked. Your staking reward is an annualized yield of 3.22%, with pending re-staking rewards, EigenLayer points, and ether.fi loyalty points.
On Ether.fi, your ETH can be staked and re-staked for the best rewards. This re-staking mechanism provides you with superior returns.
Ether.fi is one of the largest Liquid Restaking (LRT) DeFi protocols, and we work with other great DeFi protocols such as Puffer, Kelp, and Renzo, among others.
Hope the above information is helpful to you. If you need to know more, you can visit the official website of Ether.fi for more details.
2. Limited access | EtherFi access is restricted
Currently, users in the United States, as well as restricted countries, are not allowed to participate in ether.fi agreements.
The problem with blocking funds in EigenLayer is that the funds are no longer liquid.
But what if you’re hungry for Ethereum’s liquidity to operate in DeFi while wanting to earn EigenLayer points and not miss out on potential rewards in the future?
When your LSTToken is locked on EigenLayer, you lose access to liquidity and can’t use your ETH. But there is a solution to this problem. With @ether_fi, you can maintain liquidity through their re-staking Token, $eETH, while enjoying all the benefits of EigenLayer.
EtherFi natively restakes your ETH onto EigenLayer and provides more benefits.
Let’s talk about all the benefits:
➜ EigenLayer re-staking points
➜ EigenLayer airdrops
➜ EtherFi restaking points
➜ ETH staking rewards
In addition to these basic rewards, you can convert $eETH to $weETH and use it in DeFi to earn additional rewards.
The standard process is to deposit ETH -> generate eETH + earn EtherFi loyalty points + EigenLayer points.
Use eETH to interact with different DeFi protocols and earn additional yield (e.g. Pendle).
Please refer to the screenshot below:
Here, you have the opportunity to participate in income farms such as Pendle, Balancer, Gearbox, Curve, Gravita, Penpie, and more.
The benefit is that your Ether.Fi points will receive an increased bonus (a 2x bonus means that the number of points Ether.Fi is doubled).
3. Loyalty points formula
By staking 0.001 ETH, you will earn 1 point per day.
This means loyalty points earned = amount of ETH staked * 1000 * number of staking days
For example: If you stake 5 ETH and stake it for 6 days, you will receive 30,000 loyalty points (5 * 1000 * 6).
For large customers, the total number of loyalty points is capped at 10¹².
As for your points, you can track your ether.fi and EigenLayer scores at any time through the app.ether.fi/portfolio page.
Okay, now that we’ve talked about products and DeFi strategies, now let’s take a look at Ether.Fi upcoming launch of TokenETHFI.
4. The launch of $ETHFIToken
Binance will be the first platform to list the token, and trading will begin at 12:00 (UTC) on March 18, 2024.
Ether.FI will be Binance’s Launchpool project (which is very bullish). Binance users will be able to stake their BNB and FDUSD to different pools to mine ETHFIToken for four days, and mining will begin at 00:00 (UTC) on March 14, 2024.
Token maximum supply: 1 billion ETHFI
LaunchpoolToken Reward: 20,000,000 ETHFI (2% of the maximum token supply)
Initial Circulating Supply: 115,200,000 ETHFI (11.52% of the maximum token supply)
Also, it’s worth mentioning that if the token goes live on March 18, the airdrop shouldn’t be too far away. At least that’s what I think, but the team hasn’t posted anything about it on Twitter yet.
Honestly, I think it makes sense to do the airdrop now. None of the other protocols have launched tokens yet, and being the first actor can be a good strategy. There are also rumors that EigenLayer will be launched at the end of April. So overall, it’s a great day for Ethereum stakers.
5. Revoke the pledge
We talk a lot about staking, but what if one day you want to sell your eETH?
Unlike Ether.Fi’s biggest competitor (Puffer), you can revoke your eETH stake at any time.
You can click the arrow button in the middle of the interface to enter the “Withdraw” mode to unstake and withdraw your ETH.
It takes up to 4 days to unstake, but it is usually done within 24 hours, and sometimes even within 2-4 hours. Time estimation is not something Ether.Fi can control, but depends on the validator queue.
If you don’t want to wait to revoke your stake, you can sell it on the secondary market right away. eETH/weETH is a very liquid token, so if you’re in a hurry to sell, you can head over to CoinGecko and find a pool to sell and get ETH right away: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/wrapped-eeth
Here are the most liquid pools: Balancer, Uniswap, and Maverick.
6. Summary
To sum up: Ether.Fi is currently the largest restaking protocol, with a total lock-up value of over $2 billion. eETHToken is very liquid, and you can stake directly on EigenLayer to earn EigenLayer points and Ether.Fi loyalty points. Or you can take eETH a step further in DeFi and use strategies like Pendle and Gearbox to earn more.
Binance will be the first trading platform to list the token, and trading will begin at 12:00 (UTC) on March 18, 2024. Ether.FI will be a Binance Launchpool project, which is very beneficial for the token. You can stake BNB or FDUSD to mine ETHFIToken in 4 days.
In addition, the airdrop campaign will also start soon. DYOR can be performed.