Andreessen Horowitz invested $100 million in EigenLayer

According to the venture capital firm’s general partner Ali Yahya, the partnership could pave the way for new applications based on the protocol

22.02.2024 - 15:45

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Last updated on Dec 5, 2024

What’s new? Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has invested $100 million in EigenLayer, the largest restaking protocol by total value locked (TVL), Bloomberg reports. EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan said Andreessen Horowitz was the sole participant in the funding round. According to the venture capital firm’s general partner Ali Yahya, the partnership could pave the way for new applications based on EigenLayer.

Material by Bloomberg

What else is known? In Q4 2023, venture capital funding for cryptocurrency companies grew by 2,5% to $1,9 billion, Bloomberg writes, citing a PitchBook report. This is the first growth in crypto investments by venture capital funds since March 2022. Experts believe it may be related to the launch of the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States.

Kannan said the team has no concrete plans to launch a native token yet. “There are many paths that they could take for monetizing. It could be a more traditional business model or there could be a token,” Yahya added.

The EigenLayer founder emphasized that the project offers a platform for those who want to engage in restaking, rather than the classic staking process that attracts the attention of regulators.

“If Gary Gensler understood what we’re building, he would like us a lot,” Kannan summarized.

As of February 22, EigenLayer is the third-largest protocol on the Ethereum network, with a TVL of $7,91 billion (DefiLlama’s data). The protocol’s TVL is up by 4,30% overnight and more than 347% over the past month.

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Earlier this month, the TVL of the DeFi protocol Pendle reached $998,4 billion. A Pendle developer under the nickname RightSide stated that a major factor in the recent TVL increase was the growing interest in restaking.

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