EigenCloud (prev. EigenLayer)

EigenCloud, previously known as EigenLayer, is the protocol that introduced restaking to Ethereum. Restaking allows ETH that is already staked to secure Ethereum to be committed a second time as security for additional services, extending Ethereum's economic security to systems that would otherwise need to bootstrap their own validator sets.

How restaking works

Stakers opt in by delegating their staked ETH or liquid staking tokens to operators who run software for services built on the protocol. Those services, historically referred to as actively validated services, can include data availability layers, oracle networks, bridges, and other infrastructure. If an operator misbehaves according to a service's rules, the restaked capital backing them can be slashed. The result is that a new service can obtain meaningful economic security on day one rather than needing to attract its own validators and token stake.

The project has since broadened its positioning to EigenCloud, emphasising verifiable computation and data availability services rather than restaking alone. EIGEN is the protocol's token, used for governance and for securing tasks where slashing is based on subjective judgement rather than on objectively verifiable faults. There is no fixed maximum supply in the available data; total supply is approximately 1.83 billion with roughly 741 million in circulation.

Role in the ecosystem

Restaking became one of the most significant new primitives in the Ethereum ecosystem, spawning a category of liquid restaking tokens and drawing considerable capital. It has also attracted debate about risk: because the same capital secures multiple systems, correlated slashing events or poorly designed services could in principle create losses that propagate. The protocol's design work on slashing conditions and operator selection addresses those concerns directly.