What Is Restaking?
Restaking lets you stake the same ETH across multiple protocols simultaneously — earning yield at every layer while your capital stays in one place. EigenLayer pioneered the concept in 2023; by 2025 it held $15B+ in restaked ETH securing 20+ external services.
How Restaking Works
Restaking works by pledging already-staked ETH (or liquid staking tokens) as additional collateral for external protocols called Actively Validated Services (AVS). Here is the chain:
- Stake ETH — Deposit to Ethereum validators directly, or via a liquid staking protocol (Lido, Rocket Pool) to receive stETH or rETH.
- Deposit into restaking protocol — Submit your ETH or LST to EigenLayer (or Symbiotic/Karak). Your stake is now restaked.
- Delegate to an operator — Operators are professional node runners who opt into AVS on your behalf.
- Earn layered rewards — Receive base staking APY plus restaking rewards from each AVS the operator secures.
Restaking vs Traditional Staking
In traditional staking, your ETH is doing one job: securing Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus. You deposit 32 ETH to a validator, that validator signs blocks, attestations, and sync committees, and you earn ~3.2–3.5% APY from protocol inflation. Your ETH sits in the deposit contract for months or years. When you want to exit, you join a validator exit queue and wait days or weeks.
Restaking takes the same ETH and puts it to work in a second job simultaneously. Your staked ETH's economic weight — the billions of dollars securing Ethereum — now also secures other protocols. Those protocols pay you a fee for borrowing your security. Your ETH doesn't work harder; it works broader.
• ~3.2–3.5% APY
• Slashing only from consensus faults
• 7-day+ exit queue
• Single trust assumption (Ethereum)
• ~4–7% APY (base + AVS rewards)
• Slashing from consensus + every AVS
• 7-day escrow on withdrawals
• Trust assumptions: Ethereum + operator + each AVS
The Double Duty: ETH at Two Jobs at Once
The clever insight behind restaking is that the same ETH can simultaneously satisfy two different security models without any conflict:
Neither role conflicts with the other. Your validator continues earning base ETH yield while simultaneously providing economic security to AVSs through EigenLayer's delegation model. The only additional risk: if an operator you delegated to misbehaves in an AVS, you get slashed too — even though you didn't choose that AVS or even know about it.
📊 TVL Comparison: All Restaking Protocols
Restaking TVL has grown from near zero in early 2024 to over $19B by mid-2025, driven primarily by EigenLayer and its growing AVS ecosystem. Below is a historical comparison of TVL across the major restaking protocols:
Note: EigenLayer dominates the restaking ecosystem, holding ~80% of total restaking TVL. Symbiotic and Karak are the next largest but still represent less than 15% combined. TVL figures are approximate and based on publicly reported data through Q1 2025.
🏆 Top Restaking Operators
Operators are professional infrastructure providers who run validator nodes and opt into AVS on behalf of delegators. The top operators manage hundreds of thousands of ETH and secure most of the AVS ecosystem:
| Operator | ETH Delegated | Commission | AVSs Secured | Est. APR | TVL Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labyrinth | 312,000 | 8% | 14 | 6.2% | 8.2% |
| Staked | 285,000 | 7% | 12 | 5.9% | 7.5% |
| Figment | 198,000 | 9% | 10 | 5.7% | 5.2% |
| P2P.org | 176,000 | 6% | 11 | 5.5% | 4.6% |
| RockawayX | 142,000 | 10% | 9 | 5.8% | 3.7% |
| Everstake | 128,000 | 7% | 13 | 6.0% | 3.4% |
| Staking Facilities | 95,000 | 8% | 8 | 5.4% | 2.5% |
| Chorus One | 88,000 | 9% | 7 | 5.1% | 2.3% |
Data based on on-chain delegation data and operator-reported figures as of Q1 2025. Commission rates vary by operator and AVS configuration. APR estimates include base staking yield (~3.2%) plus AVS rewards after commission.
All Restaking Protocols
The original restaking protocol. Pioneer of the restaking primitive. Native + LST restaking.
A flexible, permissionless restaking primitive. Multi-collateral support beyond just ETH.
Multi-chain restaking network across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Blast. Focuses on cross-chain DSS.
Multi-token staking and restaking platform. ETHx as their restaking token.
Decentralized restaking with a focus on verifier neutrality and anti-censorship.
Professional staking infrastructure provider offering restaking as an extension of their node operations.
⚠️ Slashing Risk: The Hidden Catch
Restaking's most important risk is also the most subtle: you don't choose which AVSs your operator runs. When you delegate to an operator, you authorize them to opt into any AVS they want. If that operator runs a buggy or malicious AVS software and gets slashed, your ETH is at risk too — even if the AVS was something you'd never heard of.
The slashing chain looks like this:
- Double-signing (signing two blocks at same height)
- Invalid state root submission to an AVS
- Missing attestation duty windows
- AVS-specific rules (e.g., data unavailability)
- Smart contract bugs in the AVS itself
- Minimum slash: 1 ETH (for attestation failures)
- Maximum slash: your entire restaked position
- Correlated slash: one operator, multiple AVSs = compounding loss
- EigenLayer caps total slash at restaked position value
⏳ The Withdrawal Queue: 7–14 Days
Unlike regular ETH staking where the exit queue is the only delay, restaking adds an extra layer:
EigenLayer enforces a 7-day withdrawal escrow on all restaked positions.
When you call queueWithdrawal on the DelegationManager, your ETH is locked for 7 days.
During this window, any attributable fault on your operator can still trigger a slash against your position.
ETH Liquid Staking Tokens vs Liquid Restaking Tokens
The DeFi ecosystem has two overlapping families of ETH wrappers. It's important to understand the difference:
| Token Type | Examples | Backed By | Earn | Slashing Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LST (Liquid Staking) | stETH, rETH, cbETH, ankrETH | ETH staked on beacon chain | Base staking ~3.2% | Consensus only (rare) |
| LRT (Liquid Restaking) | eETH, ezETH, pufETH, rsETH | ETH staked + restaked on AVSs | Base + AVS rewards ~4–7% | Consensus + all AVS |
The key insight: every LRT is built on top of an LST. When you deposit into EtherFi, your ETH goes into Lido's stETH vault, which is then restaked via EigenLayer. So LRTs inherit all the risk of LSTs (validator slashing, smart contract risk at the LST layer) PLUS the additional restaking risk.
All LSTs (stETH, rETH, etc.) are whitelisted for restaking by EigenLayer governance. So if you hold stETH, someone (your LRT protocol or directly via StrategyManager) can restake it without your explicit action. Always check whether your LST provider automatically restakes your tokens.
📈 Restaking Yield Simulator
Adjust the sliders to see how restaking yield changes as more capital enters the system.
Note: As more capital enters restaking, AVS reward rates compress (supply of restaked ETH increases faster than AVS demand). This is a simplified model — actual yields fluctuate based on operator performance, AVS reward schedules, and EigenLayer policy changes.
🔍 Restaking Protocol Feature Comparison
| Protocol | Native Restaking | LST Restaking | Multi-Asset | Multi-Chain | AVS Count | Withdrawal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EigenLayer | ✓ | ✓ | ETH only | Ethereum | 20+ | 7-day esc. |
| Symbiotic | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Multi | Ethereum | 8+ | Variable |
| Karak | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Multi | ✓ 3 chains | 5+ | Variable |
| Stader | — | ✓ | ETHx | Multi-chain | 6+ | 7-day esc. |
Benefits
- Higher total yield — stack restaking rewards on top of base staking APY
- Capital efficiency — same ETH doing multiple jobs simultaneously
- Bootstraps new protocol security without diluting new token supply
- Liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) keep deposits somewhat liquid
- EigenLayer's Security Council provides slashing veto safety net
- AVS ecosystem grows the utility and demand for ETH itself
Risks
- Compounding smart contract risk across multiple protocol layers
- Slashing from multiple AVS can stack — one operator fault, multiple penalties
- Withdrawal delays: EigenLayer enforces a 7-day escrow on withdrawals
- Operator risk — you are trusting your chosen operator's uptime and integrity
- Complexity obscures actual risk exposure
- Correlated slashing: if one operator runs 10 AVSs and fails, all get hit simultaneously
Start Restaking
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Actively Validated Services are the protocols restaked ETH actually secures. Each AVS defines its own task types, slashing conditions, and reward distribution. Understanding AVSs is key to understanding what your ETH is actually doing when it's restaked.