ethereum, the second-largest digital asset by market cap, is trading near the pivotal milestone of $4,000 for the first time since December 2021, up 15% over the past week.
Amid this price rally, leading recovery protocol EigenLayer is now the second-largest DeFi protocol in terms of total value locked, according to DeFillama. eth“>data.
eth price
ethereum is currently priced at $3,954 after a 4% gain over the past day, according to CryptoSlate data.
This upward move in ethereum's value can be linked to the excitement surrounding the upcoming Dencun upgrade scheduled to go live on the mainnet on March 13. Dencun brings proto-danksharding to ethereum, a strategic move aimed at reducing transaction fees for Layer 2 blockchains, thereby addressing scalability issues head-on.
Furthermore, the market anticipates the possible approval of a spot eth ETF by the US SEC. If this approval materializes, it could serve as a major catalyst that further fuels the current price surge.
Rising TVL of EigenLayer
EigenLayer's TVL soared to an all-time high of $11.7 billion during the week, surpassing Aave's TVL of $11.4 billion.
Notably, on March 5, the protocol witnessed a staggering positive change of $790 million in TVL, marking its highest daily increase since February 9, according to blockchain analytics firm IntoTheBlock.
EigenLayer's TVL growth trajectory has been notable, especially in the last 30 days, witnessing a five-fold increase from approximately $2 billion at the beginning of the previous month to its current figure. Surprisingly, the total assets locked in the protocol have skyrocketed to over 3 million eth, up from less than 1 million at the beginning of February.
This increase in TVL closely follows EigenLayer's decision to lift token recovery restrictions and remove TVL limits for individual tokens last month. Community members hope these changes will become permanent later this year.
Meanwhile, EigenLayer's distinctive turnaround model attracted significant investments, notably a $50 million Series A funding round in March 2023 led by Blockchain Capital and a $100 million funding round. investment by Andreessen Horowitz in February 2024.
However, the rapid growth of EigenLayer has led to increased security scrutiny, leading the project to offer rewards up to $100,000 to researchers who discover security issues of medium or greater severity on the platform.
