EigenLayer AVS ARPA to launch native restaking rewards soon

ARPA Network, a Web3 protocol built on restaking protocol EigenLayer, aims to start issuing rewards to restakers in its native token, ARPA, as soon as September, Jason Zhao, ARPA’s business development lead, told Cointelegraph in an interview. 

“If everything goes well, we’ll push [ARPA rewards] by the end of September, but if not, then definitely by October,” Zhao said. 

In addition to native token rewards, ARPA is testing an “incentives program […] offering extra EIGEN’ reward-boosts’ to our stakers and operators,” Felix Xu, ARPA’s CEO, told Cointelegraph in a statement.

This would mark the first instance of one of EigenLayer’s third-party actively validated services (AVS) paying restakers to secure and validate its network. EigenLayer’s in-house AVS, EigenDA, already pays restakers in wrapped ETH (wETH).

It’s an important milestone for EigenLayer and other restaking protocols, which have collectively bootstrapped nearly $14 billion since 2023 from restakers hoping to enhance yield on staked Ether (ETH).

Related: EigenLayer rolls out ‘major update’ to restaking contracts

Restaking involves taking a token that has already been staked — posted as collateral with a validator in exchange for rewards — and using it to secure other protocols simultaneously. 

“The only way [restaking] makes sense long term is if restaking networks get customers, and those customers, directly or indirectly, pay money for the services that these other restaking networks provide,” Mike Silagadze, CEO of liquid restaking protocol Ether.fi, said in August.

EigenLayer, which launched in 2023, dominates restaking with approximately $11 billion in TVL, according to DefiLlama. Other retaking protocols include Symbiotic and Karak. 

EigenLayer originally only accepted ETH and its liquid staking derivatives (LSD) — such as Lido Staked Ether (stETH) — as collateral for restaking. EigenLayer added its own EIGEN token after its May airdrop. In August, EigenDA announced plans to add native token restaking for additional yield options.

Since then, EigenLayer has begun accepting tokens such as Threshold Bitcoin (tBTC) and ARPA, among others. Zhao said ARPA plans to start accepting restaked collateral from ARPA, BNB and Level USD (lvlUSD), a stablecoin.  

Launched in 2018, ARPA uses multi-party computation (MPC) to securely generate random numbers without relying on centralized intermediaries. At least half a dozen projects use ARPA’s main product, Randcast, for applications ranging from gaming to lotteries to on-chain governance and more. 

In 2019, ARPA launched its native ARPA token, which is designed to secure its network in a similar fashion to how ETH secures the Ethereum blockchain. The ARPA token’s total market capitalization is approximately $55 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

Integrating with EigenLayer has greatly expanded ARPA’s staking pool. As of Sept. 10, the network is also secured by 26 validators representing nearly $2.9 billion in staked ETH collateral, according to EigenLayer’s website. 

“The operators on Eigenlayer can actually be another avenue for us to onboard new nodes and also add their economic security to safeguard the ARPA network,” Zhao said.

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