Crypto's Most Hyped Airdrop?

We are officially in the middle of Airdrop Season, and we’ve already seen massive wins from projects like Celestia and Jupiter.

Put that fomo aside my friend, because we have only just begun.

Airdrops are the closest things out there to free money. They offer incredible returns for very minimal risk. Just last month some of our team members received over $3000 USD from the $JUP airdrop simply for transacting with the protocol.

Today, we are going to walk you through one of the most anticipated drops to come: EigenLayer.

It’s being estimated that they will drop between $2-3 billion dollars to farmers, which would make it the biggest airdrop we have ever seen!

But in order to be one of the lucky recipients, you need to put in the work.

If you know about this protocol, you already know that it’s going to be massive. If you haven’t heard about EigenLayer, don’t worry, we got you covered. Read until the end for an overview and learn exactly why this chain is set to take over, and how you can profit.

What is the ElginLayer?

Imagine a bustling city, where every building, every street, and every corner is buzzing with activity. Now, imagine that city is the Ethereum blockchain, and each activity is a transaction. In this city, there’s a new kid on the block, and its name is EigenLayer.

EigenLayer is like the city’s ultimate multitasker. It’s a protocol that introduces the concept of “re-staking”. Think of it as the city’s residents investing their time and resources not just once, but twice, to make the city even better. This re-staking allows the Ethereum (ETH) or Liquid Staking Tokens to be used more efficiently.

Now you are wondering why is the re-staking feature ground-breaking? Re-staking simply enables staked ETH to be used as crypto economic security for protocols other than Ethereum, in exchange for protocol fees and rewards. This is available for both natively staked ETH and liquid staked tokens like stETH, rETH, cbETH, and lsETH. The total value locked sits approximately at 963,153.5234, this is huge!

It doesn’t stop there. EigenLayer is also like a city planner, extending the utility of the Ethereum network to other projects in the industry. It’s like a traffic cop, managing the flow of data and ensuring everything runs smoothly. It’s like a bridge builder, verifying off-chain inputs. It’s even like a weather forecaster, providing oracles that enshrine price feeds into Ethereum.

In short, it’s a game-changer. It’s a protocol that’s not just about making transactions, but about making the Ethereum blockchain better, more efficient, and more secure. So, next time you’re wandering through the city of Ethereum, keep an eye out for EigenLayer. It’s hard to miss – it’s the one making everything run smoothly.

Disclaimer: EigenLayer is a layer 2 on Ethereum. Because of the high gas fees and it’s popularity, we only recommend this guide for those who can safely use around $500 USD+ to farm for this airdrop.

Of course, none of this is financial advice. Crypto always has significant risk. Always invest what you are willing to loose, and always do your own DD.

Now that that’s out there, let’s get into it.

Step-By-Step Guide: The Basics

This airdrop revolves around a concept called Re-Staking.

This means that you stake your ETH on one protocol in exchange for a different token, and then you take that token and deposit it on EigenLayer.

Why this is so awesome:

• It has minimized risk. Staking, unlike liquidity providing, is not subject to risks like impermanent loss.

• You gain rewards from simply staking your tokens, which beats simply buying and holding ETH.

• You get double the rewards because this allows you to double your exposure.

The other benefit of re-staking is that because you must stake your ETH on an entirely different protocol, if you go about it the right way, you can farm for MULTIPLE airdrops at the same time.

Don’t worry, we’ll show you exactly how to make this happen.

EigenLayer Staking Alpha

There are some rules to keep in mind for making the most out of this airdrop. Here are the fundamentals you need to know:

• You qualify for this airdrop by accumulating points.

• You get points by staking your re-stake tokens on EigenLayer.

• The amount of points you get is based on the amount of liquidity you deposit, and the length of the staking period.

• In a nutshell… The more you stake, and the longer it remains staked, the more points you get!

Now, how many points do you get?

From their whitepaper, for every 1 ETH you will receive 1 point per hour. So for example, if you deposit $500 USD, or 0.17 ETH, you will receive:

So how many points do you need to qualify?

This information has not been released yet. From some credible sources, it seems like having at least 750 points is necessary to qualify.

We also don’t know when the airdrop will happen, but estimates from experts in the field speculate in as little as 50-100 days from now.

We also don’t know how much the value of the token will be or how tokens will translate into token allocation, but here is an helpful post by a crypto OG who breaks down how he is estimating what this will look like.

Important Note: Deposits are currently closed on the EigenLayer Protocol but will be opening again soon.

The reason for this is that they are slowly allowing liquidity to enter so that they can make sure that it can handle the volume. I appreciate about this from a building AND marketing standpoint. Join their Discord Channel and keep an eye open for announcements on when they will re-open.

Bonus Alpha

There is a list of at least 11 protocols that will be tapping into EigenLayer’s liquidity, which are called Actively Validated Services (AVS).

Without getting deep into it, many of these AVS protocols like EigenDA, Ethos, and Hyperlane will likely drop a native token as well. You may qualify for these simply by farming EigenLayer.

Holders have already been surprised by bonus airdrops landing in their wallet from these protocols. For example: AltLayer recently dropped their token and sent $45 million worth of tokens to EigenLayer stakers.

Farming Strategies

If we check out the EigenLayer dashboard, we can see the restaking options available to us. From Frax, Lido, Swell and even Coinbase, the options are plenty.

As with any airdrop farming, if you have the liquidity, you can farm several positions using several wallets, but if that’s your strategy likely you don’t need this article.

Let’s get into some of the top choices and see what goes into this decision.

Strategy 1: Simple Restake on EigenLayer

You could simply choose the staking platform that you’re most familiar with and go from there, but here’s the thing…

There are a handful of these protocols, such as Swell, that don’t have a native token yet, which means that if you play your cards right, you can earn points for them AND EigenLayer, exposing you to multiple Airdrop opportunities at once.

How to make a deposit on Eigen Layer:

1. Select your Liquid Staking protocol from the list on EigenLayer, I’ll choose Swell.

2. Go to their Dapp and connect your wallet (Make sure it’s the official website and not a scam link! Check their official X page for links).

3. Go to the Stake tab.

4. Deposit your ETH to receive an equivalent amount of swETH.

5. Go to the EigenLayer dapp.

6. Choose the Vault of the Liquid Staking protocol you deposited your ETH into.

7. Connect your wallet and deposit your swETH.

Congrats! You are officially farming for 2+ airdrops simultaneously!

Strategy 2: Liquid Restake

Esentially, restake your tokens on a protocol that is farming EigenLayer points for you.

• The Upside: You don’t have to wait for EigenLayer to re-open their pools and can make this deposit now.

• The Upside: You can also farm this protocol and receive points for their potential airdrop.

• The Downside: You won’t be eligible for potential bonus AVS airdrops that you would be if staking directly on EigenLayer.

• The Downside: There is increased risk with this strategy. It IS possible for the liquid restake tokens to depeg (due to not being fully collateralized, mass withdrawals, lack of liquidity), you can loose a lot.

Here are my top restaking protocols that all have points programs where you can farm for potential upcoming airdrops.

Swell: receive bonus points for staking and restaking eth for the Swell Airdrop. You will also earn points for the Swell AND EigenLayer Airdrop. On the protocol, go to their restaking tab and deposit ETH for rswETH.

Renzo: Deposit ETH into ezETH where it will be automatically deposited into an “EigenPod” which earns the EigenLayer points for depositors. Earn Renzo Airdrop points as well.

KelpDAO: Deposit ETHx, stETH (Lido) or sfrxETH (Frax) here to earn points for the EigenLayer Airdrop.

EigenPie: The most options for token re-staking on EigenLayer. Several options have bonus incentives such as swETH (also earn Swell Points) and Strader Staked ETH (boost to eigenlayer points.

Now, which protocol should you choose? That’s up to you, your trading style, your risk tolerance, and the DD you’ve done.

I personally will be depositing ETH through Swell, opening a restaking position through them as well, because I believe that their airdrop will have the highest valuation of all the restaking options, based on my own DD that I won’t get into today.

Advanced Strategy: Pendle

I still have some more due diligence before comitting to a restaking position through Pendle, but I’ve heard from many sources that this could be a solid way to boost your points for EigenLayer and your chosen Restaking Protocol.

Here is a post from one of the researchers from Messari, that dives deep into this strategy.

If you’d like, let us know if you want to know more about this and we will share our experiences with you.

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