EigenLayer Announces Native Token EIGEN Launch in May

EigenLayer, the restaking protocol that has garnered significant attention and $16 billion worth of staked ether, has unveiled its plan to launch a native token called EIGEN in May. The token will be distributed by the independent non-profit Eigen Foundation, with a total supply of 1.67 billion tokens at launch.

TLDR

• EigenLayer, a restaking protocol, is launching its native token EIGEN in May, with a total supply of 1.67 billion tokens at launch.
• The Eigen Foundation will allocate 45% of the tokens to the community, divided into stakedrops (15%), community initiatives (15%), and ecosystem development (15%).
• Investors will receive 29.5% of the tokens, while early contributors will receive 25.5%, both subject to a three-year lockup period.
• In the first season of the “stakedrop,” 5% of the token supply will be distributed to users based on a snapshot of staking activities taken on March 15, 2024.
• EigenLayer introduces “intersubjective forking,” a new crypto-economic security system designed to address malicious behaviors not immediately detectable on-chain.

The foundation has allocated a substantial portion of the tokens, 45%, to its community. This allocation is further subdivided into three equal parts: stakedrops (15%), community initiatives (15%), and ecosystem development (15%).

The stakedrop, which the project refers to as the community airdrop, will distribute tokens to users who participate on the platform across multiple seasons.

Today the @eigenfoundation introduces EIGEN, based on research by @eigen_labs, alongside a Season 1 Stakedrop.

EIGEN is the Universal Intersubjective Work Token, complementing ETH as the Universal Objective Work Token in EigenLayer.

See the full Eigen Foundation announcement: https://t.co/ZxswOiwWyR

— EigenLayer (@eigenlayer) April 29, 2024

In the first season of the stakedrop, the foundation will distribute 5% of the token supply to users based on a snapshot of their staking activities taken on March 15, 2024. 90% of these tokens will be claimable on May 10, with a claim window of 120 days, while the remaining 10% will be claimable in a second phase of the first season, scheduled a month later.

Investors and early contributors will also receive a significant portion of the token supply, with 29.5% allocated to investors and 25.5% to early contributors.

However, both groups are subject to a three-year lockup period, with a complete lock in the first year, followed by a gradual release of their total holdings at a rate of 4% per month over the subsequent two years.

Alongside the token launch, EigenLayer is introducing a new crypto-economic security system called “intersubjective forking.”

This mechanism is designed to address malicious behaviors that are not immediately detectable on-chain, such as data withholding in oracles built on top of EigenLayer.

Intersubjective forking will complement the project’s original plan of slashing ETH restakers for objectively identifiable on-chain behavior, removing the need to unnecessarily burden Ethereum validators.

As the EIGEN token launches, users will be able to stake it to secure EigenLayer’s data availability layer, EigenDA, with other Actively Validated Services (AVS) expected to follow suit soon.

The launch of the EIGEN token marks a significant milestone for EigenLayer, as it continues to grow and evolve within the rapidly expanding restaking ecosystem.