The restaking gold rush is over, and top protocols are barely making a profit
Reported by CoinDesk · AI-assisted summary by ChikoCorp AI News Desk
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Summary
Ether.fi is ending its last connection to the restaking protocol EigenLayer this quarter, reducing assets restaked to under 1%. CEO Mike Silagadze cited risk concerns and the lack of meaningful yield as reasons for exiting restaking. Despite securing $10 billion, restaking generated only $99,977 in fees over a week, far less than liquid staking. The top five liquid restaking tokens earned $953,350 in gross profit in Q2 2026, down from $2.18 million three quarters earlier.
Why it matters
The source highlights that restaking, once seen as a way to generate double yield on staked ETH, has become economically unviable due to insufficient fees and increased risk from slashing penalties. This shift shows that restaking protocols struggle to sustain revenue, prompting projects like ether.fi to pivot toward other business models such as crypto neobanking. The diminished incentive in restaking might influence the broader staking and DeFi ecosystem's evolution.
Key context
Restaking allows ETH locked for Ethereum security to be rented out again to other services for additional yield, with liquid staking tokens providing tradable receipts on top. EigenLayer peaked with nearly $20 billion secured and rapid token growth in 2024, but other services never paid enough to sustain restaking yield premiums. The introduction of slashing penalties in 2025 added real financial risk without extra compensation. The April 2026 Kelp hack exploited a restaking wrapper and underscored additional security risks in restaking tokens.
Key numbers and entities
Key entities include ether.fi, EigenLayer, Symbiotic, Kelp, Puffer Finance, Swell, Renzo, Bedrock, DefiLlama, and Aave. EigenLayer's peak holdings were $19.7 billion; restaking fees for the week ending Sept. 8 were $99,977 on $10.02 billion secured. Liquid staking fees for the same period were $27.35 million on $51.87 billion. Ether.fi’s card fees generated $3.14 million gross profit in Q2 2026, while restaking brought $2.87 million.
What remains unclear
The source does not provide detailed financial accounting from ether.fi to reconcile its reported revenue growth with DefiLlama’s observed decline in gross profits. It is also unclear how the broader market view on restaking will evolve, or how other protocols plan to adjust their models in response to these trends. Additionally, the longer-term impact of restaking’s decline on Ethereum network security and supporting services is not addressed.