Bessie Liu

In an interview with Blockworks, Stader Labs cofounder Dheeraj Borra said the staking service is planning to launch Ethereum mainnet’s first liquid restaked token, rsETH, in the coming weeks. 



With rsETH, users will be able to “restake” liquid staked tokens such as Coinbase’s wrapped staked ETH (cbETH), Lido’s staked ETH (stETH) and Rocket Pool’s rETH on multiple different networks, minting a liquid token to represent their share in a restaking contract.&nbsp;



Restaking, as Borra described, is effectively borrowing the economic security of staked assets. For instance, ether (<a href="http://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>) staked via Rocket Pool’s rETH could simultaneously be used as a validator for the Ethereum network as well as additional blockchains and applications. 



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lido-launch-wsteth-staked-ether-cosmos-liquid-staking">Lidos’ wrapped staked ETH is coming to Cosmos</a>



Stader launched rsETH soon after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eigenlayer-deploys-on-ethereum-mainnet">EigenLayer deployed its restaking protocol</a> on Ethereum mainnet. EigenLayer currently accounts for 173,800 ETH restaked, and rsETH will be built on top of EigenLayer.



Borra claims Stader’s rsETH is designed to simplify onboarding to the restaking ecosystem.



With rsETH, users can deposit their liquid-staked ETH tokens to the restaking contract, but also mint liquid rsETH. This means that users can create decentralized exchange liquidity pools that will allow them to enter and exit rsETH positions representing their restaked assets. Currently, no other such liquid token exists for EigenLayer, which additionally has a <a href="https://docs.eigenlayer.xyz/overview/readme/mainnet-launch">7-day</a> withdrawal period. 



The launch of a liquid restaking token could be a boon for the emerging vertical. Liquid staked tokens account for 45.4% of the 27.1 million ETH currently staked.&nbsp;



“What we hope to do is to provide a space for users to continue getting exposure to staking according to your risk-reward profile, giving users the ability to use their tokens in DeFi and earn and accomplish whatever objectives, effectively the same thing that liquid staking has brought to the market, but this time for restaking,” Borra said.



rsETH contracts have so far only been released on Ethereum testnet as of Sept. 21, with a reported 800 testnet users, Borra said. The product is not yet available on mainnet, but could be in the coming weeks.  



“We are hoping to launch mainnet at the end of October or the first or second week of November, that’s the timeline we’re working towards,” Borra said.



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Stader Labs preps liquid restaking token launch

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61e95e0bed125" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The company plans to use the funds to grow the staking ecosystem and add seven to 10 new blockchains over the next 12 months and expand into other consumer segments, Founder Amitej Gajjala said</li>
 <li>The company aims to have $10 billion assets under management by the end of the year, a 1,900% increase goal from current levels, he said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Staking-focused Stader Labs raised $12.5 million in a strategic round, valuing the company at $450 million, the company’s Founder Amitej Gajjala told Blockworks in an interview.&nbsp;



The company plans to use the funds to grow the staking ecosystem and add seven to 10 new blockchains over the next 12 months and expand into other consumer segments, Gajjala said.&nbsp;



The round was led by Three Arrows Capital and additional investors include Blockchain.com, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment and angel investors like Prabhakar Reddy, co-founder of FalconX and Matt Cantieri, GM at Anchor Protocol.



In October 2021, Stader raised $4 million from Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, True Ventures, Hypersphere, Proof, Ledger Prime, Huobi Ventures, Solidity Ventures and Double Peak.&nbsp;



The platform offers services to earn staking rewards with <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Terra" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terra</a> through its smart contracts, but will support other chains like Solana, Ethereum, Fantom and Cosmos in the future. Its two core products are Stake Pools, where users can stake in pre-defined baskets of validators grouped by performance, and Liquid Staking, where users receive a liquid token (LunaX) when staking to participate in yield-boosting DeFi strategies.&nbsp;



Since the company launched Nov. 23, 2021, it has over 20,000 unique wallets staking on its platform and about $500 million Terra has been staked with Stader Labs, Gajjala said. The majority of those staking with the company are retail investors, but there are some funds on Terra staked with Stader, too, he added.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The objective is to build an economic ecosystem to grow and develop custom solutions such as yield redirection with rewards, liquid staking, launchpads, gaming, and more,” the company said in a statement.&nbsp;</blockquote>



Gajjala said the company aims to have $10 billion in assets under management by the end of the year, with the goal of a 1,900% increase from current levels.&nbsp;



“In a nutshell, we want to be the AWS for staking infrastructure,” Gajjala said. “We want to create staking smart contracts that can be customized for different use cases,” he added.



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Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



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