Last night, in the Ethereum staking community, there were two major topics of discussion. First, EigenLayer, a staking protocol, received a $100 million investment from a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), one of the top investment institutions in the crypto field. Second, Renzo Protocol, a liquidity staking protocol built on EigenLayer, received an investment from Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the world’s largest exchange, Binance. These developments indicate increasing attention from venture capitalists in the staking sector, which has expanded the overall potential for growth.
According to Binance, Renzo is the staking hub of EigenLayer, facilitating trustless collaboration between stakers, node operators, and AVS (Asset Value Service) demanders, while simplifying complexity and making collaboration between these participants easier.
Speaking about the funding, Lucas Kozinski, co-founder of Renzo, stated that this means BNB Chain users will be able to directly stake ETH for Renzo’s liquidity staking token, ezETH, without the need for bridging, and receive rewards in EigenLayer points and Renzo’s ezPoints.
Prior to the investment from Binance Labs, Renzo had recently completed a $3.2 million seed round on February 15, with a valuation of $25 million. Other investors included Maven11, Figment Capital, SevenX Ventures, IOSG Ventures, and OKX Ventures.
In fact, Renzo is Binance Labs’ second recent investment in the Ethereum staking sector. On January 30, the company invested in Puffer Finance, which has rapidly become the second-largest liquidity staking protocol since its launch on February 1. According to DeFiLlama data, Puffer’s TVL (Total Value Locked) exceeds $1 billion, while Renzo follows closely behind as the fourth-largest staking protocol, with a TVL of over $390 million.
The Ethereum liquidity staking ecosystem began with the launch of EigenLayer in June last year, which introduced the staking system to Ethereum. Currently, according to DeFiLlama data, EigenLayer’s TVL is approaching $7.9 billion, and the TVL based on EigenLayer’s liquidity staking sector has already surpassed $3.8 billion.
Renzo supports deposits of ETH and LST (Liquidity Staking Tokens), such as stETH and wBETH. For every LST or ETH deposited into Renzo, users receive an equal amount of ezETH, the liquidity staking token, and can enjoy EigenLayer points, Renzo ezPoints (airdrops), and regular ETH staking rewards.
Alvin, the founder of Crypto Wesearch, also shared more advanced tactics, suggesting that users can purchase Renzo’s YT Token on Pendle, which provides 8 times the mining efficiency. However, there is a risk that the future airdrop rewards may be lower than the cost of purchasing the YT Token, so readers should consider this carefully.