What is restaking?
Restaking is a way to reuse staked assets — typically ETH that's already securing a proof-of-stake network — to also secure other protocols, earning extra rewards without unstaking.
How it works
- You stake ETH normally, which secures Ethereum (the base layer) and earns staking yield.
- You restake that same ETH — or a liquid staking token (LST) like stETH — into a restaking protocol (the pioneer is EigenLayer).
- That protocol rehypothecates your stake as economic security for third-party services: AVSs (actively validated services), which can be rollups, bridges, oracles, data-availability layers, and other middleware that need a trusted set of validators.
- If an AVS misbehaves, your restaked ETH can be slashed — that's the "teeth" that makes the security real.
So the core idea: one stake, many layers of security. You (the depositor) earn extra yield; the AVS gets bootstrap security without building its own validator set from zero.
Key terms
- AVS — the third-party service being secured (e.g. EigenDA, oracles, cross-chain bridges).
- LST / LRT — you can restake either native ETH or liquid staking tokens. Liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) like ezETH or pufETH wrap your restaked position and make it tradeable/farmable, so your capital isn't locked while restaked.
The main risks
- Slashing risk — your stake can be penalized if the protocol you're securing fails, so restaking yield isn't "free money."
- Smart-contract risk — the restaking layer itself is a new, complex contract (EigenLayer holds billions in TVL, a big attack surface).
- Compounding of risk — if the same ETH secures many AVSs, one failure can cascade losses across several protocols.
- LRT depeg — liquid restaking tokens can trade below the underlying ETH value during stress.
In short: restaking turns staking yield into a modular "security marketplace" — attractive yield, but the added complexity and slashing risk mean it's meaningfully riskier than plain staking.
Want me to pull up live data on a specific restaking player — say EigenLayer, or one of the LRT projects (Ether.fi, Kelp, Renzo)? I can check their TVL, fees, and where to interact with them.