EigenLayer, Liquid Restaking Tokens, Airdrop Farming and more... *you might want to book mark this and don't sleep on it. This week is going to be big* 🧵

A big narrative you want to pay attention to that is coming in the next 2-3 months is going to be LRT's. (Liquid Restaking Tokens.)

The Ethereum ecosystem and defi has been boring for the past few months, but with liquid restaking and zkSync coming, I think we'll see a big focus on it.

I'm going to give a primer on what liquid restaking is and how you can position yourself for it.

This is going to be a very long thread (it took me about 4-5 hours of research and to write it and compile it) as I've tried to include everything I could find along with every protocol I could find and use into this thread while also refining my list and avoiding the riskier ones for myself and you guys.

First off, what is liquid staking?
Liquid Staking is where you stake a token (like ethereum) into a staking network like @LidoFinance where you can earn your yield on $ETH and then you get a liquid version of your staked position like $stETH that you can use in other defi applications to earn extra yield.

EigenLayer has come along and created a new innovation called "Liquid Restaking."

What is liquid restaking?
Liquid restaking is where liquid staking tokens like stETH get 'restaked' into EigenLayer to earn extra yeild on them across multiple protocols.

I am personally positioning heavily to try and take advantage of every single non-token (but future token coming) protocol to try and earn airdrop points for them while also being positioned in EigenLayer and I will share every protocol I am using with screenshots to make it easy for you to follow along.

Think of it as a 2 for 1 airdrop bonus system.

Currently $PENDLE is in a very strong uptrend and is showing the market potential and appetite for the LRT narrative.

The biggest one LRT with all the eyeballs on it is @eigenlayer. (No token yet, but $ELP will be coming soon and it's worth trying to earn points in my opinion.

Currently, Eigen's vaults are closed, but they are reopening uncapped on February 5th.

📌 Feb. 5 - EigenLayer Vaults reopening

This thread will go into detail about what it is and how you can position yourself.

Note: I will add in my ref links for some of the protocols that will earn us both a nice bonus, but it is totally up to you if you want to use them, but these are NOT sponsored and you do not have to use them if you don't want to.

⚠️Risk Warning: It's also important to understand that by staking your Ethereum, every protocol has a smart contract risk, but I am going to be covering the most well known protocols currently being used to try and minimize that risk.

Also, be on the lookout for Phishing scams and ONLY use links in verified sources and do NOT click on links in any comments on Twitter.

Lastly, I would recommend using a 'hot wallet' that is not associated with your entire portfolio and only transfer in the amount of $ETH you are comfortable using for yield generation and airdrop farming.

What is EigenLayer?
EigenLayer is a restaking layer for Ethereum that helps to secure the network and provide validators a way to earn extra yield while helping to support dApps across the $ETH ecosystem.

In Eigen's own words: "EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces restaking, a new primitive in cryptoeconomic security. This primitive enables the reuse of ETH on the consensus layer.

Users that stake ETH natively or with a liquid staking token (LST) can opt-in to EigenLayer smart contracts to restake their ETH or LST and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn additional rewards."

#EigenLayer allows users to stake their $ETH using liquid staking tokens and tap into the pooled security of Ethereum's stakers

By using the platform's smart contracts, users can expand security to other projects & earn more rewards for users and stakers.

If you want to dig in more, you can read their whitepaper here:

Now here is where the fun begins.

How do you start earning points to take advantage of the EigenLayer airdrop and all the other protocols surrounding this LRT narrative?

Below is a list of the protocols and their liquid staking tokens that we will be using to position for their upcoming tokens + EigenLayer's airdrop.

Top 5 Protocols I've found that you'll need:
1.) Swell - $swETH / $rswETH (restaked)
2.) Renzo - $ezETH
3.) KelpDao - $rsETH
4.) EtherFi - $eETH
5.) StaderLabs - $ETHx (already has token, but we will need it to use with $rsETH and KelpDAO)

I did not include Vector, Puffer, EigenMag and a few others just because I didn't like something about them and I wanted to make sure we kept our risk as mnimal as possible.

I'm not saying they are bad, but I wanted to go with ones that had contract audits, verified teams, decent backers, strong TVL's, etc.

If you have a higher risk appetite, then you can also try and use those as well.

There are also a lot of other liquid staking tokens, but they already have launched tokens like Lido and Mantle or they are on centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, so my focus is to try and earn points for new protocols with no tokens.

If you are not interested in any of the non-token protocols and just want to farm EigenLayer points and keep your risk from smart contracts lower, then you can stake your $eth to some of the bigger Liquid Staking protocols and deposit your LST directly into @eigenlayer.

EigenLayer currently accepts the following LST's:
$stETH (Lido)
$rETH (Rocket Pool)
$cbETH (Coinbase)
$wBETH (Binance)
$osETH (Stakewise)
$swETH (Swell)
$AnkrETH (Ankr)
$EthX (Stader)
$OETH (Origin ETH)

Also the @0xMantle $mEth is one that you can use as well, but they already have a token. They do have some advanced ways you can use it and by holding $mETH, you are also eligible for modular airdrops like $ALT - altlayer one that just launched.

If you are trying to earn points and get aidrops for all of the newer protocols, then I will lay out each option in the following tweets along with links and how-to instructions.

If you found this thread valuable, please drop a like or a retweet and use my referral links. Thanks. 🙏docs.eigenlayer.xyz/assets/files/E…

OPTION 1: Swell Network
Currently, the most popular option I've found is the Swell Network - @swellnetworkio with their $SWELL token launching soon.

Currently, the airdrop season is known as the 'voyage' and their points are called pearls. You earn more pearls with more swETH and rswETH you mint and by referring more people to the Swell network. (my link is below if you want to use it and we both earn a bonus.)

Swell has both $swETH and the new $rswETH (Restaked swETH) and you can earn pearl points with both.

Also, if you have $stETH, you can swap it for $swETH and earn bonus Swell Pearls.

I am personally staking $ETH for $swETH and restaking $swETH into EigenLayer when the vaults reopen on Feb. 5th.

Swell also stated that for every swETH you mint BEFORE the EigenLAyer vaults open Monday, you get 30 pearl bonus as well.
LINK to announcement:

To stake into Swell, head over to the Swell App here:
NOTE: This is my referral link and if you use it, we each get bonus Pearls.

When you get to Swell, you can now connect your wallet and stake your $ETH.

As you can see, I am currently staking 5 ETH, but may increase it down the road.

Next step is on February 5th, you'll want to head over to EigenLayer and stake your $swETH into the EigenLayer contract and you will be earning points for both protocols.

👉Link for EigenLayer swETH staking page:

You can also earn Pearl Points by just simply holding rswETH (restaked swell eth) or by being a liquidity provider on @CurveFinance or @mavprotocol.

For advanced users: Another creative option if you want to earn double points is to stake both weETH and rswETH into a curve pool here to earn points for both EtherFi and Pearls for Swell:

In the next tweet, I'll cover @RenzoProtocol.

https://x.com/swellnetworkio/status/1753331115631554560?s=20

app.swellnetwork.io/?ref=0x12a3266…
app.eigenlayer.xyz/token/swETH
curve.fi/#/ethereum/poo…

Posted last night at 10pm by an "insider" about dumping #bitcoin on coordinated FUD to liquidate a stakeholder.

Fucking wild. "Everything is going according to plan. $30,000 guaranteed."