Liquid Restaking Protocol ether.fi Has Raised $23 Million in a Series A

ether.fi is a non-custodial delegated and decentralized staking protocol that features a Liquid Staking Derivative token. One of the characteristics that distinguish it is the fact that stakers get full control of their keys. This mechanism also allows users to create node services marketplaces.

Since the turn of this year, the total amount of capital on ether.fi went up to $1.66 billion from $103 million. In January 2024, the liquidity restaking token’s TVL was also on the rise after going up over 200%.  This rapid growth helped the platform to raise a significant amount in Series A rounds.

ether.fi’s Series A Round Capital Increase

The amount that this liquid restaking protocol managed to raise in a Series A round went up to $23 million. CoinFund and Bullish Capital were the ones behind this capital increase.

As part of the round came certain investments from Foresight Ventures, OKX Ventures, Consensys and Amber, and a few more companies. It’s worth noting that Bullish Group is the corporation that owns and controls CoinDesk.

This capital raise comes after ether.fi experienced a rapid growth period for the restaking protocol. It allowed the protocol to generate a total amount of value locked (TVL) of $1.66 billion from its initial $103 million.

The company also managed to raise $4 million from a previous simple agreement that it didn’t publicly announce. This arrangement is for future equity (SAFE) rounds that finished by the end of 2023.

Mike Silagadze, co-founder and CEO of ether.fi noted that the company has seen remarkable growth. He added that they are thrilled to welcome the financial support of leading crypto investors to back their continued expansion.

Restaking Ether

In case you didn’t know, restaking is a well-known strategy that people use to earn an extra yield on ETH. However, this applies to the ETH that is already staked on the main Ethereum blockchain. At the moment, Ether stakers can create an annual yield of 3.85%.

With the restaking protocol, users that are staking ETH are free to restake on EigenLayer in return for ETH. This is a liquid token that finds its use across the DeFi market.

In the past two months, the total amount of capital locked across the restaking protocols went up by more than $10 billion. We can attribute this major rise to the bullish sentiment among investors.

These individuals and companies are looking to claim rewards as they retain exposure to the Ethereum ecosystem. The featured rewards come in the form of yields of loyalty points, which holders can convert into token airdrops.

Silagadze said that investors turned towards Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem after the Bitcoin ETF release. He noted that their company leads the way as the only protocol to allow redemption not just one-way transactions. This showcases dedication and reliability to empower their users.