EigenLayer, the largest Ethereum restaking protocol, has experienced a surge in withdrawal requests after the disappointment surrounding its planned EIGEN airdrop. According to data from Dune, mass withdrawals began on April 29th, with over 4,336 daily withdrawals, which increased to 6,496 on April 30th.
The protocol has seen a total of 12,412 withdrawals in the past three days since it released a white paper on the EIGEN token. However, the airdrop excluded several jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, and various African and Asian countries.
Dune data shows that EigenLayer has over 107,000 unique depositors. With the recent withdrawals, it appears that approximately 11.6% of these depositors have chosen to withdraw their funds from the protocol. While the individual withdrawal amounts are unknown, this percentage of withdrawals would reduce EigenLayer’s total value locked (TVL) from the current $14.8 billion to just above $13 billion.
Since EigenLayer has a seven-day withdrawal processing period, the full effects of these mass withdrawals will only become visible in the coming weeks.
Anndy Lian, an intergovernmental blockchain expert and author, suggests that the exclusion of key economic jurisdictions from the EigenLayer airdrop will have a significant impact on the protocol’s TVL. Lian states that this disappointment has led to a decline in EigenLayer’s TVL by over 4% in the past week. In contrast, Karak, another restaking protocol on Ethereum, has experienced a 20.5% increase in TVL, reaching $439 million. This growth has led to speculation that Karak has a strong chance of becoming the next EigenLayer after the EIGEN airdrop debacle.
Aside from the disappointing airdrop, Karak offers technical benefits to users and more flexible restaking tokens, according to Lian. This has contributed to its rapid growth and potential as a leading restaking protocol.
In related news, analysts predict that the crypto industry will reach 1 billion users by the end of 2025.